Day 3 was pretty uneventful as far as transportation went. I didn’t need to go anywhere; the only problem was when I needed to mail something and couldn’t find any stamps.  If I’d had access to the car, I might have jumped in and gone to the post office to buy stamps and put the envelope in the mail. As it was, I found a way to print the postage I needed online, and got the envelope into the mailbox before the mail carrier arrived.

Why didn’t I just bike to the post office? It’s at the bottom of a big hill. I suppose I could have biked to a different (but further away) post office, or I could have bought stamps at Fred Meyer, but that didn’t occur to me at the time. And the hill? I’m not just being lazy. I’ve never been able to get up that hill without walking my bike and half-dying.

Right now, however, I’m pondering a ride down that very hill. You see, I’m adding people to the challenge! Yes, Aaron Walker chimed in and went car-free yesterday, so that brings me to six car-free days (through this Friday). And Shetha, although she didn’t actually say “I’m joining in, match me!” is in the middle of five car-free days of her own. And I’m thinking about matching her just for the heck of it. But that means I have to take my daughter to the summer camp bus by bike on Monday. The bus stop isn’t far, but it’s at the bottom of that hill, and we’d have to take her gear (not really a big deal).

Really, I don’t see why I can’t do it. Do you?

From what we’ve seen (and there’s only one episode to go), Oliver did a great job developing relationships with people in Huntington and getting them to try cooking and eating his dishes.  He’s gotten both grade school and high school students eating healthy foods at school, although budgeting has been an issue, and one school cook in particular has been resistant to his methods.

The big question remaining is “Will this have a lasting effect?” I’m sure they’ll be addressing this in the last episode — although it’s really only been six months or so, and that’s not much time for creating or measuring lasting change.  This AP article cites a survey which says that children at the Central City school we actually buying fewer lunches after a month on Oliver’s program — they were bringing lunch from home instead.  Hopefully things have gotten better since then. The AP article also reports that the school principal has enthusiastically embraced healthy eating and has lost 20 pounds.

Although I agree that school food should be healthy, I think Oliver could have devoted more time to helping people eat healthy foods at home, too.  If parents aren’t willing and able to support healthy eating, kids aren’t going to be interested either.

Sarah Gilbert, a writer, locavore, and parent of three boys, has written about how families can eat Food Revolution-style on a budget. Her recommendations so far include eating seasonally and getting a handle on snack foods.

I’m also a fan of the Six-O-Clock Scramble, which helps me to cook healthy food with fresh ingredients, even on busy weeknights.

So how can we pass these ideas along to others? I’d love it if you’d share a link to this post (you can use the buttons below to tweet, share on Facebook, etc.), but I’m thinking about non-internet methods, too. What about teaching kitchens, like Jamie’s Kitchen in Huntington? Would people come?

Don’t forget to sign Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution Petition! Our collective voice matters.

Today was the second day of 30 Days of Biking.  I rode my bike to work as usual yesterday, but not today. Today’s weather included wind (with high wind warnings), rain, hail, sunshine, and temperatures in the low 40s.  This morning was awful, and I rode the bus to work (while also missing a connection and having to wait 10 minutes without an umbrella, but whatever).

The rain held off long enough for me to pick up the girls and walk home, and then cleared up again after dinner so that we could take a short ride. And I do mean short! We just went around the block (which is actually several blocks long), maybe half a mile or so. But it counts — 30 Days of Biking doesn’t require you to commute or go car-free, just ride a bike at least once a day.

And then the setting sun blazed out when we got home.

I waited a bit, looked out the window again, and checked the weather forecast, but the rain simply wasn’t going to stop.  I got myself together and rode off, getting just a little wet from the knees down.

It wasn’t too terrible. I picked up one child at her after-school program, and dropped her at home (the oldest was already home; she stayed home sick today, yes, she is old enough). I thought about leaving the youngest at daycare, and letting my husband pick her up. Why stay out in the rain longer than I had to?

Then I asked myself, what would super-mama-bike-o-rama-riding Sarah Gilbert do? Yeah. I’m pretty sure she would ride in the rain. So I set off again, for the daycare provider’s house, half a mile away.

I picked up a cheery girl who was thrilled to be riding on the Xtracycle with mom all by herself.  She sang “It’s Raining, It’s Pouring,” and then broke into “if all the rain drops were lemon drops and gumdrops, oh what a rain it would be.”

I had to sing along. We sang it all the way home, actual raindrops falling into our mouths, “Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah.”

I’m glad I didn’t miss out on that.

“Oh, no”

“What?!”

My husband and I responded simultaneously. He turned the alarm off and went back to sleep, since he was going to work two hours late today.  I rolled over and didn’t go back to sleep; I got up, checked the news on the web, and then went in to work early.

It’s now just after 9:00 p.m.  If I go to bed now, can I get up at 5:00 again?

I’ve been a night person for as long as I can remember, but when I do manage to get a decent amount of sleep and get up in the morning, I can be very productive.  This would be a good thing for my writing.  I’ve been struggling with finding time in the evening. The girls need my attention, and that’s how it should be! Tonight, we played Star Wars Trivial Pursuit and watched a little American Idol, and it was great. I want to spend time with them.

I do like to stay up late, but by the time they’ve gone to bed, I’m not at my most productive. I’m often caught in between: too tired to think but not tired enough to sleep.

So I’m heading for bed. I’ll let you know if I get up in the morning.

I think we need to do something about bedtime again. I know that having a routine is key, especially for young children. But we seem to change our routine every few months or so, either because it isn’t working or because we’ve stopped using the routine we’d intended to use.

When the girls were babies, we didn’t worry about their bedtimes much. We based their routines more around ours.  But now that they’re in school and daycare, going to bed and going to sleep is more important.

We instituted an 8:00 p.m. bedtime at first, but found that with all of us getting home around 5:30 p.m., we’d just have time to eat dinner and do homework and chores and then it would be bedtime. We didn’t have time to just be together, so we changed bedtime to 8:30 p.m.  Everyone is used to that now; we don’t have arguments about going upstairs to bed.

But we don’t really have a positive routine in place. We were reading stories for a while, but got out of the habit at some point, perhaps when we had too many evening meetings.  And, I have to admit, it’s also because we as parents can be selfish. We don’t want to go read stories if we’re in the middle of a TV show, or a blog post. We don’t want to go upstairs and come back down again.

Foolish parents.  So it’s back to the drawing board. How do we put a 10-year-old, a 7-year-old, and a 4-year-old to bed peacefully, and still have some time for ourselves?

We got everyone into jackets and backpacks. The big girls put on helmets and were ready to ride their bike and scooter, respectively. My little one? I tried putting her on the tricycle. She just couldn’t keep it going. I tried walking my bike with one hand and holding her hand with the other. My bike chain fell off.

Yes, I cried.

We abandoned my bike and walked down to the daycare providers house, and I took a bus to work.

But today? Today, we loaded backpacks and bags into the FreeLoader bags on my Xtracycle and wheeled it to the top of the driveway. I put my youngest on the front of the SnapDeck, and my seven-year-old climbed on behind.  My oldest rode a scooter. A few minutes, and we were there (the daycare provider is only half a mile away).

I rode on to work. I didn’t push myself; I knew I could get there on time. I pedaled steadily and kept myself relatively sweat-free. I might even have enjoyed the cool morning air and the exercise!

I’m grateful for the experiences of the past year, and for my Xtracycle. It makes all the difference.

Five Books I Know Better Than I Know Myself

• Anne of the Island by L.M. Montgomery
• The Other Side of the Sun by Madeleine L’Engle
• The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder
• The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper
• Betsy In Spite of Herself by Maud Hart Lovelace

Five Books I Wish I Could Read Again For the First Time

(besides the ones above?!?)

• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
• Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn
• Laura by Donald Zochert
• A Severed Wasp by Madeleine L’Engle
• Red Thunder by John Varley

Five Books I Look Forward To Knowing More Intimately

(hard because I don’t find these so often any more)

• Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
• A Man Without a Country by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
• Welcome To the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
• Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Writer’s Life by Pamela Smith Hill
• the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling (no, I’m not intimate with these yet)

I told them we’d have to do some cleaning up first.  They were supposed to clean up the family room and empty the dishwasher.  I started on the office/hallway area.  Within a few minutes, the yelling and arguing began.

I can’t please anyone by trying to referee these discussions.  “She won’t help!” “I won’t help unless she apologizes!“  And I just wanted to yell “You kids shut up and get off my lawn!”

I finished my task and sat down to keep my cool by playing Bejeweled 2.  While playing, I had an idea.

They were definitely not going to the market, and I knew why.  It wasn’t just a punishment.  It was because people out there really, really don’t want to be around kids who are acting up, or around kids who can’t be respectful of other people. I’ve read about it on the internets!

So, after giving them time to actually get some cleaning done, I calmly explained it to them.

“I just wanted to let you know that I do appreciate the work you did, but you won’t be going to the farmers’ market today, because people there don’t want to be around kids who can’t be respectful, and you were not being respectful to each other or to me,” I said.

“But she started it, and I tried to ignore her, and I’m not going to talk it out unless she…”

“Well, that’s fine,” I interjected.  “I’m not asking you to talk it out.  You can if you want to. But you won’t be going to the market because you weren’t being respectful, and people don’t want to be around kids who aren’t respectful.”

“Can we do something to make up for it so that we can go?” asked my eldest.

“No, not today, but I’m sure you’ll get another chance sometime,” said I.

And that was that!  No crying or whining, and Steven made a lovely, solitary trip to the market.

Techniques inspired by Parenting With Love and Logic by Jim Fay and Foster Cline

But it’s not a good financial option for my family right now, and even if it were, I still care about all the other kids, whose parents perhaps don’t have the time or ability to teach their children, and whose parents can’t afford a private school.  I think every child deserves a quality education.

I wish I could help.  I’d like to create a real neighborhood school.  I could teach my kids, and those from a few more families.  And maybe the other parents could help, either by teaching or in some other way.

We could all just pitch in as a community.

Is that something that’s even possible?  I know homeschooling is possible, but there are laws about creating actual schools.

I do think it’s time to create something new.  Clearly the current system isn’t working, especially financially.