We’ve been going to the gym.
The procedure is a little more complex than that sentence.
Through a process of trial and error, I discovered that we need to start leaving the house no later than 60 minutes before I want to begin exercising. I need to drive away from the house 38 minutes before I want to begin exercising. At 8:22, whatever is forgotten inside the house is considered a casualty, unless it happens to be a child, in which case it is retrieved and rapidly strapped into a carseat.
After arriving at the gym, I park in the spot closest to the sidewalk that leads to the gym entrance, even if the spot happens to be wayyyyyy down one of the sides of the building or even around the back.
Then we exit the vehicle. I get the double stroller out of the trunk and open it on the sidewalk. I open one of the car doors and start unbuckling in the order of “least likely to run into the parking lot (Child #1)” to “most likely to run into the parking lot (Child #3).” Important: only one car door is open at any given time, including the trunk. I want a single point of exit and entry. The children stand by the stroller while I place the baby into the front carrier that I put on back at the house 42 minutes ago.
Child #2 and Child #3 sit in the double stroller, and Child #1 pushes it. It’s a closed system.
(I feel obliged to say that the stroller pushing was his idea in the first place, and he doesn’t have to push it if he doesn’t want to push it.)
We’re on our way in.
At this point, someone sees me, and they say, “You’ve got your hands full!”
I need to come up with some call-and-response pattern for this greeting, like “The Lord be with you”/ “And with your spirit.”
Options:
“You’ve got your hands full!”/ “My heart is full, too!”
“You’ve got your hands full!” / “Better than empty!”
“You’ve got your hands full!” / “Indeed they are full!”
“You’ve got your hands full! / “Lo verily the Lord saith unto His servant, ‘Let thine hands be full, at the gym and everywhere else.’”
After the parking is two check-in points (three doors in total), and then I get an hour and a half to make the exercise thing happen.
Why bother with the gym?
Because exercise is part of my mental health trifecta: exercise, meds, and sleep. And I am most likely to exercise if I’m one of thirty strangers being yelled at by an instructor. Also because having access to a shower that my kids do not have access to is wildly luxurious.
I know I need to go there. But I have a lot of insecurities about going. It’s a nice gym. It was kind of a splurge. When we’re parading in there, I feel like we’re in a Sesame-Street style quiz: “One of these things is not like the others… It’s the mom of four fumbling for her membership card while her children press their faces against the glass windows of the spa!”
Awkward.
The other day, we were late to the gym. Very late. I disobeyed my own parking policy and parked in first spot I could find, even though it wasn’t next to a sidewalk. I struggled to get everyone out of the car. At one point, I was holding the stroller and a sobbing one-year-old back against the car while the others tried to find their way out of my very narrow park job. Cars drove past us while we sorted ourselves out. We made it to the entrance, and a woman ran in from the left to hold the door for us.
“I saw you in the parking lot, and I prayed for you,” she said to me.
I think I said something like thank you, but I don’t remember.
“I had four kids four and under. It was really hard,” she finished. And then she was gone.
Yes, my hands are full. But so are other people’s hearts. Even at the gym and all the other places I think we don’t belong.
That was a fun article and so relatable! Love the way you chronicled that!
LOVE this! I remember many years ago of being guilty of saying "that" saying...until my hands really were full. And I love the answer: "Better than being empty"! So happy that there are people out there with the correct response of prayer and helpfulness. You are a stud for going to the gym. And an inspiration to us all.