Category Archives: My Life

Finally Bike Somewhere Day

Well, this week (May 16-20) was Bike-to-Work Week and today was Bike-to-Work Day.  Since I am usually off on Fridays, I celebrated this day last year by biking to work with Matthew, with a stop at one of Trailnet’s refueling stations.

No such luck this year, which found me headed to work (in the car) at the crack of dawn.  In fact, I spent an inordinate amount of time driving to and for work this week, a grand total of 368 miles.  Ugh.  (My normal baseline, of commuting to/from work four days a week with no extra driving is 128 miles.)

Exhausted from the marathon of a week, I seriously considered taking the bus to meet Matthew and his dad for lunch today.  The midday sun and heat, and threat of rain, weren’t making biking any more appealing, but I pulled BUB out anyway, and we had a lovely little ride.  BUB snuggled with Matt’s bike while we ate lunch at Gokul, a vegetarian Indian restaurant (their new location in The Loop).  It was not as good as the Indian restaurant in Rome*, but not bad, and I managed to avoid overdoing it and making myself uncomfortable (it’s a buffet).

On the way home, I swung by City Greens (which would have been much less convenient sans bike) and picked up some eggs for the week, as well as some ‘shrooms.  They had lots of various lettuces for sale, too, but we have tons of that in our garden now.  The eggs made it home safe and sound, at which point I enjoyed a much needed nap!  One challenging week down, one challenging weekend to go (but not this one, thankfully).

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*Hmm, I was going to link to my post where I mentioned the restaurant in Rome, but apparently that post doesn’t exist.  Trip coverage here has been woefully inadequate 😦

A basket for baby

In this age of rampant consumerism, what’s the best way to prepare for a major life event, like having a baby?  BUY things, of course!

Excessive consumption of resources and accumulation of “things” wreaks havoc on the planet and on personal finances.  I know this, and so I strive to lead a life of simplicity and minimalism, but the message can be overwhelming at times.

Lately, I’m fighting feelings that the lack of baby stuff around our apartment makes me a bad mama-to-be.  Illogical?  Yes!  But the feelings are there nonetheless.

Marketers work hard to convince us that buying and accumulating lots of baby stuff can prepare new parents for the major life transition they are about to experience, but that’s just not the case.

The truth of the matter?  Newborn babies have relatively simple needs: eat, sleep, poop and pee.  We can meet most of these with minimal material investment.

Eat: For the first 6 months or so, I should have this one covered.  At some point, we will most likely introduce a bottle, and there may be a breast pump involved, depending on work arrangements.

Sleep: The plan is for baby to sleep next to me in bed, which is “where babies belong” according to my anthropology professor, and where they sleep in many cultures around the world.  To learn more about cosleeping, including how to practice it safely, click here.

Poop and pee:  Cloth or disposable?  Turns out, those aren’t necessarily the only options.  I’ve been reading about Elimination Communication (AKA Natural Infant Hygiene) in books like The Diaper Free Baby and Diaper Free: The Gentle Wisdom of Natural Infant Hygiene.  Though I will have cloth diapers to use at times, I am very interested in this approach that cuts down on the number of diapers needed.


For now, our small collection of baby “things” fits nicely in this Moses basket that we found used at Kangaroo Kids.  We’ll use the basket as a daytime sleeping place that we can keep near us when we’re not using a sling.  Arranging the basket was fun and assuaged some of my “bad mama” guilt.  When the time comes, we’ll have the basics covered, and we’ll provide a loving, nurturing family and home — something that all the money in the world can’t buy!

We ain’t goin’ nowhere

On Saturday, April 30th, we finished our Cycling Savvy training and biked an additional bit to see one last apartment.  After 4+ months of looking, and little luck, it was decision day: give notice that we would vacate by the end of May or sign a year-long renewal.

We took it right down to the wire, but in the end, we renewed the lease on our one bedroom apartment for another year.

What does this mean?  Well, we haven’t quit looking, but as my due date draws ever closer, it’s becoming more and more likely that our little apartment will be accommodating an additional person (albeit a tiny one) come July.

On the upside, smaller spaces are more efficient than larger ones, we’ll be saving money, and we have a VERY GOOD reason for keeping baby stuff to an absolute minimum.  We will carefully screen any new item that comes into the apartment.

Right now, my goal is to continue looking for unnecessary stuff that we can eliminate from the space, while finding better ways to organize what remains.  In a recent post on clutter, the Eco Cat Lady shared this minimalist standard for decluttering, “if your house burnt to the ground, would you replace this item?”  As much as this makes sense, for most people, it is actually very hard to follow through on the conclusions to this question.  You almost need to actually HAVE a fire and be FORCED to start from scratch.

Funny thing is, this kind-of happened to me in high school, when my bedroom caught fire.  And while I would not wish for something this dramatic (and potentially dangerous), there is a certain appeal to having a perfectly clean slate.

In my mind, moving to a new place was going to somehow provide that clean slate, a rather unrealistic assumption, given that we would just be moving all of our current “stuff” into a new, slightly larger, space.

We are making some progress — a pile of stuff to take to scrap metal, other stuff for donating — but it feels SO slow.  About that clean slate . . . .

Back in the saddle

The bike saddle, that is 🙂  My chondromalacia (AKA runner’s knee) mostly resolved itself, no medical attention necessary.

How did I know I had chondromalacia without visiting the doctor?  Well, I’m a bit of an expert in self-diagnosis.  Since I’ve been pregnant, I’ve also diagnosed myself with an ectopic pregnancy (based on no symptoms whatsoever), spinal meningitis, and appendicitis.  Being an expert doesn’t always mean you’re right 😉  If I had any interest in visiting the doctor or the ER, I would be a burden to the medical system, but instead I usually take my chances and let things run their course.

Anyway, chondromalacia is an overuse injury that is — SURPRISE! — made better by rest.  Rest is a four-letter word around here, but I was desperate, picturing weeks of pain, weeks without biking (and by the time I returned being too big and off-balance to bike safely), and not being able to get in many of the positions that help with a natural labor.  Basically, my knee would be injured forever and the world would stop turning.  The end.

Sometimes things spiral a bit out-of-control in my head.

Fortunately, a few weeks of taking it relatively easy — almost no biking, going down the stairs by placing both feet on each step, and reduced walking — did the trick.  I put my knee to the test last weekend, and this weekend I’ve been back to normal.

Yesterday I ran a number of errands by bike, including returning a few items of maternity clothes to JCPenney, which means I can say that, other than the belly bands (which I could have done without), I’ve only bought one NEW maternity clothing item.

This morning I biked to the season opener at Tower Grove Farmers’ Market, where strawberries, asparagus, and rhubarb greeted me — welcome back, friends!  After a quick stop to drop my purchases off at home, I was out again, headed to prenatal yoga at the Y.  (I credit the yoga, as well as other general leg muscle stretching, with helping my knee as much as the resting.)

There’s nothing like sickness or injury to make me appreciate my relative good state of health, something that I often take for granted.