Getting Started With Family Biking at Natural Parents Network

I have a post today at Natural Parents Network about Getting Started With Family Biking.

Finding time to work out with small children can be a challenge. One way to manage is to find an activity you can do with your kids, and one option to consider is biking.

For my children and budget, we settled on a trailer for the two little ones, and a trail-behind bike for the older one who was not yet capable of riding in a straight line. My 5-year-old loves being part of the pedaling action, and the 1- and 3-year-olds nap, watch out the window, play with little toys, or "read" books as we go.

Continue reading at Natural Parents Network ››

From Hobbiton to Rivendell: A Family Cycling Tale

We are on an adventure. It started as a combined effort to save gas and exercise more. It became more. It made us rethink how we plan our grocery lists, schedules, time with our children, wardrobes, homeschooling, and diet. To motivate ourselves, we set a goal.

Our family is going to bike the distance of Hobbiton to Rivendell.

Our progress as of  May 29th, 2013.

We aren't going on a grand long distance, touring adventure. Mainly just in our hometown. Which just happens to be the perfect size for dominating by bike. Our set up includes 2 adult bikes, one pulling a double trailer and the other a trail-behind tandem attachment. We go to the library, park, grocery shopping, fishing, produce stand... if it is in our town, we almost feel ridiculous packing everyone into the car to go.  Then we just add it all up, working towards reaching 458 miles by my birthday on October 15th. We started March 19th, so we needed to ride about 20 miles a week. So far we are doing well, and have cut our need to ride average to less than 15 miles a week. If the weather cooperates, we may even make our goal by L1's birthday, a month early!

A Week in the Life: Wordless Wednesday

 This is a typical week in our home. Plus plenty of screen time (just being honest), but who takes a picture of that? It was pretty rainy, so we were inside a lot. We

Making letter shapes with a straw.

They are very interested in clouds right now.

I am going to hit the pie tin sideways off the jar. What do you think will happen?
Hypothesis from L1: The egg will wobble, fall, crack, then we'll be cooking the eggs to eat.