Trades

When we came home from school yesterday, it was 50 degrees, sunny, and undeniably "outside weather." My kids couldn't throw their backpacks in the hall closet fast enough; in approximately 8 seconds they had unearthed softballs and gloves, pulled bikes out of the garage and shed their jackets to get a little sunshine on their arms and faces. As I followed them into the house, I stepped over a trail of bags, socks, shoes, and coats that were strung out from front door to back door. The softball bags were unzipped and catcher's gear, eye black, face guards and too-small mitts were spilling out of the hallway closet. Cooper had abandoned his Kindle and his Pokemon deck on the downstairs table and was already wheeling his bike up the back sidewalk and heading for the road.

Thus presented adjustment #227 to town living; we used to have 6 acres of land for the kids to explore with wild abandon. It only took 6 softball throws from pitcher to catcher before a loose ball made its way to the neighbor's fence and we had to suggest to the girls that they would maybe need to wait until we could get over to the diamonds to practice. Cooper made a dozen trips back and forth in the street and then the shine of riding seemed to wear off.

There was no trampoline to bounce on, there were no trees to climb. There was no open field where they could hit balls and no four-wheeler to take on laps around the grove. Soon I had three kids wandering listlessly around the yard looking increasingly disgruntled. Fortunately, Aaron pulled up right then; I was putting on my walking shoes for a trip around the lake and he suggested to the kids that they get their bike tires all pumped up so they could come along.

I warned them; I'd already mapped out a 3-mile walk, and had just recently added some little wrinkles to the route to include some hills and stretch it to 3.5. Everyone insisted they were up for it, so we set off, Aaron included. They probably covered twice the distance I did; they would ride ahead, turn around and ride back, and then ride ahead again. Aaron enjoyed the trip more than anyone, I think, doing wheelies and jumping up and down curbs with his bike and generally being a bad influence.

All was well until the halfway point. We'd only done two hills of any consequence when we rounded a corner and Cooper saw what was coming up next. I let Aaron do all the persuading, but Coop's mood was definitely darkening as he got off the bike and pushed it up the next hill. Luckily, just then we stumbled upon one of Fairmont's charming sidewalk libraries. Two years ago, one Fairmont family put up the "Little Free Library" on the sidewalk in front of their house and filled it up with books to share. Since then, more and more of these are popping up all over the place. My kids hadn't seen one yet, and this was the highlight of the day. All three pored over the choices trying to figure out which one to borrow.

The distraction was charming and necessary, but there was still a good mile and a half to go before we were home and poor Cooper's little legs were just burning. He complained loudly every single pedal rotation for the next 11 blocks before all of us told him to pipe down in varying degrees of volume and frustration. We finally made it to our street and his relief was palpable. But like the kick a runner finds at the end of the race, he mustered the strength to surge ahead and race to the house. He dropped the bike in the yard, went immediately to the kitchen for a drink and then collapsed for the rest of the night on the upstairs couch. I'm not sure how often he'll be joining me in the future; in just a couple more months the lake will be warm enough to wade in and he'll have a new set of distractions. I think that Carys is going to be a regular; the bike ride didn't even faze her.

All told, I guess it's nice to have replacements for the things we miss about the farm. It makes me feel less like I lost something and more like I made a trade. One with a fantastic view, and 80 feet of sandy beach, I keep reminding myself. When summer comes and the Fairmont lakes fill up with boats and we have company pulling up to the beach whenever they want to, and we have the fire pit going 5 nights a week and the only thing we bother to cook on is the outdoor grill...I just may find that this is the best trade we've made so far.