Her favorite part and mine: I spent awhile pushing Lillian on the platform swing. It was wet and a bit heavy from that water, it was covered in needles, I swept it off with my hands as best I could but this is what she wanted to do and she wasn’t about to let any of that stop her.

It’s hanging from a limb of a huge old Western Red cedar tree.

Someone walking her dog on the other side of the fence got the biggest grin as she saw these little feet coming up again and again while a five-year-old voice giggled and counted off the numbers with her grandmother: 20! 20! 21! 21! 22! 22! (I think she skipped 23, but I wasn’t going to quibble.)

That swing kept wanting to go just a bit sideways on its way back and there was a scratchy bush there that had grown somewhat in its way this past season, with the angle of the cedar limb aiming for it; I found myself catching the thing again and again and saying, Reset! (Hold high in the air, shift to the left a foot or so, resume count.) Go!

Reset!

24! 24!

I don’t remember how many rounds of 24 we got to. She was absolutely adorable, and I got a real workout.

How much I didn’t know.

Later, I moved her brother who was climbing on her to the other side of me as I cheerfully put myself between them, as one does when little kids are too caught up in their own momentum to do what they should. Reset!

Man, that suitcase was sure heavier and more awkward leaving than it had been coming. Surely those gift bars of chocolate didn’t make that much of a difference.

I’m now doing 10-20 minutes of back stretches every hour or two. My goal is to be able to pick something off the floor without joining it. I will be more mindful of my limitations next time–but I’m almost (almost. Do you hear me reminding myself here) glad I wasn’t these past few days; we had a great time!

Next time, though, (I don’t think she was ever in actual danger of scratching herself on that bush anyway from where she was sitting,) no resets.