Finding my Namaste

I love to practice yoga.  In fact, I NEED to practice yoga.  It feels so good to stretch my body and concentrate on nothing more than my breath for ninety minutes.

 I’ve been finding it difficult to practice as much as I would like since becoming a stay-at-home mom on a budget.  Yoga classes are expensive and practicing at home has always been too full of distractions.  It was tough enough to practice when there was only a cat pouncing all over my bridge pose but practicing at home with a cat and two kids?  Impossible.

Or so I thought.

During the week, my daughter and I walk my son to school and then have two and a half hours to ourselves, which is usually spent running errands.  Lately though, I’ve added yoga into our daily schedule and she loves it.  We both do. 

I have spent the last five years struggling to find my old before-kids self and wondering where it was she had gone.  I missed her.  Every day I missed her, and as much as I hate to admit it, I started to resent my role as mom because of it.

Why did I consider kids a distraction from the things I love to do before now?  It’s not their fault that I hadn’t been practicing yoga nor doing all the other things that I used to love doing before they came into my life.  I have been choosing to not take care of me and in doing so, have not been fair to myself or to my family.

Spending time practicing yoga with my daughter has done so much.  We have that special bonding time together and I get that amazing stretch and focus on breath that I need.  The cat?  Well, he’s still a distraction but he loves when it’s time for cat pose.  Obviously.    

Downtown Hamilton with a 4-year old and a budget

Not being at work every day has been good for me in a lot of ways.  I don’t feel pressure to act happy when I’m not and I get to spend lots of time with my kids while they’re small.  It hasn’t, however, been good for my wallet.  We’ve had to really budget for the first time ever and cut back on luxuries that up until now I had been taking for granted.  Like for instance, paying for frills at the grocery store and plucking my eyebrows when I would otherwise pay to have them waxed. Oh, the horror of it all!

Thanks to my mom taking my three year old Edie for the day, I had the opportunity to spend today with my four year old Rudie. When I was working full-time, spending the day together would have meant going out for lunch, then maybe some hot chocolate and shopping and then likely taking in a movie together. Today though, my budget was extremely limited so we decided to eat lunch at home, then get on the bus and spend our day exploring downtown Hamilton instead.

First of all, going ANYWHERE on the bus is a big deal to a four year old who normally walks or gets driven to his destination.  Going downtown on the bus?  He was too excited to speak.  We checked out the fish at Central Library, ran around on top of Jackson Square and waved to all the traffic on King Street below. 

 

We had to make a quick stop at the grocery store (with no frills to mention!) on the way home and that’s when we had an extra special treat.  Since four-year old bladders need to be emptied often, we had a tour of the massive overstock area and Rudie even got to use the lift.  What luck!

All in all, we had an amazing time exploring our great downtown.  Rudie’s favourite part was riding on the bus two times.  My favourite part?  Spending some one-on-one time with my kid in our great city and only spending a whopping  $5.10 for bus fare.