Exercise

"For my money nothing is more deadly in terms of boredom than exercise for the sake of exercise and I suspect strongly that those people who lift barbells and perform on gymnastic apparatus and do push-ups in the morning and evening, do so out of some narcissistic impulse which betrays itself in the fact that so many of these people work before mirrors and are mirror worshipers."
-Louis Bromfield
From My Experience: The Pleasures and Miseries of Life on a Farm

True, true. In a narcissistic effort to tone up my post-pregnant abs, I bought a pilates DVD and have a handful of times plopped down in front of the TV in a pitiful attempt at exercise.

The funny part to me is that my pre-pregnant stomach muscles did not come from exercising in front of a DVD. They came from climbing countless trees, shovelling, raking, mowing, toting boxes and tool bags, and living a generally active life.

Today, I bundled up the baby, and the kids and I went outside where I raked and shredded several piles of leaves, dragged the leaves on a tarp to the compost bin and hefted them inside. I exercised. I had fun. And I accomplished something at the same time. Amazing.