Walking

I live in a suburbia world. I have always lived in a suburbia world. A southern suburbia world at that. And, what do I mean by that? Well it is to live in individual neighborhoods that are built as islands upon themselves. Sidewalks are rare and there always seems to be a busy road just outside the immediate confines of the neighborhood. Grocery stores are generally just around the corner, but you can take your life in your own hands if you don't drive a car to get there.

I have been jealous of my sister who lives in the 'suburbs' of a large metropolitan area on the northwet (I noticed this typo, but figured that it also worked so I left it ;) ) coast. She lives in a neighborhood, with sidewalks, grocery stores, library and video stores all along sidewalks and within short walking distances.

We lucked out in our neighhborhood, finding out after we moved in that if we are willing to trek a short distance through some woods and walk along wooden boards put down each year to bridge the muddy area - then you can walk to the library. I love it and we enjoy doing just that - as long as it isn't boiling hot and I am not pregnant. It does limit us to some degree how many books we can check out - which probably isn't that bad of a thing.

Well this summer we watched as the town built a sidewalk along the main road outside our neighborhood. It's purpose is to connect our area with the old downtown. A neat idea, but I will have to build up my endurance to be able to walk the nearly three miles and then enjoy my visit downtown. But, what it does connect us to is a local grocery store (which I use a lot anyway) and the Dollar General, which I use even more. It has been to hot and I have been to wimpy to try it out, until today. I didn't have to have anything, but it was so beautiful that I decided that today was the day to take a little field trip.

We had a lot of fun. The girls rode their bikes and I pushed Em in the stroller. We discussed bike and road safety as we went. Passed several others using the same sidewalk and just enjoyed the hour trip. We did buy the light bulbs we needed for the lamps on each of the girls' beds and I picked up some more soft drinks while they were on sale.

So, now we can walk to the grocery store and the library. If they will just build a bridge over the 4-lane w/median highway then we could also walk to the local lake and park. And, that would be perfect.

So, lets see we covered Health & PE with the trip to the grocery store. We also covered math for both, spelling for MB and reading/science together for MB. K and EM worked with playdoh; K making her letters that we have covered so far and EM just exploring the world around her. School had the normal amount of wheedling and whining. Come on - can't you all just be excited and thrilled about spending your day doing what I want you to do.

We spent a lot of time outside and the girls worked together to build a castle in the sand, complete with a muddy moat to surround it. Then the play just disintegrated into muddy play. Lots of fun for everyone.

I managed to get caught up on all our laundry, and enjoyed watching the clothes dry in the cool breeze for the first time in a couple of wet, humid weeks. We cooked a pork roast in the crockpot until it just fell apart - so we ended up flavoring it with Eastern NC BBQ sauce and having BBQ sandwhiches - mmmm so good. The girls, not quite that adventerous yet (I have not even taking them to a real pig pickin' yet) had burgers on the grill.

I also bought this today:


A Karma Baby Pouch


I am so excited. It was pretty much the last must have on my list for this baby. This is a replacement for a bulky, padded sling that I hated, yet used for the prevoius three. This time I was determined to have a comfortable sling/pouch. I think I will be using it alot.

Now, I can concentrate on stockpiling diapers.


Peace,

Amy