“Does that fit into your lifestyle?” the leader asked.

Happily, I was able to say “Yes!”

If you’re working, raising a family and volunteering in a few different organizations, it’s not easy to fit in trips to the gym, or even walking and running outside (especially during these dark winter days). And of course, the comfy chair is always a temptation at home.

I do, of course, ride my bike to work (usually 5 days a week), which helps. But my weight loss has been stalled for a while, so I needed to bump up my activity levels.

When we received a Wii game console for Christmas, I knew I wanted to get some kind of active game for it. I ended up with Just Dance 3. The program includes Sweat Challenges. There are three options for a seven-day challenge: 500 points daily (equivalent to walking for 30 minutes a day), 1000 points daily (equivalent to running 30 minutes a day), or 3000 points daily (which they SAY is the equivalent of swimming 30 minutes a day). You don’t have to dance every day; just get the full amount by the end of the week.

So the game works well for physical activity. But what about the time and motivation to do it?

Well, I have three kids. They like to dance. They like to dance WITH me! So they make sure I dance.

For instance, tonight I got home around 5:00, and we were planning to go out to dinner (a fundraiser for Outdoor School) as soon as my husband got home. I could very easily have sat down with the computer to check Twitter and Facebook until then, but my daughter was already dancing and she handed me the other Wii remote before I had a chance to sit down. And we did 1300 points, easy-peasy, before dinner.

Oh, and the daughter? She’s doing the 3,000 points per day challenge this week!

FYI, the Just Dance games are also available for Xbox 360/Kinect and PlayStation/Move. And if you don’t have a game system (or if you just want to see what it’s like), you can play the Just Dance videos on YouTube and follow along (you just don’t earn points or compete with anyone).

My current goal is to lose 5 pounds by Valentine’s Day, and to have fun doing it!

Disclosure: Yes, those are Amazon affiliate links up there. If you buy something through those links, I do get a tiny percentage. Thank you!

But that’s not entirely why I haven’t been posting much. It’s also because some of the things I normally write about have become mundane, ordinary parts of my life now. Riding my bike to work? This is my fourth year of doing it. And I’ve had my Xtracycle for over three years now.

I’m still cooking and canning and gardening, too. But it’s kind of old hat now.

I know there are more things I could do in the pursuit of sustainable living. I’m just not sure what to do next.

So I’m asking you: what do you want to know more about? Is there something about bicycling or canning that you would like to know about, or that you would like help with? Or, do you have an idea for a challenge? I’m willing to take on challenges within reason, if you’re willing to play along, too.

Let me know. Let’s do something.

In the meantime, I signed up a while ago for the 2011 EcoChallenge, and then didn’t get around to DOING anything about it. And then apparently they put me on a list of FEATURED BLOGGERS! Oops. So, I’m starting my EcoChallenge late. I’m still going to do the 15 days, starting today, and my challenge is to limit myself to eating meat no more than twice a week. This will take planning. Join me?

This didn’t sound appealing. And the weather was good enough for biking, so biking was appealing, except that it would have been eight, long, uphill miles home.

Well, I really did want to bike, so I did it, and decided to try to hop onto MAX (light rail) with my bike to get home.

Of course, people do this all the time. The trains even have special hooks on them for bicycles. But my Xtracycle is significantly longer than a regular bike, and you’re really not supposed to take a bike on MAX unless it fits into the regular spaces.

I decided to chance it anyway. I’d heard of a couple of ways this could be done. One person said that you could fit an Xtracycle on the hook if you just turned the front wheel sideways (at a 90 degree angle to the bike). I’m still not sure how this would work. The other tip was that bikes ARE allowed in the spaces reserved for wheelchairs if the hooks are full.

I pulled up to the station and bought a ticket, hoping it wouldn’t be wasted. I let the first train go by, because it was too full, with both bikes and people. The second train was less than half full, but the bike hooks were occupied, so I went for it. I ran my bike onto the train, pulled the front wheel up, stood the bike on end, and wedged it into an empty wheelchair spot. It fit perfectly, without blocking any aisles or doors! I did have to stand there and hold onto it, but I did get it fairly securely wedged between the posts and railings.

Taking the Xtracycle on MAX still wouldn’t be my first choice, but now I know it’s doable.

After the events described in this post, BikePortland posted a short piece about bicycle trailers not being allowed on MAX, which sparked a lengthy discussion in the comments. I don’t use a trailer, and didn’t have a child with me, but I found the discussion interesting.

Lately, I’ve found myself feeling too tired to get things done — but not too tired to play around on the internet! Sometimes I fool myself that I’m getting things done on the internet. It’s true that I do a lot of things on the internet — pay bills, blog, write articles, communicate with other people — but not everything on my to-do list requires a computer.

So tonight, I decided to print out my to-do list (because I keep THAT online too, and it becomes one of my excuses for being online) and then shut the laptop. And what happened?

• I made dinner, and we all ate dinner together.
• My middle daughter completed her chores without having a meltdown so that we could play catch together.
• We played catch, and I got some exercise (which was on my list).
• I got some Girl Scout paperwork finished. I did have to open the computer to download and print one form, but that was OK.
• I did my toning/strength training exercises.

That’s not the most productive evening I’ve ever had, but I’m happy with it. And I’m happy to be back blogging, too.

I don’t know about you, but every time the TV newscasts show the aftermath of the floods in Brazil, and the adults carrying tiny, tiny coffins…well, I just can’t stand it. It’s horrible. And this isn’t the only area in crisis; Sri Lanka and Australia have both had heavy flooding, too. Pakistan is still dealing with the aftermath of their floods in July and August of last year, and one year later, Mercy Corps and other aid organizations are still helping in Haiti.

So I’d like the remind you once again that you can help financially with disaster relief, regardless of where the disasters take place.

The Red Cross provides disaster relief all over the world; you can donate through their website.

The United Methodist Committee on Relief is working in Sri Lanka, and you can donate specifically to their work there.

MercyCorps is still on the ground in both Pakistan and Haiti. They’ve recently released their “One Year Later” report on Haiti, too.

Resilience

Disasters can hit anywhere. If you haven’t before, it’s a good idea to evaluate what your level of resilience would be in case of a disaster; especially one that might affect you for months or years. Part of this is simple preparedness; the government and the Red Cross have been urging us for some time to have supplies in place to survive the first 72 hours after a disaster. But what about after that? If there’s still no food in the grocery store after 72 hours? Or electricity, or gas for your car?

This is where sustainable living and old-fashioned housekeeping practices can be helpful. For instance, if you have a bike or bikes, even if you don’t ride them every day, they’ll be mighty handy for getting around if you can’t get gas for your car, or if the roads are impassable by car.

If you can grow your own food, that will enhance your resilience, too. Stocking canned goods from the store is good, but if you have a stock of preserved food on hand, and know how to preserve more in the future, you’ll be able to continue feeding yourself and others around you even if the store-bought goods run out.

Community is important as well. If you know your neighbors, and you trust each other, you can help each other in case of emergency. And down the road, you can trade food and skills with each other as necessary.

And maybe nothing will happen to you. I’m 40 years old, and the worst I’ve been through is a few ice storms and one major earthquake (in which nothing really happened to me). I don’t know how long I’ll be around, or whether anything serious will happen during that time. But it could also happen to my children, and I’d like them to have skills for resilience, too.

But today, we had a bit of sunshine! People in various other parts of Portland and Vancouver, Washington were reporting SNOW, but we didn’t get any where we live; just more rain and then a bit of sun.

When the sun came out, I happened to be taking out some garbage and recycling. And I said “Hey! It’s actually fairly pleasant out here!” and I ordered everyone outside. My eldest child grudgingly went outside for maybe a minute, but I and the other two went for a short bike ride; about one mile.

Of course, the weather changed before we got home — we had a graupel shower! We were just a few blocks from home, so that was just fun, no big deal. And now we’re back to cold, wet and dreary — but we got outside!

Pease Porridge Hot, Pease Porridge Cold

I thought I’d throw some split peas, rice, and broth/water into the crock pot in the morning, and season it up for dinner in the evening. Easy, right? But the liquid/solid ratios are different in the crock pot. Usually you need less liquid in the crock pot, because the liquid doesn’t cook off as much. But apparently that doesn’t hold true for rice and/or split peas, so what I found when I got home was a fairly dry mush.

I had to take one kid to a LEGO club meeting, so I decided to wait and fix the meal after dropping her off. I stopped at the store and picked up some more milk (not related to the soup) and some pre-cooked bacon pieces.  I added some extra water to the mush and stirred in the bacon (as well as some sauteéd carrots and onions). It was still mush, not soup (mostly because of the rice), but we ate it. And we ate the leftovers later. But not nine days later.

Pizza and/or Breadsticks

I love pizza, but I’m currently (and successfully) losing weight. I wanted to try making a lower-fat, lower-calorie pizza. My plan was to use some frozen bread dough, homemade tomato sauce, part-skim mozzarella, turkey sausage, and olives. Frozen dough requires thawing and rising, which means the timing can be tricky. I asked my husband to take care of it during his midday break, when he’s normally home. The instructions for a quick thaw say to heat the oven to 200, put a pan of boiling water in the bottom of the oven, put the dough in a pan in the oven, and TURN THE OVEN OFF. Unfortunately, he missed that last step, so the dough thawed and then baked slowly at 200 until we got home.

Fortunately, when I bought the rest of the pizza fixings, I had also bought a large package of English muffins. So we had English muffin pizzas instead. And the bread? It was baked through, although flat, and it actually made a good appetizer, warm and torn apart into breadstick-like pieces.

That’s one of my favorite things to hear, and not because it’s some kind of ego-gratification. It’s because I hope I’m planting seeds, like my parents and many other people did for me.

For instance, my mother breastfed and cloth diapered six children. Some of our neighbors did the same with their children (in the 1970s and early 80s). So when I had my own babies, I didn’t think this would be too weird. I knew that it was both normal and possible.

My father rode the bus to work. When I was 10 or 11, I was allowed to ride the bus downtown all by myself to meet him at his office and then go to the Rose Festival Fun Center (none of this Waterfront Village business back then). And after that, I was frequently allowed (or even encouraged) to take the bus to the mall, the library, etc.  And when I got to college, and I didn’t have a car, I didn’t think it was weird to take the bus everywhere. Some of my friends had never ridden a bus. I dragged them all over the San Francisco Bay Area on public transportation!

So I hope that someday, those kids who saw me riding to school will remember that it’s perfectly normal for someone to ride their bike to and from work! After all, Mrs. McDade, did it!

Thanks, Mom and Dad! And thank you to my co-workers who walk or ride their bikes, too.

CNN reported in mid-August that the number of Pakistanis needing urgent help is twice the number of Haitians who needed help after the earthquake there.

They also reported that donations for Pakistan were merely trickling in, in comparison to the response to the Haiti earthquake.

I give to Mercy Corps, an organization headquartered in Portland, both for regular giving and extra, disaster-related giving.  I’ve already given for Pakistan, and can’t give more right now, so I thought I would try to multiply my giving by harnessing technology to ask others to donate as well.

Why MercyCorps? They don’t just provide immediate relief; they also help people to become self-sustaining again. For instance, in Haiti, Mercy Corps provided water to those in need, but they also set up a program to help people purchase water from local vendors, which helps support the local economy (read “Building capacity in Haiti, one community at a time” for more information).

I’ve set up a personal fundraising page through Mercy Corps, where you can give online. You can also mail a check to Mercy Corps, PO Box 2669, Dept W,
Portland OR 97208-2669.

I don’t get anything for doing this. There are no prizes or incentives. I just want to help. How about you?

30 Days of Biking has returned for September! This Minneapolis-based event is open to everyone in the world.

The only rule for 30 Days of Biking is that you bike every day for 30 days—around the block, 20 miles to work, whatever suits you—then share your adventures online.

Yeah. That works for me. I participated in the original 30 Days of Biking in April, but didn’t quite make it to 30 days, because I had to take my bike to the shop, and they kept it for several days. C’est la vie. I’m doing it again. So far I’m two for two.

September is also Bike Commute Challenge month in Portland. Every year, the Bicycle Transportation Alliance sponsors this month long event, in which workplace-based teams compete based on the total percentage of commutes made by bike. I’m entered as part of my employer’s team, and plan to make 100% of my commutes by bike.

Work and life are already bringing challenges, frustrations and setbacks this month, but at least I’ll be getting out on my bike.