Exercise is not on my to do list

I wish it was, but to me there is nothing more boring than exercising purely for the sake of exercising. It's great when people enjoy running outside or on a piece of gym equipment for hours a week but it's not for me. I do make an exception for group classes though, those are fun.

There are three times in my adult life when I was in the best shape:

1. Undergraduate college when I lived on campus and spent all day walking from dorm to class to class to class, up (outdoor) stairs and down with a backpack full of books.

2. My first post-college job when I biked 1.5 miles one way to get there. Biking 3 miles a day, 5 days a week, even though the route was flat, was great exercise and my body was happy.

3. After finishing graduate school my husband and I bought our first house in the city center. I walked to work, I walked Pepper, I walked to yoga class, we walked to restaurants and festivals. Walking as my primary mode of transportation was great. I didn't have a backpack on my back anymore, though eventually I did have Big Bro strapped to me in his Baby Bjorn. With cute, human-scale, grid networked streets I could do any combination of loops. It was easy and noncommittal (unlike a long, straight country road), with new things to see every block and I was under the protection of street trees and sidewalks.

I think having exercise built into your lifestyle is the best way to go. 

The lifestyle piece is hard right now. Getting out to a group class isn't easy because of bedtime routines and evening meeting obligations, not to mention the drive. Working out with a video in the living room means kids climbing on me or crying to be picked up. Stroller walks are difficult on country roads with 65 pounds of kids overloading the stroller. Biking/walking as a mode of transportation is impractical in our town.

What is a mom of young kids to do? Just screw it until the kids are older? No? Bad idea?

Hmm...

I guess I'll have to put exercise on my to-do list and run on a treadmill when the kids are in bed.

Baking an All-Nighter

A few months ago I wrote about my disappointment with Big Bro's preschool for not communicating to parents very well. The school has made good effort to improve communication, which is great. Only trouble now is, any lapses in information or tasks is now purely my own fault.

This week is a school bake sale to raise funds. About a week ago I signed up to bring something to the sale on Friday. 

It is my first time participating in a bake sale in at least two decades, and definitely my first one as a parent. I planned ahead and bought a brownie mix and even put a reminder in my phone's calendar to make it with Big Bro on Thursday afternoon.

But Grandma offered to take Big Bro and Lil Sis for a few hours on Thursday afternoon. The timer alerting me that it was time to bake brownies was promptly ignored as I leisurely puttered around the house.

Around 9:45 PM Dada of Ma'at called me on his way home from his boss's retirement party. We chatted about our days and he described the lovely dinner he enjoyed with his co-workers including a delectable dessert. 

Suddenly I realized I never made those dang brownies. 

So here I am in my pajamas and bathrobe in the kitchen at 10:15 PM waiting for the brownies to get out of the oven. At least now I won't feel like a kid who forgot to do her homework when I show up for preschool drop off in the morning. And this is only the beginning of  a 16 year career as the mother of school-aged kids.

Note the time on the oven clock.

A Test in Letting Go

I took the kids to an open gym session at a local gymnastics school. Last time was a wee bit stressful so I had some reservations.

Last time we went I was 7 months pregnant with Lil Sis, and Big Bro was not quite 2. At that time Big Bro was too freaked out by the ultra bouncy floors, but he loved the foam pit best! So there I was, very pregnant, and in the foam pit trying to protect my not-yet-two-year old from getting stuck in the foam and from kids flying every which way jumping nearly on top of us at times. Yup, not ideal.

"Look out","Be careful","Watch out for that boy!" I don't want to undermine my child's confidence by telling him to always be careful, but that can be hard to do with kids running left and right. Toddlers/preschoolers aren't exactly known for their awareness or self-control.

This time Big Bro was able to do it all himself. I still got nervous with kids running and colliding and landing in the foam pit inches from each other. But I restrained myself from calling out too many warnings, and there were no injuries, tears, or even bumps. It was a lesson for me in letting go. To trust that Big Bro can be aware of his surroundings, his body, other kids, and not crash.

"He floats through the air with the greatest of ease,
the daring young man on the flying trapeze"

This time I had Lil Sis to keep track of. She was content to chase balls on the giant springy mat where gymnasts do their floor routines. With Baby Pepper in tow of course. There were a few giant bouncing exercise balls that I deflected from knocking her down, but she did well. 

I think I did too. 

Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow

This is a format for a post that has been circulating around the blogging world so I thought it might be fun to jump on the bandwagon and try.

Yesterday I:

• Enjoyed pancakes and eggs for breakfast that my husband made at my son's request
• Went for a walk with the whole family since it was sunny, gorgeous and the temperature was above freezing. As we walked my husband went door to door collecting signatures so he can run for our local school board.
• My in-laws took the kids for a couple hours which was fantastic.
• We went to some friends' house for dinner. The kids had their own little kids table, it was adorable and such a treat to focus on a grown up conversation.
• Worked on some VT Citizens Climate Lobby stuff in the evening.

Today I:

• Got to sleep in a bit courtesy of my husband because my daughter kept me up a lot last night
• Came downstairs to fresh made scones, my husband's specialty
• Made pizza with my son using the fresh mozarella and whey I made earlier in the week
• Wrote a BVT Moms Blog post with the pizza making as part of the inspiration
• Had free time while husband took the kids to his parents to watch the football game. I did laundry and vegged. 
• Had pizza again for dinner at my in-laws. Whoops. It was a decadent weekend food-wise, and me-time-wise.

 Tomorrow I will:

• Take Big Bro with us to Lil Sis' music class since it is the Martin Luther King, Jr holiday and preschool is closed.
• Maybe do a little grocery shopping if the kids are up for it after music class.
• The usual playing, reading children's stories, washing dishes, more laundry, cooking meals, etc.

When Moms Tire of Play

"Play with me, Mommy!" is a constant refrain in my house. And play I do. But sometimes I admit, I get really bored of playing. How many ways are there to play "Doggie" and what fun is playing when you, the mom, say "Let's make up a story, you start." and your child responds, "No, I want you to do it. I want you to do the whole thing." This isn't play. This is purely wanting to be entertained.

Don't get me wrong, I play with my kids a lot. But it's a long day between 8am when Daddy leaves for work, and 6:00pm when he returns. My kids no longer nap either (not reliably) so it's hard to get a break. Sometimes I clean the kitchen because it's always a mess, and because I know it will give me a little space and time to myself. At least for a short time. Even when I say, "I can't play now, I'm doing dishes." it can quickly devolve into Lil Sis pulling all the dirty dishes out of the washer and Big Bro still saying, "Mommy, let's play!"

This is something that adults and kids have dealt with forever. The episode of Sesame Street that we watched yesterday was all about Big Bird feeling sad because Gordon, Maria, and Alan (the adults on Sesame Street) couldn't play with him. Another episode featured Ernie feeling sad that he has no one to play with. It's a ubiquitous theme in children's shows, and in my life lately. I met a lady in a chiropractor's waiting room recently who told me her 9 year old just started being willing to entertain himself for 30 minutes. 9 years old??? 30 minutes??? Say it's not true!

So sometimes, when this mom is tired of play, and the kids won't do anything by themselves or with each other I started coming up with jobs for Big Bro to do. It's harder to incorporate Lil Sis, but she's easier to please these days anyway. Big Bro feeds our dog Pepper every day, and recently he sorted the clean silverware into the drawer for the first time. Sometimes I give him a spray bottle and cloth to clean the windows on some doors, or he sweeps the floor. The funny thing is he seems to think it's fun! For him it's doing something new while being with Mommy. For me it's doing something a little more adult (not that cleaning is super fun for adults) while still making space for my kids to be near me and participating. I think it's a good compromise, and my son is learning important skills/responsibilities in an age-appropriate way. The house gets cleaner too.

Climate Leadership Training Day 3: Moms Weathering the Storm

Originally written on August 7, 2013  

The third and final day of Climate Reality's Climate Leadership Training the sessions focused on how to reach out to our communities about climate change. It is the most critical issue of our time. Without the predictable, hospitable climate that humanity has enjoyed for about 10,000 years, our society cannot exist. Climate change is also unique because it requires global cooperation. To some this is an overwhelming and frightening thought. Despite this, Al Gore, and other climate leaders see it as an opportunity. As a way to cooperate and shape a new, better future. My husband is watching Star Trek Deep Space 9 reruns on Netflix as I type this, and it occurred to me that if we can solve the climate crisis as a species, the world depicted in Star Trek doesn't seem quite so far off. Maybe we can finally work together as humanoids and catapult ourselves into a higher existence. But I digress.

Back to reaching out to our communities.... There were breakout sessions on the final day of the training. The session I attended was called Moms Weathering the Storm. Three panelists spoke about how they, as mothers have amplified their voices for a cause by reaching out to other mothers, and to other women.

One panelist was Harriet Shugarman who attended a Climate Leadership Training in 2007 and found her passion: climate change education, awareness and action. Like me, becoming a mother made her feel like she had to do something to make the world a better place. Her answer was starting the blog Climate Mama. Turns out she was not the only one, there is also a blog called Climate Mom, founded by Mary DeMocker, a mom who went "from worrier to warrior." Rather than being upset that these woman beat me to great blog names, I am so happy that there are other moms who are concerned about the same issue as me. Strength in numbers!

A second panelist was Emily McKhann, founder of The Motherhood, an online community of mothers wanting to make a difference. Emily shared her recent post called 9 Ways to Use Social Media to Support Your Causes and Charities. You can read her blog yourself, but it was inspiring to know that mothers can, and are already, using social media to amplify their voices for positive change.

A third panelist was Vanessa Lopes-Janik, a representative from the World Bank's Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP). The particular story she shared is of their work with AFREA that seeks to include women in energy projects. The program helped women in sub-Saharan African countries access and use efficient cooking stoves that reduced the amount of fuel required to cook a meal. It also taught women how to turn dead branches into charcoal, which burns more efficiently than wood. In turn, women saved time cooking, and saved money because they didn't have to buy as much fuel for their fires. That extra money is being reallocated to buy more food to feed their families, and medicine when their families get sick. Women were also included in energy businesses such as turning dead tree branches into coal that they could sell. Thus reducing deforestation, reducing energy use, and providing income to families. Triple win.

One final story that wasn't part of the breakout session, but is worth telling, is the story of Kim Wasserman.  She is sometimes called "the new Erin Brockovich" because as a young mother she fought for both the environment and social justice in Little Village-- a predominantly Latino neighborhood on Chicago's Southwest side in the shadow of two of the dirtiest coal-fired power plants. She went door to door asking people about their neighborhood and realized that they were suffering from asthma but didn't know why. After 15 years of listening, researching, and community organizing she and her organization Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO) got the coal-fired power plants shut down--a victory for the residents of Little Village, not to mention a victory for the fight against climate change.

The overarching point of this post is to emphasize that mothers have a long history of rallying around important causes and getting things done. One of the most famous modern examples is probably Mothers Against Drunk Driving, and one of my personal favorites is Moms Clean Air Force, but there are countless others. We, as mothers, have a unique role in society: raising the next generation. We can connect to other mothers because we see the future in our children, and know we have to fight for a better future on their behalf. Mothers (and fathers and grandparents!) can rally around climate change too. We are just one subset of the population fighting for climate justice whether directly through climate education and action, or indirectly by shutting down power plants that blight the community, or bringing better fuel and fuel efficiency and economic opportunity to mothers in Sub-Saharan Africa. Climate change is an issue that touches every facet of life. There are many small, sometimes seemingly unconnected, actions happening everywhere that help get us closer to the goal. We need to reach out to each other, celebrate our wins, and keep on working. This blog is my humble way to try and start doing just that.

Read more about the conference using these links:
Day 1 of Climate Leadership Training
Day 2 of Climate Leadership Training
Day 3 of Climate Leadership Training

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