Bike trails and health reform?

It seems to me that if the government wanted to help health reform, they could step up the rails to trails program.   Martin and I spent the morning biking on the trails in Rochester, Minnesota and there are trails EVERYWHERE!!!!    They are well done, safe and fun.   Indiana seems to have so few bike trails and I believe is around fifth in the nation in obesity.   Hmmmm.......how about making walking and biking more accessible?  There were people of all sizes and ages on those trails.   They all looked pretty happy to me.  

I love contemplating the people I see on these trails.   My favorite people this morning were busy doing what they loved.   The young lady who was stopped on the trail to take pictures of the birds.   She looked very happy.   I saw some orioles and they made me happy so sure, I see why she stopped.  

There was the older couple, holding hands and walking down the trail together.    I wanted to get a picture as those are my favorite pictures, but hadn't mastered biking and picture taking yet.   They weren't talking much but were just enjoying each others company.   Nice.  

There was our biking pal who we crossed paths with several times.   He admired my bike lights.  Lol!   Martin and I passed him once and he magically passed us in return a little later.   Probably was hard on his ego.  

I especially liked the dad walking with his little fivish year old boy and clearly having good father/son time.   Sweet.

So anyway, good quality bike and walk ways seem to me to be a better solution than socking more government money into drugs and theories of why we Americans are so fat.   Give us something to do if you have to do something Mr. Government!   I would much rather see my tax dollars go into using the old rails to make trails and family fun.   It probably would have a bigger effect on the obesity problem too.  

Biking obsession

Since it is getting lighter out in the morning, I have started biking in the early morning before the sluggards....I mean children....get up.   Of course I decided to do this on the coldest mornings so far this year.   It was 18 degrees yesterday and today.   The only part of me which actually gets cold are my feet and my right thumb.   I tweaked the system since yesterday and my hands were warmer today.   My feet were warmer longer but I definitely need to figure something out so they feel less like bricks when I get home.   I think I need bigger shoes so I can fit those heater thingies in there.  

It is BEAUTIFUL in the morning.   I took off at 6:15 this morning and didn't see any cars for the first half hour.   I did see 14 deer and a pair of hawks.   I also got to see the sun come up.   Loved it.   I figure I am going to bike around that time every day as it doesn't interrupt my schedule with the kids.   I have felt pretty stretched thin as per usual so starting the day with a little alone time and herds of deer sounds like a nice plan.  

I am thankful my clothes fit again too.   What a relief.   Dusting off the old wardrobe has been nice.   I am truly obsessed with this biking thing.   I've been in this position before so am familiar with the panic I feel if I might have to miss a day of biking.   Facepalm.   Yes.   Biking disorder.   I can eat more too!!!!   Yay!   Happy times in the cold.  

Adjusting the biking schedule

I get completely addicted to biking.    My favorite route has about six good hills on it and the hills are even more addicting!!!   But......they hurt my knees.   Gearing down and taking a little time off to set a new schedule is the new plan.   There is the boring route with no hills and simply speed and endurance which I need to do about every other day or I will have to give up biking altogether on the off days.    I am taking the whole weekend off to give my knees a break before they get any worse.    I can bike like the dickens up many a hill but have trouble walking up stairs?????   Not good.   

Progress report

There seems to be progress in all arenas.    We followed through with cleaning in the morning after catechesis/ read aloud time.    I have been giving each kid one little area to work on for 30 minutes and voila! There is definite improvement. 

In  have been pretty consistent with getting something done each day.   I hate that math seems such a priority as the rest seems more interesting to me.   I can't seem to speed them up so math takes up less time.   I guess they are making progress in math!   We are slowly tripping through American history.    Interesting as usual.....my neighbor Jim is reading our books in the evenings while kids flop all over the place in their nightly routine of flopping. 

There is progress in there being less of me.   I have gotten a bike ride in every day this week but need to discipline myself to gear down.   I was delighted to be able to get up the hills in third but THAT was a mistake!!!!!    Ouch.   Stumbling through the day and hoping I can get the pain to go away so I can keep up the regimen.   Yesterday was a soaker of a ride and came home a Popsicle.

Progress in less screaming......sort of.    Little children seem to become addicted to screaming.   Just had a little discussion with middlin' child about how the rest of us are far more relaxed and able to meet the day when there is less whining and screaming.   Time to instigate the "spend time by yourself in your room" study if said child cannot grab some self control.   Mommy controlled isolation for less stress for him and for the rest of us.

It is NICE and quiet here at the moment.    Ahhhh........quiet and calm are good things.   Now....where did I leave my coffee cup????

Nostalgia

The weather is turning south and the roads were clear, so my biking obsession got the better of me.   I asked my five year old how the weather was as he had just come in and he said, "It rained.   Then it didn't.   Then it did.   Now it's done."   Okay.....good enough for me.    As it turned out it rained the whole ten miles and I got soaked to the gills but got the bike ride in.    The whole journey, complete with five deer jumping in front of me, had me mentally take a trip down memory lane.   I took several wilderness like trips as a youthling so all the rain and being stuck in it reminded me of the 50 mile canoe trip I took.   I have a sick love of a challenge.   We had many portages through rain and muck and I insisted on carrying the canoe across a muddy portage and one other hilarious journey for a mile with two packs on me, one in the front and one on the back.   A good friend and I got our shoes stuck in the mud and  somehow had to pull our shoes out with packs on  and feeling a lot like up-righted turtles.   I really had a sick love of the challenge.   Cross country, track, hiking mountains and running ridiculous amounts of miles daily.    

Nostalgic thinking led me to think of how I haven't given up that insanity and love of feeling strong and fit.   Nothing ever seems small with our family either, not the number of kids, our big old house which celebrates its 150th this year and all the challenges it has brought.   Then I was thinking how it makes perfect sense that my love of a challenge landed me a husband with extreme interests, endless energy, huge projects, excellence in engineering and a similar love of hiking, biking etc.   Nothing small.    Is it any surprise to me when I feel  that  release from conquering mountains.   Mowing 5 acres with a self-propelled mower walk behind, gardening and sweating, climbing dunes with the kids.    This has been the way of my life. 

So biking as hard as I can down the road for ten miles dodging ice and attempting to get up that next hill faster and easier than the last time.   Sometimes it is nice to make progress.   Sometimes it is nice to have less snow so you can bike like a nut in the rain and wind, get soaked to the gills and return to do the next thing at home.  It keeps my need of time alone and quiet and helps me face the challenges of the day. 

Progress

The week in review adds up to less fat on me and more school work accomplished for them.   Fighting the flab and getting in better shape becomes obsessive for me at times but it is nice to rid the closet of the clothes which don't fit anymore and revisiting the skinny wardrobe.   I found time for several bike rides this week and now we have snow the end of the week to shovel - yay!   The icing on the cake which I ate or rather lost, was a load of firewood to load for delivery.  250 pieces of firewood thrown in the back of the truck.   I wasn't able to do the whole load as I had to run a kid somewhere but it is still fun.   A few weeks ago I loaded 750 pieces of firewood.   I saw my dress I got in Milan today and might dream of getting back into it this summer.   Yes.    This all added up to bunches of calories burned and less of me.   Warms my heart.....probably literally.

In the homeschooling realm, I am doing my best to impress the love of learning on my little cherubs.   Time management needs some work, but otherwise kids were reading, writing and rithmeticing and not causing too much trouble.   Mondays always seem to stink as far as the wiggles and whining but by Wednesday we hit a groove and by Friday I am so exhausted I cannot wait to take Cecilia to piano lessons and go sit for an hour in peace and quiet and just listen.   Ahhhhh!  

My latest experiment with the kids to increase interest in history, is for the kids to take turns reading the books we are working through to each other paragraph by paragraph.    Every morning we have been able to pull off Catechesis and then read aloud time.   The reading aloud time hopefully sets a tone of HOW they should read aloud.   Remembering all these tricks is really the trick.   The little ones vying for my attention can generally make me nuts to be frank, but somehow we work it out and attempt to make some progress.
 I cap my evenings off with a good book and my nest before calling it a night and take a snooze till it all begins again.   It is almost time to find my nest.    Ta ta for now and happy family time to you all.   

Van righteousness

Eldest daughter and I were musing last night about how, "he who drives a 15 passenger van, is truly righteous."   We were merely giggling over van pride and size as surely if we have that many children our righteousness MUST be secure.  (sarcasm).   My dear hubby took the 15 passenger van to work today as he is the designated driver for their Christmas work dinner out.   Last night he requested a laundry basket to clean out said van to prevent embarrassment over his children's flotsam.   I noticed he found a few towels from the summer swimming pool adventures.   If it is lost, look in the van should be our motto.   Six months of flotsam is sort of scary sometimes.   I am the mom who has to psyche myself up to loading small children into their car seat in our van as the effort to get there is daunting at times.   "Come on Karin, you can do it!"   Or, I with a guilty heart, plead with my older children to lock the little dears into their seats.   I think this began as pregnancy weariness and the mere effort of lifting my self up to do this but now I do not have that excuse and the little cherub faces really want mommy to do the job.   I guess I should see my 15 passenger van as yet another opportunity to burn calories.   Every parenting event surely is an opportunity for weight loss.   I wonder how many calories I burn folding all of their laundry and putting it away?   I should write a book about all the opportunities for weight loss with a family of nine kids.   Picking up the laundry off the floor would be right up there.    Who needs a gym anyway?   I have a house which I can barely keep up with and  kids who are much like I have been in this life of tidying up and can't seem to get their stuff put away.   The calories burned in chasing them down on these tasks and the mere thought of the chasing can leave me tempted by the bed magnet.

So.....does my van size make me righteous.   NO!!!!    It just gives me more opportunity for weight loss if I look upon all the opportunities as opportunities and not burdens.   Here's hoping.