Hoofin' it :: My one small change for January

I'll be the first to admit it; I love the easy path.  I love dishwashers and washing machines and cars.  Oh yes.  Modern technology is the most fabulous Mother's helper I know!  But when mine breaks down or is not readily available to me, I tend to feel, well, stuck. 

Matt and I have been sharing one car since...I can't remember what day or month the little VW bug decided it wanted to quit halfway home and had to be towed, (by us with tow straps!) back to the driveway. Sad, sad, little car.  Grumpy, grumpy little mama.  Taking him to work was not the hard part, it's the picking him up, at 5:30pm when the baby is hungry and very grumpy and dinner is in some stage near completion and then must be planned ahead and already doing it's thing in the crock pot,  finished up, or left to cook in the (gas) oven in hopes that nothing will go wrong on the trip to pick him up and I won't come home to a burning house or a burnt dinner.  It's a precarious dance and I seem to have two left feet! But I digress.  The point I was getting to was that I send Matt off in our only car every day to avoid the inconvenience of dinner time disasters (and to save on gas!) and then I complain about how I am stuck at home.  

Reality set in last night when I was reading Anne of Avonlea (my book club did Anne of Green Gables for December and I couldn't just stop with that one!) and they walked 4 miles (one way) to a friend's house for afternoon tea.  And then had to walk back home!  In dresses(!), and high heel boots(!!), through the woods (!!!), IN CANADA (!!!!).  What have I got to complain about?  The grocery store is 1.9 miles away, the park is less than 1 mile (and they have a pool open in the summer!), the East branch of the Library is 2.1 miles.  Totally doable!  I have plenty of friends who live within 2 miles of me.  And I can walk 2 miles in just over half an hour, even while pushing a stroller.  I've got pavement, and, best of all, sneakers!!  It is a balmy 56 degrees outside (as opposed to current P.E. Island - where the Anne books are set, temp of 27 degrees). 

So I'm making this one small change in my life.  If I am invited somewhere and  it is within 2 miles of my house, rather than using all that extra time and gas to take Matt to work so I can have the car, I will walk.  We started today with a trip to visit friends who live 1.6 miles from my house.  It took 29 minutes one way, with several stops to adjust baby hats and mittens.  I got an hour's worth of brisk exercise in, a great visit with a friend, a fun playdate for Cora, and a big dose of vitamin D when the sun came out for our return journey.  No, the dishes and laundry didn't get done, but sometimes housework has to suffer for the sake of sanity. 

P.S.  In case you were looking for Friday's late post on Sunday, I decided to let past Fridays be past Fridays and start fresh today.  And perhaps the circumference of that chubby thigh you see in the photo will be diminished by this change as well!

Take action mamas!

Did you know that soon the government is going to ban the reselling of children's clothes and toys? Yeah. No craigslist, no ebay, no thrift stores unless you can prove that they've been tested for lead and pthalates.

Speak up cheap mamas! Here's a link to read more: babycheapskate

All you crafters and etsy gurus, this applies to you and your hand-mades. Congress passed this in the wake of all the lead contaminated toys from other countries, but didn't take into account how it would affect small business people. Here's a place to protest!

Read more about it here too.

Olympics end...and I have some thoughts on it.

Olympics close with a bang Photo from Reuters here

There was plenty in the news with the Olympics these past few weeks. From alleged underage gymnasts from China, to the Cuban who kicked the ref in the face when he was disqualified from his Tae Kwan Do match. From record Gold winnings by USA swimmer Michael Phelps to little old ladies sentenced to a year of re-education through labor for applying to many times for a permit to allow them to protest their homes being requisitioned for the building of the Olympics complex. So much for those designated 'protest parks' that...hmmm....China permitted no protests to occur in (denied every application for protest)!! Imagine that.

China may have pulled off a heck of an organized and beautiful Games, but at what cost? Grownups having to wear adult diapers during 'dance practice' for the opening ceremonies because they weren't allowed to take breaks? People placed under house arrest before the openings to prevent them making a stir and promote an illusion of harmony? Bloggers arrested for writing about protests? Factories shut down before the games begin to give the air a chance to clear with no recourse or pay for their workers?

Communism may crank out amazing athletes (I'd be awesome at some sport I was taken away from my parents and made to practice since the age of 3), but I'd rather have the basic human rights that our muddled up country can give us, rather than be censored for my opinions and muscled around for the sake of appearing perfect. Yay freedom!

Aarg, Aarg, Arg! I don't want my president to be Sexy!

Just reading the news...I know, I know, I said I'd give it up. Here's a quote from an article in the LA Times here:

'"Yet when it comes to Obama, street artists around the country are falling into line. "Obama's a rock star, he's got a great brand and he's a very sexy candidate," explained Ian Bourland, a University of Chicago graduate student who is one of the few academics studying recent street art. "It's his race, his politics and his charisma."'

The last 'sexy' president (JFK) was a philandering git who entered history as a permanent martyr because he was assassinated! No matter what his politics, or what he did for the nation I have no respect for a man who can't be faithful to his wife, or at least own up to it, say it was wrong and choose another path. Can we not have another sexy president, please? In case you are wondering, I have not yet chosen a candidate, but crap like this just kills me! Let rock stars be rock stars and presidents be presidents. Please.

Politics make me want to move to...anywhere else

Oh, I am so over all this whining and back and forthing! He said this and my feelings are hurt...can you believe anyone would dare do such a thing...I have all the answers, you should listen to me...I've spent more money on this campaign than most of you will earn in a lifetime!! You should listen to me...

As if a single branch of the Government (Executive - see I was paying attention in class) could actually move the mountain that is bureaucracy! All the promises in the world amount to a drop in the bucket unless the rest of the system backs him up.

I keep swearing off reading political news, but it keeps dragging me back in. WHY?!!?!

I wish I had TV to watch the Olympics instead.

Remember when things were simpler?

The Olympics used to be a thing I could watch and enjoy without having all of the ensuing political implications and knowledge behind it all.

Lego representation of the Water Cube in
Beijing, China (Pretty cool...eh? To see them all go here)

Now I watch it with images of protesters, foreign policies, censorship, and human rights violations galore!

Oh for the innocence and the grandeur of it all. I hope I can help my little bean hold on to that for awhile.

(Fireworks kick off the opening ceremony of the 26th Luoyang Peony fair in Luoyang, in central China's Henan province, as part the continuous celebrations to welcome the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images)


Olympic Stadium - Greece