Life is slowing down a little bit. For a couple of days. We are all unpacked. Every box. Every pile. There is nothing that does not have a home. Well...except for one teeny tiny little end table. THAT does not have a home. Exactly. It has a couple of possibilities. It could go live in Ben's room. It could live in the office. Or it could go live at Goodwill as a precursor to going to live with someone else. But THAT little table is our only wildcard item. We've settled into a routine. Which basically consists of NO routine. Other than the fact that I try to stop in at the gym somewhere in the neighborhood of 9:30 each morning for a class of some sort. It works most days. Except for when it doesn't. Like when an anticipated 30 minute orthodontist appointment ends up taking an hour and 10 minutes. All bets are off then. Because THEN one has missed her 9:30 step class and is forced to look to LATER classes. Like...let's say noon. And because I am determined and often times flexible...I embrace things like NOON. I happened to notice on my gym schedule that at noon, there is a Zumba class. I like Zumba. I had never done a class....save for my Zumba video workout that I ordered and do all by myself. At home. I like it. Mr. Beto is there. Shimmying there with no shirt. Making me think I have some secret Latin American groovy roots noone bothered to tell me about. If you are sitting there thinking that YOU never had a doubt about my possible latin american roots, you can just keep that to yourself. I'm well aware that SMITH is hardly a Latin American kind of last name. Nor is Jones...which is my mother's maiden name. Still...a girl can fantasize, right? Whatever it takes to get the sweat on and DONE! Anyway...looking at the calendar, I decided to seize the Zumba opportunity. My neighbor in Texas LOVES Zumba and has tried for three years to get me to go to class with her. I said "no thank you" every time. It wasn't a time slot that really worked for me, you see. I'm much more of a morning workout girl. Anyway...morning was not an option and the timing DID work for me...so off I went. I barely made the class, having to walk in JUST as it was starting. Had I been more on time and had a chance to scope it out...I MIGHT have figured it out. But I was pushing it to the wire, walking in seconds before class started. The first thing I noticed...noone under 75 years old. I DID at that point double check that the class WAS indeed Zumba. And the instructor tells me "Yes...Zumba!". And so...I was set. I thought. We "danced" through several songs. Though were was a decidedly conservative approach to them all. Much more so than i would have expected. And VERY different from my Zumba Dance Party home videos. But I hung in there. I've been doing classes long enough to know how to modify exercises to make them be more or less of what is right for me. I was burning the calories, slowly, but surely. Towards the end of class...the instructor starts playing Kenny Rogers' The Gambler. And I think to myself..."THIS is not exactly what I would ever have considered Zumba music". There was all manner of weird squats and even weirder hand motions to the song. I was fairly certain at this point that Zumba was no longer actually IN the house. We practiced standing on one foot and waving our arms around. Then Elvis's "I Can't Help FAlling in Love With You" came on. Yet another NON Zumba red flag. As if I didn't have enough red flags at this point, one of the older ladies (heck, who are we fooling? They were ALL old ladies) came up to me and laughed and said that they never have anyone MY age there in class. Hmmm. Somehow, I am NOT surprised!!! Anyway...after I very gently worked out (sort of) and balanced and practiced stretching my muscles, I was done with the "class" and had to go upstairs and hit the stairmaster to actually burn some calories. In the end...it was a productive, albeit very LONG, workout! And I learned an important lesson. No Zumba for Tonya on Mondays. Not for another 30 years or so at least!
We head out for vacation on Saturday. I have NOT started packing yet. Mostly because packing is generally not a huge deal. The trailer is fully stocked...so it's just clothes and food and a few extra things that have to be loaded. I'll get it all done. I still have three days before we pull out. I am looking forward to the beach and seeing everyone. But at the same time...I hate to leave Tucson! I feel like I JUST got here! And I KNOW it will still be here when I get back. But still...part of me feels like it is ALREADY in Paradise. I LOVE seeing the mountains each morning. And I hate the idea of missing monsoon season. I DO get the treat of seeing BOTH of my sisters AND my sweet littlest nephews...which is awesome. And the rational part of me KNOWS that the desert and my mountains will still be here when I get back. It's just harder to go than I thought that it would be.
Our time at the beach will NOT go to waste, however. I always seem to think that that time away, while we are living in SUCH close quarters, is a great time to focus on the raising of little people. I'm reading a GREAT book right now about the "entitlement syndrome" of today's children. It talks about how we do SO much as parents FOR our children to make sure that they succeed, that we rarely let them fall. As a result, they don't. Until they aren't at home under our roofs anymore. And then they dont understand why the world no longer revolves around them. It is down to earth and chocked full of real life experiences and helpful advice to help us better parent children so that they can be independent and HAPPY, high functioning adults. There are several tips in the book that will be coming into play for the Roberts children. Starting first thing tomorrow morning. The book breaks down the challenges into months. EAch month tackles some new area of responsibility. Month one will be neatly made beds and clutter free and clean bedrooms and bathrooms. There are rewards for success...reprimands for anything less. And the beach is a GREAT practice field for this. Hopefully it will work well so that by the time we get back home, the kids will have that mastered and be ready (and willing) to launch into phase two...which includes each of them cooking and cleaning up dinner one night a week....effectively taking my own dinner duties from 7 nights a week to 4 nights! Yes! Let's train up a child already! I DO love me a kid project!!!
I think that's about all that's happening around here. Life is quiet for these few days right before we leave. It's quiet. And lovely. And downright wonderful. I cannot thank God enough that we landed back here in the land that we love. The blessings are too beautiful to describe. I'm grateful beyond words. And so....on that note...I will turn in for the night. Good night folks! Dream sweet!
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