At Home – Beyond Walking

Making walks fun for stubborn little kids

Why little? Because I have no experience incentivizing walks for big kids. I’ll revisit that in a few years.

In the meantime, I find myself trying to come up with creative ways to convince our five-year-old that yes, it is a good idea to go for a walk. It’s not that she has any problem with the outdoors, or dislikes walks as a rule. But when she only wants to swing, or draw with chalk, or doesn’t want to go out in the cold, or just needs a little boost to get going, sometimes I’ve got to think outside the box. (And yes, of course we let her swing and draw with chalk and all those other things. But walks are good for grown-ups, too!)

Difficulties with (my) little kids tend to occur very early in the walk (okay, basically just getting out the door) and sometime later during the last third or so. When the two-year-old was in a backpack carrier, the negotiations were limited to only one child, which helped. But now both kids are a bit big for that. So, here are some of the tricks that I have had success with.

Resource-short and World Weary: Combatting Climate Change Is Hard

Over the past several years, I have tried–and I continue to try–a variety of ways to reduce household waste, to shop, cook, and live in a simpler manner. In so many ways, I fail again and again. Some days, even trying seems useless, especially if I’ve spent any time at all reading climate-related news. Most days, I just keep trying, taking steps that seem miniscule and feel futile. But ultimately, I know I owe it to myself, to my children, to keep trying.

I am often irritated by climate change writing that suggests there is a path forward without detailing what that path might actually look like in daily life. There is also a contingency of writers who will offer ideas on how to make changes in one’s home, for example, and spin it so it seems like those individual actions will save the world.

Obviously it’s good that anyone discusses this at all, but my take is that as we discuss vague and sweeping notions of long-term change and then stoke our own egos when we do even the smallest good thing, we aren’t starting enough conversations with the people we know, and certainly we aren’t being honest and realistic enough about how damn hard this all is.

Changing with the Seasons: Home Garden to CSA

*Kitchen garden, very early in the season. Yes, it’s in the front yard. So is the light.*

Brief today, as it’s Friday and I’m tired. But yesterday I received the best news I’ve had in a while. Our farmer will have a fall CSA season. This is good news on several notes. Of course, we will enjoy having fresh, local, organic greens and vegetables until early winter. His arugula is the best I’ve ever had, and was, in fact, the reason I first reached out to him to inquire about the CSA.

But more important, the farmer who runs our CSA on his one-acre farm, just a few miles from our house, is doing well! (An exclamation point–this must be serious.) He has undergone more than four months of chemotherapy this year, and was not able to do his usual spring planting and begin the CSA earlier in the season. To hear now that things are going well at the moment and that there will be a fall harvest is simply a joy. Did I mention that he is in his early eighties?

Start the Day with a Little Flower

I’ve always been a fan of the Hans Christian Anderson quote from The Butterfly that reads, “Just living is not enough. One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.” It comes to mind these days when our three-year-old wants to begin each morning “looking at plants” with Daddy. It has become something of a ritual for her, and goodness forbid he leave for work before she wakes up.

Trying to convince her that we could still have a nice morning earlier this week, even though Daddy was already at work, I asked whether she might like to go look at plants. “With you?” she replied, clearly not interested in pursuing this activity with anyone else but her father.