Sometimes my walkabout view looks like this, and we get to cruising at a nice fast clip, getting all sorts of things done.
Other times my view is more like this. And I realize there really wasn’t anywhere we needed to go, after all.
My goal for this month’s change is to keep the car parked. Not always. We won’t miss playgroup. We’ll keep driving to the mountains whenever possible. Inevitably I’ll make at least one big trip to the grocery store with the car. But I do want to cut back and see how life opens up when I don’t just pop into the car all the time.
Here’s the plan: If it’s within a mile and a half of home, I’ll walk. If it’s farther afield, I’ll try to find a closer alternative, shrinking my orbit when possible. And when I want to go farther than I can walk, I’d like to take the bus. For a variety of reasons (it’s super lame, being the main one) I’ve only taken public transportation once in ten years of living in this town. But life has changed a great deal for me since that ill-fated outing. And if a stay-at-home mama with a little one enamored with busses can’t make it work, who can?
I have already noticed how this requires a whole new relationship to going out and getting things done. Often it means doing much less, not letting too many errands build up, making fewer stops, and sometimes just not getting things done with my usual efficiency. But since having a child, this is what I’ve been doing, anyways.
The last piece of the puzzle is to get the baby seat on my bike instead of E’s, and actually learn to comfortably and safely ride with a passenger and panniers so that me and my little compañera can get our bliss on all over town.
A new month, another new beginning. How are your small changes going?
Kyce Bello 
Walking everywhere must be one of the nicest things about living in town! We live way out though…
Our small changes are feeling pretty big for us, having been vegan for 17 years and now drastically rethinking our food choices!
im with you on the bike thing – having two boys takes muscle! but we have the equipment….
my small changes… hair feels just fine after a month and a half without conventional shampoo, i don’t miss meat at all, my babes are doing fine in their cloth dipes and im getting used to the increased laundry, and i’m enjoying how i’ve had to teach myself to make more things from scratch to avoid plastic waste. A bit overwhelmed by the prospect of making enough tortilla chips to keep up with my husbands appetite (theyre his fave food and daily snack!) Well enjoy your increased exercise… i’m off to find a tortilla chip recipe!
Wow! I haven’t even considered making tortilla chips yet, and if I did for sure they’d be a special occasion only item. Your husband is very lucky! I think mine is almost cured of his chip habit…though we still pick them up at least once a week from the burrito shop. Please tell me how it goes!
Awesome. I wish I lived close enough to something (anything!) to walk. Check out my friend’s “car light” living blog here: http://fullhandsx3.blogspot.com/ .
thanks for the link!
good for you! i desperately want to be a one-car household (or no car household, but not really, because i want to travel and by car is affordable for us).
our one small change is food related and so far so good!
nicola
http://whichname.blogspot.com
i’ve been wrapping the kiddo on my back for biking! it works, though i think we’ll probably move to a separate seat over the summer due to the sweat factor. ; )
i really wish we could walk more places but we live about a 20 minute drive to a town:( growing up i lived within walking distance of everything (or almost) i needed and if it weren’t for my love of being almost self sufficient i would move back into a town in a heart beat. i am hoping to find a place not too far from a town sometime in the near future to move to (with my family). at least i could bike with the kids then. we are working on recycling here this month. trying to keep it organized and recycle more and not be so lazy. i really love your eco shabbot. i am going to read more about what you wrote for that month and see if we can work something like that into our lives…