This was a lot easier before they woke up

Formal mommy-workouts are few are far between around here. We used to be members at a big, snazzy gym just down the road, but we decided we could do lots more important and meaningful things with the arm and leg we were paying there each month (such as feed and clothe our children).

That's where FitTV comes in.

As you can guess from the name, FitTV is a network station dedicated solely to nutrition and fitness. So months ago I devised a brilliant scheme that involved middle-of-the-night DVR recordings of yoga that I planned to do each morning when I first got up. Except that I'm apparently great at recording and terrible at working out.

Josh finally put his foot down when our DirecTV playlist had around 50 yoga workouts...not one of which had ever been played. No wonder I wasn't buffing up. But a few weeks ago, I got the exercise bug, and I actually started doing the workouts each morning. I got up before the kids, did my yoga workout, ate breakfast while I read my Bible, and then grabbed a quick shower.

And I did it all before the first little tootsie hit the floor.

I've been slacking a little over the last few days because of my late night visits to Izzy's room, so I decided yesterday was the day to get back on my routine. The only problem was that about five minutes into the workout, I heard the stirring of small children upstairs. I accepted that I was probably going to have to cut the shower portion of my morning (gross, huh?), but I trucked on with the insanely toned women on my television set.

Five more minutes went by, and I couldn't ignore the cries for breakfast anymore, so I paused the show, ran upstairs to grab armfuls of children, sat them down to eat at the kitchen table, and resumed the workout.

I used to think I was pretty in tune with my strengths and weaknesses when it came to physical fitness.

Back and arms? Pretty strong. I carry human beings around all day long.

Flexibility? Not so good. To be honest, I didn't even register on the chart when I had my physical fitness assessment at Gym Rip-You-Off.

Abs? There's no need to even go there.

And balance? I thought I had that one in the bag, but Jack made me second-guess my equilibrium when he kept yelling at me from the kitchen table: "Whoa, Mommy! Whoa! Fall down?"

Thanks, little buddy.

Seeing me play what looked like Twister in the middle of our living room floor was too much for the kids to resist, so they gave up on their breakfasts and joined me for the last few minutes of the workout. And I laughed so hard that my abs might actually be a little tighter today.



Izzy tried. She really did. But it wasn't long before she had broken out into a spontaneous performance of "If You're Happy and You Know It" (the "face will surely show it" part...in case you couldn't tell).


I thoroughly enjoyed my morning exercise with the little ones...it was just a bit different than working out alone. But I don't suppose that's a bad thing at all!


(When Jack actually laid on top of me for this stretch, I asked Abby to grab my camera and get a shot of him. Not too bad for a four-year-old, huh? Sorry Josh.)


Funny as it was, I've decided this one thing: one mommy, three small children, and downward-facing dog does not a relaxing morning make!

(I remember someone telling me once upon a time about a Christian yoga series. If that was you or you know about it, please send me the info. I love the workouts themselves, but I'm totally not into the philosophy behind them.)