This summer my family and I went on a LOOOONG road trip. We drove from Texas to Maine, camping and staying with friends along the way. Before we left, I searched and searched for people doing similar things, but couldn't seem to find quite the right combination of details.
Here is what we did:
My husband and I have 3 kids, ages 3, 5, and 7. We drove in a minivan (Toyota Sienna). We did not go to any theme parks :) We did go to state parks and national parks. We left June 24th and were back by the end of July. We actually cut the trip a little short at the end because we wanted to get home sooner. Here are the stops we made along the way:
Austin - Lake Ouachita State Park -- 2 nights camping
Natchez Trace State Park -- one night camping (extremely humid!!)
Smokey Mountains National Park -- 3 nights camping
Staunton, VA -- stayed in hotel because it was pouring rain. Visited Frontier Museum, which was amazing!
Highland Falls, NY -- stayed with friend -- 3 nights -- she is a saint
Portland Maine -- stayed with family -- 2 nights
Acadia National Park -- 5 nights -- lots of rain! Maine was amazing and disappointing at the same time. My memories of Maine in the summer involved lots of beach activities, but it was 60 degrees and raining. The grass was green -- everything was green! Texas is suffering a severe drought, so the green-ness was a real treat. But 60 degrees? In July??
Portland Maine -- 4 nights with family.
I really liked the way TO Maine better than the way back. This may be because it was the more planned portion of the trip. It also involved more camping and fewer large cities. We had intended to go to Cape Cod National Seashore, but I was sick and it was pouring rain, so we stayed in Portland a couple extra days.
Plymouth, MA -- one night in Governor Bradford hotel. This hotel is in front of the ocean, and you can easily walk to Plymouth Rock and the Mayflower II. It was nice to be close to the sights. The kids enjoyed seeing the Mayflower, but it's a pretty quick trip, especially with little ones who are too shy to ask the performers questions.
New Jersey -- some horrible hotel close to the ferry landing for the Ellis Island/Statue of Liberty cruise. The hotel was truly awful, but the breakfast was amazing. We had great weather. Ellis Island is super interesting. By the time we got to the statue of liberty, we were all tired of walking. Ellis Island has a great cafe with reasonable prices.
Washington, DC -- we stayed 2 nights in the burbs with a friend and 2 nights in the burbs in a hotel. We took the metro one day and drove into the city two days. On the last day, we couldn't face the traffic/walking/more museums, and we decided to hit the road. Even though we had read lots of advice about taking the metro, we did not save ANY money or time by taking it. We had to buy 4 tickets and pay for parking -- in all our metro experience was about 35 dollars and not really a time-saver. We drove into the zoo one day -- I think parking was 10 dollars. The other day we drove and parked at a meter at the national mall. We had to move the car at one point, but we only spent 4 dollars on parking.
Atlanta, GA -- we stayed 2 nights in the burbs with family. We didn't see Atlanta at all, but my husbands' family is very nice :)
**car incident along the way** -- we lost the tread off of one of the tires. The only place willing to repair it at 6:30 on Saturday evening was Costco. I brought the kids in, bought some slices of pizza, and the car was ready by the time we were done with Dinner. Love 'em.
Dallas, TX -- after a long night drive, we got into Dallas at 6 am. The kids were well-rested. C and I had not slept AT ALL. But it was worth it to get all the way back to Texas without hours of whining. 2 nights with family.
Austin, TX -- home sweet home. But I'm pretty sure the grass is dead.
Looking back on our trip, here is what I would change:
*fewer hotels. We didn't stay in many, but they were not very enjoyable.
*more camping. This was our favorite part.
*more time in Arkansas. It's SO beautiful. We would probably need to leave earlier in the summer to maximize our camping in the south.
*I would skip Plymouth.
* I would not bother with the metro. (sorry... I know that doesn't sound very green)
*I would not try a day trip to NYC. I was very stressed out about losing one of the kids. My daughter has not recovered from missing the train on the way back -- she seems to have some sort of stress issue about missing trains/buses/rides to the store...... about being left.
*I would not order a lobster roll -- I discovered I don't really like them.
*I would not buy a special cooler that purports to keep ice frozen for 5 days. What a bunch of bologna!
*I would bring a heavier jacket or sweatshirt.
*I would count the sleeping bags before we left -- my husband left his behind :(
*I wouldn't bring a gas lantern. It was a pain. The globe broke. We barely used it. I really like to look at the stars when I'm camping, so as soon as dinner was over, we generally turned whatever light we were using off. The lantern was a waste of precious space.
What was awesome:
*camping in Arkansas.
*bears in the Smokies. My husband saw 5!
*drinking local beer everywhere we went.
*ice cream in Maine
*staying with family and my kids meeting/playing with cousins
*my aunt's cooking
*the farmer's market in Highland Falls, NY
*fireworks at West Point
*the frontier culture museum in Staunton, VA. It's probably worth double what they charge -- we spent the WHOLE day there. (But please don't up the price!)
*not bringing a DVD player for the kids. We listened to books on tape or I read books out loud. We heard a lot of books as a family & it was great :)
*our Garner GPS (aka Map Girl) -- she was a BIG help. I was kind of anti-GPS before this trip, preferring to use my amazing map skills, but Map Girl got us out of trouble a few times and was able to lead us to grocery stores and parks along the way. She also saved us from a MASSIVE Cape Cod traffic jam. She still needed a skilled Assistant Navigator (me) because sometimes she suggested strange routes.
What was fine
*driving -- surprisingly enough, there were only a couple of desperate days. We were able to have a lot of flexibility, bring our camping stuff and stop at grocery stores to get fresh supplies.
Showing posts with label car. Show all posts
Showing posts with label car. Show all posts
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Car Free Week
Wow... we have been car-free for a week. Granted, this was forced upon us. Still, it's nice to know that we can pretty much get around without a car. There have been some problems, however.
Timing is a bit of a problem. For me to get to work, I need to either ride the scooter or take the bus/bike. Either way, it's between 30-45 minutes. Even in a car, it takes about 30 minutes because of traffic. If I ride the scooter, I get to work stressed out, extremely hot, and gritty. The bus is better, but timing is a bit of an issue. Also, it takes C some time to get home from work. About 15 minutes, and considering traffic, it might actually take him longer to drive than to ride his bike home. The problem is that for my sanity, I need to leave home before he gets home. This week we finally fixed up some nice babysitting which gives us a comfortable margin of error. Is it worth the money? Definitely. I may not be saving any money by not using the car, but I needed a little bit of time before work and C needed a little time after work, so that we weren't always flying to/from home.
Groceries. I'm finding this is a big problem. I just REFUSE to buy all my groceries at Expensive Mart. I could take all the kids to the HEB in the bus (at least a 1/2 mile walk each way plus the bus ride, or 2 buses... painful), but I just can't. I'm not that strong. I'd rather eat pasta every day.
Our refrigerator is looking pretty bare. We're out of fruit. We're out of vegetables. The only reason we have milk is that we bought it at Expensive Mart. There's just not that much to eat anymore. Pasta with jarred sauce, sprinkled with cheese. A different shape of pasta.... some eggs.
What do you think? Is it even possible to take all the kids to the store? My plan is to go to the store as soon as we get the car back.
Timing is a bit of a problem. For me to get to work, I need to either ride the scooter or take the bus/bike. Either way, it's between 30-45 minutes. Even in a car, it takes about 30 minutes because of traffic. If I ride the scooter, I get to work stressed out, extremely hot, and gritty. The bus is better, but timing is a bit of an issue. Also, it takes C some time to get home from work. About 15 minutes, and considering traffic, it might actually take him longer to drive than to ride his bike home. The problem is that for my sanity, I need to leave home before he gets home. This week we finally fixed up some nice babysitting which gives us a comfortable margin of error. Is it worth the money? Definitely. I may not be saving any money by not using the car, but I needed a little bit of time before work and C needed a little time after work, so that we weren't always flying to/from home.
Groceries. I'm finding this is a big problem. I just REFUSE to buy all my groceries at Expensive Mart. I could take all the kids to the HEB in the bus (at least a 1/2 mile walk each way plus the bus ride, or 2 buses... painful), but I just can't. I'm not that strong. I'd rather eat pasta every day.
Our refrigerator is looking pretty bare. We're out of fruit. We're out of vegetables. The only reason we have milk is that we bought it at Expensive Mart. There's just not that much to eat anymore. Pasta with jarred sauce, sprinkled with cheese. A different shape of pasta.... some eggs.
What do you think? Is it even possible to take all the kids to the store? My plan is to go to the store as soon as we get the car back.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
5 Car Free Days
My car broke down on Tuesday. C went to "rescue" it and bring it to the shop. We have been car-less for 5 days. And it has been nice. It's been no problem.
How did I get to work?
I rode my scooter. If I had someone to watch the little one, I would have ridden the bus or bike/bussed because I'm a little scared to ride my scooter to work because of the traffic. I'm trying to address that problem for next week.
How did C get to work?
He rode his bike.
How did we get the kids to camp? (The two big ones had camp this week)
J rode his bike and N rode the trail-a-bike behind C's bike.
How did I take E to the park?
On the bike with the trailer. It was fun :)
How did we get groceries?
We only had to pick up a few things. We did it on the bike to the Expensive Mart down the street.
C and I had a date night. What did we do?
My MIL took the bus to our house to watch the kids. We rode our bikes to the springs and then downtown to have a nice dinner. We rode about 6 miles total, which helped cancel out the cake I had for dessert :)
We dropped my MIL off at work at 5 am. How did that work?
Normally, we would have driven her. Instead, she rode on the back of the scooter with my husband. They both wore helmets. It was so cute.
Speaking of, my MIL is the best. She's been car-free her WHOLE LIFE. That's right. She doesn't drive. She doesn't own a car. She doesn't even have a driver's license. Sometimes this is a big pain, but usually it is not a problem. Which is kind of surprising considering that she does not really live within easy walking distance of many things. She can walk to the bank and.... that's about it. If she wants to go to the grocery store, she asks someone to take her. If she goes in early to work, (5 am! No bus runs that early) she either calls a cab or gets a ride with a co-worker. For just about everything else, she takes the bus.
My MIL is in her late 50s, so if she can do it, other people can do it. She's in great shape, probably from all the walking to and from the bus stop. She owns her own house on a very moderate income, and I'm pretty sure that if she had the expense of owning and maintaining a car, affording a house would not be a possibility. Plus, she avoids a lot of danger. About 6 or 7 years ago, her kids (C included) tried to teach her to drive. This resulted in 2 accidents: crashing through the garage door and totaling the washer and dryer, and side-swiping an 18 wheeler. I love her, but we're all probably better off with her not driving.
An added advantage to not driving? If you live in Austin (and this probably is true for other places too) you can have the Transportation Fee on your electric bill removed if you don't own a car. Pretty cool.
How did I get to work?
I rode my scooter. If I had someone to watch the little one, I would have ridden the bus or bike/bussed because I'm a little scared to ride my scooter to work because of the traffic. I'm trying to address that problem for next week.
How did C get to work?
He rode his bike.
How did we get the kids to camp? (The two big ones had camp this week)
J rode his bike and N rode the trail-a-bike behind C's bike.
How did I take E to the park?
On the bike with the trailer. It was fun :)
How did we get groceries?
We only had to pick up a few things. We did it on the bike to the Expensive Mart down the street.
C and I had a date night. What did we do?
My MIL took the bus to our house to watch the kids. We rode our bikes to the springs and then downtown to have a nice dinner. We rode about 6 miles total, which helped cancel out the cake I had for dessert :)
We dropped my MIL off at work at 5 am. How did that work?
Normally, we would have driven her. Instead, she rode on the back of the scooter with my husband. They both wore helmets. It was so cute.
Speaking of, my MIL is the best. She's been car-free her WHOLE LIFE. That's right. She doesn't drive. She doesn't own a car. She doesn't even have a driver's license. Sometimes this is a big pain, but usually it is not a problem. Which is kind of surprising considering that she does not really live within easy walking distance of many things. She can walk to the bank and.... that's about it. If she wants to go to the grocery store, she asks someone to take her. If she goes in early to work, (5 am! No bus runs that early) she either calls a cab or gets a ride with a co-worker. For just about everything else, she takes the bus.
My MIL is in her late 50s, so if she can do it, other people can do it. She's in great shape, probably from all the walking to and from the bus stop. She owns her own house on a very moderate income, and I'm pretty sure that if she had the expense of owning and maintaining a car, affording a house would not be a possibility. Plus, she avoids a lot of danger. About 6 or 7 years ago, her kids (C included) tried to teach her to drive. This resulted in 2 accidents: crashing through the garage door and totaling the washer and dryer, and side-swiping an 18 wheeler. I love her, but we're all probably better off with her not driving.
An added advantage to not driving? If you live in Austin (and this probably is true for other places too) you can have the Transportation Fee on your electric bill removed if you don't own a car. Pretty cool.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Be prepared!
Maybe because I was never a scout, I seem to be having trouble learning this lesson: Be Prepared.
I drove the little one to the Children's Museum today. Why? Because it was hot and the trailer was hooked up to a wimpy bike. It's actually a pleasant bike ride, so I really should have ridden the bike. Alternatively, I could have taken the bus, but that (of course) would have required some planning.
So what happened? I drove E to the museum, and the car broke down. I had to push it into a safe place and C had to rescue it after work. What a pain. And I ended up taking the bus home anyway (which was very pleasant).
So now the car's broken, and it will be a few days (at least) until it's fixed. Time to experiment with being car-free.
I scooted to work this evening. Blech! The traffic is awful, and it's much worse sitting in the humidity and heat, breathing in exhaust than sitting fresh in my car listening to NPR. It threatened rain, but did not rain after all, although I was prepared with a big rain coat and a change of clothes. I'd feel much safer taking the bus. I checked out the schedule and it might be doable.
I drove the little one to the Children's Museum today. Why? Because it was hot and the trailer was hooked up to a wimpy bike. It's actually a pleasant bike ride, so I really should have ridden the bike. Alternatively, I could have taken the bus, but that (of course) would have required some planning.
So what happened? I drove E to the museum, and the car broke down. I had to push it into a safe place and C had to rescue it after work. What a pain. And I ended up taking the bus home anyway (which was very pleasant).
So now the car's broken, and it will be a few days (at least) until it's fixed. Time to experiment with being car-free.
I scooted to work this evening. Blech! The traffic is awful, and it's much worse sitting in the humidity and heat, breathing in exhaust than sitting fresh in my car listening to NPR. It threatened rain, but did not rain after all, although I was prepared with a big rain coat and a change of clothes. I'd feel much safer taking the bus. I checked out the schedule and it might be doable.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Driving Update, More CSA, Plastic Bags
I have two updates today. This week, we drove 180 miles. ACH! C, although he is divorced from the car, drove about 170 of them. Over the course of 2 days, he drove 100 miles for business, and then he had to drive an extra 30 to go visit his mother, who is sick. He could not have taken the bus to visit his mother, because he had to bring her lots of food. He could have done the business by bus and walking, but it would have taken several days, instead of one afternoon.
My students debated the advantages and disadvantages of various modes of transportation yesterday. For the bus, they said that the advantage was the price, and that was it. I thought that was interesting, because for me safety is a major reason to take the bus. I feel very secure. My students, however, feel that the bus is not safe because of 1) the type of people that ride the bus, especially late at night and early in the morning and 2) because of unsafe walks home from the bus stop. I am spoiled because I have a bus stop in front of my house and because I do not usually ride a city bus, but a university shuttle. Obviously, Cap Metro needs to work on their PR campaign.
So, as far as the car driving, 180 miles is a huge disappointment, but there was very little we could do about it. Today is the first day in two weeks that I have driven, and it was mainly out of laziness. I feel bad.
CSA
Week 2 of CSA today. The basket contained:
1 bunch spinach
1 bunch lettuce
1 bag mixed greens (with arugula?)
kale (traded for more spinach)
chard (!)
2 green onions
8 asparagus
baby carrots (they are very cute, but there are only about 6, and they are 2" long)
a couple of cauliflower florets
I'm not overwhelmed. We still have lettuce left over from last week. We are going to have to go crazy with some salad. My current feeling about CSA is that it's not worth it for us. In addition, I got a total of 5 plastic bags in my CSA box. Grrr.... Granted, 4 of them are biobags, but I am not currently composting bags, and I would really just rather have naked greens.
Speaking of bags, my friend alerted me that a group called Ban the Bags is calling for a ban on plastic bags in Austin. Yeah! According to their website, it takes 430,000 gallons of oil to produce 100 million plastic bags. Guess how many bags Austin uses in a year? That's right. About 100 million.
A woman quoted on the news said that she was too busy to bring her own bag. How can that be? I'm pretty darn busy. You know how much time it takes me to bring my own bag? None. You know how many times my cloth bag breaks, spilling the stuff onto the sidewalk? Never. Did it take me a few tries to remember to bring the darn things in the store? You betcha. But now it's a habit, and I haven't looked back. Now I'm working on remembering to bring my own bags for bulk stuff. It's just a matter of making it a habit. Her comment just doesn't make sense -- it's like saying you're too busy to wash the dishes, so you should just use plastic. Or too busy to wash towels, so just dry yourself with paper after a shower (Don't get any ideas!).
Experimental Thursday -- Butter
I thought that for Thursday I could make my own organic butter, but I don't really see how it could be worth it. The cheapest organic butter at the store is 4.49 a pound. A pint of organic cream is 2.29. How much butter does a pint make? I don't know. But unless it makes 1/2 a pound (which doesn't seem possible), it's not a better deal. In addition, since the cream that comes in glass containers is even MORE expensive, I would have to buy a plastic container. So it seems better to buy butter that comes packaged in waxed paper and wrapped in a cardboard box. Several bloggers have been making butter, and it seems like fun. But it doesn't seem like a better deal, or a reduction in plastic waste (at least in my case).
If anyone has made butter, let me know what the yield is like. If I'm wrong about the cost, I'd love to give it a try.
My students debated the advantages and disadvantages of various modes of transportation yesterday. For the bus, they said that the advantage was the price, and that was it. I thought that was interesting, because for me safety is a major reason to take the bus. I feel very secure. My students, however, feel that the bus is not safe because of 1) the type of people that ride the bus, especially late at night and early in the morning and 2) because of unsafe walks home from the bus stop. I am spoiled because I have a bus stop in front of my house and because I do not usually ride a city bus, but a university shuttle. Obviously, Cap Metro needs to work on their PR campaign.
So, as far as the car driving, 180 miles is a huge disappointment, but there was very little we could do about it. Today is the first day in two weeks that I have driven, and it was mainly out of laziness. I feel bad.
CSA
Week 2 of CSA today. The basket contained:
1 bunch spinach
1 bunch lettuce
1 bag mixed greens (with arugula?)
kale (traded for more spinach)
chard (!)
2 green onions
8 asparagus
baby carrots (they are very cute, but there are only about 6, and they are 2" long)
a couple of cauliflower florets
I'm not overwhelmed. We still have lettuce left over from last week. We are going to have to go crazy with some salad. My current feeling about CSA is that it's not worth it for us. In addition, I got a total of 5 plastic bags in my CSA box. Grrr.... Granted, 4 of them are biobags, but I am not currently composting bags, and I would really just rather have naked greens.
Speaking of bags, my friend alerted me that a group called Ban the Bags is calling for a ban on plastic bags in Austin. Yeah! According to their website, it takes 430,000 gallons of oil to produce 100 million plastic bags. Guess how many bags Austin uses in a year? That's right. About 100 million.
A woman quoted on the news said that she was too busy to bring her own bag. How can that be? I'm pretty darn busy. You know how much time it takes me to bring my own bag? None. You know how many times my cloth bag breaks, spilling the stuff onto the sidewalk? Never. Did it take me a few tries to remember to bring the darn things in the store? You betcha. But now it's a habit, and I haven't looked back. Now I'm working on remembering to bring my own bags for bulk stuff. It's just a matter of making it a habit. Her comment just doesn't make sense -- it's like saying you're too busy to wash the dishes, so you should just use plastic. Or too busy to wash towels, so just dry yourself with paper after a shower (Don't get any ideas!).
Experimental Thursday -- Butter
I thought that for Thursday I could make my own organic butter, but I don't really see how it could be worth it. The cheapest organic butter at the store is 4.49 a pound. A pint of organic cream is 2.29. How much butter does a pint make? I don't know. But unless it makes 1/2 a pound (which doesn't seem possible), it's not a better deal. In addition, since the cream that comes in glass containers is even MORE expensive, I would have to buy a plastic container. So it seems better to buy butter that comes packaged in waxed paper and wrapped in a cardboard box. Several bloggers have been making butter, and it seems like fun. But it doesn't seem like a better deal, or a reduction in plastic waste (at least in my case).
If anyone has made butter, let me know what the yield is like. If I'm wrong about the cost, I'd love to give it a try.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Car Update, CSA
So.... today's an exciting day in Grad Greenland. The worm factory is here. Which means that I ordered the worms. There are many worm sources, but it seems like they run from 25 to 30 a pound, usually with shipping included. OUCH. They'd better work. Sometimes I fantasize about selling the excess worms once they start making worm children, thus becoming a worm farmer, and pretty soon independently wealthy. Then I remember that I'm grossed out by worms and that the only reason that I decided this was doable at all was because my husband said he'd deal with the worms. :)
Today was also my first CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) pick-up. This is another of those things I had been thinking about a lot before starting the blog, and the blog gave me a kick in the pants. A quick internet search and I found a CSA open to subscriptions -- they're certified organic, and the drop-off house is about a mile from my apartment. So I rode my bike over, picked up my stuff, and sampled the first off it today at dinner.
I have wondered about the price of CSA. The one I'm using is 120/month (30/week), and is supposed to feed a family of 4. It will DEFINITELY feed my family. It's a lot of vegetables. But... is it less expensive than buying the same thing at the grocery store? Hmmm...
Here's what was in my box:
swiss chard
collard greens (I switched these for more chard in the "trade" box)
asparagus (7 spears)
lettuce
cabbage
leeks
spinach
beets (3 with greens)
I don't think it's really less. The chard is 1.99 (organic) this time of the year. Lettuce is 2-3 (organic). Asparagus is 2.99 a pound at WF (not sure if organic or conventional). I got a total of 8 items. They would have to be less than 3.75 each to be less expensive than the store. BUT... they're all local (5 miles from home... pretty darn local) and organic. And I will be eating a LOT of veggies. I'm still not sure. Maybe it's a better deal later in the season, when it's not just greens. If you subscribe for more than a month, the price per week is lower, but I wanted to test it out first. So far, I'm happy, but not wowed by the price.
Car Update
Last week I posted about my husband "divorcing" the car. He has stayed pretty faithful to the terms of the divorce, bike/bussing all over town. He has also guilted me into riding my bike a lot more. Since last week, we have driven a total of 60 miles. That total includes:
If we could keep the driving under 100 miles/week (including camping trips... maybe "save up" for those) that would be a HUGE reduction of our driving and reduce our spending on gas by about half. So, I'm going to aim for that.
Today was also my first CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) pick-up. This is another of those things I had been thinking about a lot before starting the blog, and the blog gave me a kick in the pants. A quick internet search and I found a CSA open to subscriptions -- they're certified organic, and the drop-off house is about a mile from my apartment. So I rode my bike over, picked up my stuff, and sampled the first off it today at dinner.
I have wondered about the price of CSA. The one I'm using is 120/month (30/week), and is supposed to feed a family of 4. It will DEFINITELY feed my family. It's a lot of vegetables. But... is it less expensive than buying the same thing at the grocery store? Hmmm...
Here's what was in my box:
swiss chard
collard greens (I switched these for more chard in the "trade" box)
asparagus (7 spears)
lettuce
cabbage
leeks
spinach
beets (3 with greens)
I don't think it's really less. The chard is 1.99 (organic) this time of the year. Lettuce is 2-3 (organic). Asparagus is 2.99 a pound at WF (not sure if organic or conventional). I got a total of 8 items. They would have to be less than 3.75 each to be less expensive than the store. BUT... they're all local (5 miles from home... pretty darn local) and organic. And I will be eating a LOT of veggies. I'm still not sure. Maybe it's a better deal later in the season, when it's not just greens. If you subscribe for more than a month, the price per week is lower, but I wanted to test it out first. So far, I'm happy, but not wowed by the price.
Car Update
Last week I posted about my husband "divorcing" the car. He has stayed pretty faithful to the terms of the divorce, bike/bussing all over town. He has also guilted me into riding my bike a lot more. Since last week, we have driven a total of 60 miles. That total includes:
- Driving with the kids to look at a house.
- Driving to work with my sick son. (can't bring him on scooter)
- Driving to the bus stop to go to my brother's house.
- Bringing the kids to my MIL's house (left car & rode bus home)
If we could keep the driving under 100 miles/week (including camping trips... maybe "save up" for those) that would be a HUGE reduction of our driving and reduce our spending on gas by about half. So, I'm going to aim for that.
Friday, March 21, 2008
5 bags down, new sins, BYOP
Today is day 5 of "unstuffing". I got rid of a bag of playdoh toys that I found in the bottom of the closet. Actually I got rid of about 2/3 of the bag, keeping the most fun toys to play with. More magazines -- I had no idea there were SOOO many magazines laying around the house. A puppet theater that I have had for at least 15 years and have never played with. This is a little hard because my mother gave it to me, but I've never used it. I have the puppets and my kids play with them all the time, but it's time to let go of the theater. Last but not least, a whiteboard. Don't need it. There's one on the other side of the easel anyways.
My MIL is watching the kids tonight, so C drove them there in the car and will bus/bike home. So, he's violating the terms of his car divorce, but it's a pretty good solution (I think). Tonight is the midnight full moon bike ride, so she is kind enough to watch the kids so we can go.
Less waste, but a giant pain....
We went to dinner at WF tonight. I love to go because the food is great and there is a playscape for the kids. We decided to bring our own plates from home (plastic) so that we would not have to use disposables. We brought our own silverware too. No problem.
What I had not really thought about was the return trip. With dirty dishes. Yuck! I don't mind bringing the dishes. I don't mind scraping them into the trash. I feel pretty happy sitting outside, being a good example. But putting dirty dishes into my bag to bring home was not the highlight of the night. I guess the overall good feelings I get cancel out the annoyance overall. Next time I'll have to thing of a better way to bring them home.
New sins
Apparently there are now 7 new mortal sins (not replacing the original 7 -- in addition to). One of them is pollution. Yeah for that! Other groups have talked about the importance of caring for the earth, and it's nice to see the Catholics join the party. Hopefully this will lead to more recycling. One time I had a job copying the church bulletin and it took ALL day because it was so many pages. Every church dinner (across denominations) I've been to has been served on disposables. Maybe now that pollution is a sin....
I've read lots of very negative comments about the new sins. Maybe the pope wants to clear room in heaven, because almost everyone I know has committed one of them. There also seems to be overlap (at least in the version I read). If one sin is creating poverty and one is excessive wealth, you don't really need another one that is increasing the divide between rich and poor, do you?
My MIL is watching the kids tonight, so C drove them there in the car and will bus/bike home. So, he's violating the terms of his car divorce, but it's a pretty good solution (I think). Tonight is the midnight full moon bike ride, so she is kind enough to watch the kids so we can go.
Less waste, but a giant pain....
We went to dinner at WF tonight. I love to go because the food is great and there is a playscape for the kids. We decided to bring our own plates from home (plastic) so that we would not have to use disposables. We brought our own silverware too. No problem.
What I had not really thought about was the return trip. With dirty dishes. Yuck! I don't mind bringing the dishes. I don't mind scraping them into the trash. I feel pretty happy sitting outside, being a good example. But putting dirty dishes into my bag to bring home was not the highlight of the night. I guess the overall good feelings I get cancel out the annoyance overall. Next time I'll have to thing of a better way to bring them home.
New sins
Apparently there are now 7 new mortal sins (not replacing the original 7 -- in addition to). One of them is pollution. Yeah for that! Other groups have talked about the importance of caring for the earth, and it's nice to see the Catholics join the party. Hopefully this will lead to more recycling. One time I had a job copying the church bulletin and it took ALL day because it was so many pages. Every church dinner (across denominations) I've been to has been served on disposables. Maybe now that pollution is a sin....
I've read lots of very negative comments about the new sins. Maybe the pope wants to clear room in heaven, because almost everyone I know has committed one of them. There also seems to be overlap (at least in the version I read). If one sin is creating poverty and one is excessive wealth, you don't really need another one that is increasing the divide between rich and poor, do you?
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