There are times when Mother is always right. I do admit my Mom has wisdom, but for some reason I fail to heed it much of the time. Maybe the stuff that is unsolicited is most easy to ignore. But, my Mom tells me stuff and it usually takes a couple years before the idea finally sinks into my head and I start thinking about it and usually eventually do what she advised. And then wish I had listened a couple years ago. Sigh.
One of the things I recall her recommending was to put all little 1 year old Lukey's valuable toys away before company came one time. "The random kids will drag them everywhere and they'll be strewn all over your yard and get lost," she said. I said, "Oh, I'm not worried about it." Until some of his favorite toys got broken and lost. Now we always put away new/valuable things before company comes. Lesson learned!
The next thing (that I remember) her telling me was, "Rachel, you should get one of those mini-trampolines for the kids to jump on on rainy days." ("Yeah, whatever, Mom!" I said to myself.) She mentioned it a few more times over the next couple years, and I brushed her off again (politely, I hope!) Then, I finally realized that we needed something in the house to get some exercise on rainy days and wondered what equipment would work best for us. The only thing that kept coming back to me was a rebounder (mini-trampoline). I finally started some research and pricing them out, and looking at garage sales, and borrowing a friend's to try and we finally got ourselves one. Best. Investment. Ever. for exercise in the house. I can and do use it. The kids jump on it many times each day. It has tons of health benefits. It's fun. It doesn't take up much room (compared to treadmills and such). And it was reasonably priced.
After looking at a bunch of different brands, I finally bought the Urban Rebounder. It was the highest rated "cheap" one. I've tried the $400 ones, and they're nice but not worth that much, in my opinion. The $30 ones work, but just don't have the bounce you want to enjoy using them (more work than enjoyment). If you can find an expensive one at a garage sale, that'd be your best bet. It also came with some videos that make for an enjoyable workout. The only problem I've had with ours is that the springs started squeaking about 1 week after we got it. That makes things kind of annoying. There is supposed to be some sort of silicone lubricant I can put on the springs to solve the problem, but I can't seem to remember to ever look for nor buy it. This brand also comes with a stabilizing bar which is helpful for just walking on when you're totally pregnant (or have a new baby that needs rocking to sleep, I just put them in the baby carrier and walk away!)
Here's a start on health benefits. Probably the most important is improving the lymphatic (immune) system by improving it's flow. We could all use to improve our immune systems, I'm sure! The Benefits of Rebounding.
I've tried many sorts of exercise over the years, and can only admit to enjoying this for indoor activities. Treadmills, stair-stepping machines, rowing machines, ellipticals, etc. are all too mundane to stick with for me. Although I'm not entirely faithful with this, it's been my best option. And the kids have fun with it every day too (which saves my own sanity). I use free weights with it too, which mixes it up a bit.
As usual, Mother knew best!
When Mom was at our house when Isaac was born, I asked her (after she'd been working in my kitchen all week) if there was anything she could see that I could improve on. She said, "You don't have big enough pots. How can you cook double meals (to freeze) if your pots aren't big enough?" Umm, yeah. We do have 4 kids now! So, I started looking around and have finally upgraded to a 6 qt. Dutch oven, a 11 qt. stock pot and have a newly acquired 7 qt. slow cooker. What a difference! I love it. That was some advice I jumped on, because I knew she was right.
