Managing Resources

For my birthday my dear friend, Amy, sent me this environment-friendly water bottle. Because Amy and her family are so green (much greener than, say, a family who eats many meals off of paper plates), she’s good at educating others about responsibly using natural resources. She does thoughtful things like sending me a reusable bottle so I can stop throwing away so many paper plates–I mean, so many water bottles.
*Sigh* If only someone would invent a reusable plate.
Oh, wait.
All this to tell you about the most environmentally-friendly advancement the Hergenrader family has recently made. See my keys? I’m not using them as much. In fact, I’m hardly ever using them when it comes to transporting Catie to and from school.
When our school district cut bus service this year, it prompted many panic attacks about how I would handle the monster car pool line with all the little kids I hang out with. For two years the beautiful (if not diesel-spewing) bus had rounded our corner as Catie’s personal yellow limo,  and I just couldn’t imagine life without it.
Well, that life is here…and it’s going really well.
Between my bike (outfitted with a double trailer for Elisabeth and Nate), the kindness of my neighbors, and my own two feet, we’re making it. And you know what? It’s so fun. I feel so good about it. I also feel that not idling my car in front of the school covers the multitude of other not-so-greeen choices I make in a day.
AND I’m getting a ton of exercise! Exercise is important because I love to bake treats, and I hate to run.
I know that everyone hates to run (except my husband, who looks forward to it), but running is a torture for me. I just can’t even motivate myself to do it.
Except for the moment when I see a thousand students spilling out of the elementary school, and I know that one is mine, and if I don’t start jogging soon, she won’t get home. Then, and only then, I can motivate myself to GET MOVING.
Which means I get exercise every day.
You might have also noticed the big gym membership card attached to my keys. I also go to the gym every day, but did I mention how much I hate running?
So I don’t run at the gym at all.
I use that membership as my most valuable resource: child care. Instead of setting foot inside the actual gym, I check Nate into the Child Care and go to the cafe to write this blog post.
And that’s what I call managing resources.