My Personal Kokoda

Do you think I could possibly WALK to and from Nat's school a few times a week next year? 

When the idea came to me from a friend, I said NO! No way! No! and Never!  In that order.  I said "I will surely die!  There's no way that my out-of-training body could make it all that way, let alone make it back again, let alone do it pushing a double stroller and managing an errant 4-year-old on a bike which may possibly need to be pushed home by ME."

And I thought it was madness.

THEN Mr de Elba said I could do it easily and I privately wondered what he had to gain by me dying of a stroke two kilometres from home.  But in order to prove his point, he took Nat on a walk to and from school early one morning.

Turns out there's a short cut that does away with some distance and some hill-climbing.

It started sounding more attractive.  And I often think of The Accidental Housewife who has had a success getting into her Skinny Jeans through much Hill Walking, and it gives me that oomph I need.  For moral support, I also have my friends over at Operation Skinny Cow but I have been a bad little Cowgirl myself, and haven't posted there for a while.

My Skinny Jeans are a sizzling Size 11 boot-cut button-fly in stone-wash denim from Myer Miss Shop, in case you're interested.

I decided that over the six weeks of school holidays, I would have plenty of time to determine if indeed I could walk to and from school without dying beside the road, allowing my children to run free and be raised by wolves.

Not that we've got wolves here.

So - okay - raised by each other.  Which is scarier.  The average wolf could do a better job.

First Walk:  Nat was asleep one afternoon and I took Anna-Lucia and Joseph in the double stroller.  I walked down the hill, through the forest, down the next hill and across to the roundabout.  I could see the school from there, and found that immensely encouraging.  But the children were beginning to cry and I was concerned I wouldn't make it home if I bit off more than I could chew, so we turned around and came home.  Uuuuuup the hill!  I lived.  Great work, Me!

Second Walk:  We didn't go further, but it included more challenges.  Nat was with us and didn't want to ride his bike (a) down the hills, in case he went too fast and got out of control, or (b) up the hills because they were too steep.  So it was quite pointless him even having his bike, but he flatly refused to go without it.  Joseph wasn't dressed warmly enough and when the breeze turned into a wind, he got quite cold and grizzled a lot of the way home.  And Anna-Lucia saw Nat on his bike and moaned 75% of the way, "I neeed my biiike!"  Those words must have been said over a hundred times.  When I replied that it was a bad idea because she couldn't even push the pedals, she said, "You can push me with a broom!"

Then she demanded to get out and walk, tripped over the stroller wheels, scraped her knee and OH! the DRAMA!  A bleddercut on the knee!

And although she sat down and would not budge two houses from home and Nat decided he couldn't possibly push his bike up the last little bit, I did make it back, alive, with three children, one bike AND my dignity, which is an important factor in the longevity of this Mad Walking Idea.

Third Walk:  This morning I was awake early and once Joseph and Anna-Lucia were awake too, I decided to try the walk again, this time unencumbered by a 4-year-old and his bike.  I dressed the children warmly and took off.  This time we made it all the way to school and back.  Oh my!  The hills!  But I made it, I made it!  Alive!  It only took me 25 minutes (do remember that this is sans Nat).

I can do this.  We have five more weeks to practice before school starts.  By then, I hope to be pushing the double stroller up those hills a little easier, and I hope to have Nat a little more independent on his bike.