This site died a ways back, but I have a new green site that's maybe not better, but definitely newer. Check it out at www.motheringearth.net

Mothering Earth — Because if Mama Ain't Happy, Ain't Nobody Happy

You know you've made it...

...in the world of public transit when the driver, over the load speaker, says this:

"Next, the family stop."

And he's talking to you! I know I should be embarrassed for having been pointed out, but really, I'm just flattered that my fellow bus people know me and my girls.

And...

Go to the Al Gore site and let him deliver a message to save the environment to Congress.

Al Gore — you are the renewable resource. Does that make sense?

I just blogged about this on my other blog, but I felt it was worth saying twice.

Al Gore rocks. He just said (during his acceptance speech for best Documentary at the Oscars. Oh Tipper. Who would have thought turtle necks would have brought you here) global warming "is not a political issue, it's a moral issue."

Seriously. He rocks, just like Jennifer Hudson's life.

It's been a month

A month since I've posted last. That's because with winter finally among us, I've had little in the way of outside time. Very few bus trips. Even fewer walks.

So, you might ask, what have you been doing.

Not much. The family got extremely sick. We lived through a major snowstorm. Carolyn had her third birthday.

All in all, it's been pretty uneventful. Even a little depressing. But today, with the temperature inching up and the snow inching down, I'm feeling a little better.

Oh, and the International Panel on Climate Change issued an alarming report that all doomed (not really, but I can read between the lines), but that's old news.

But baby it's cold outside

Winter has given suburbia the upper hand.

Of course I'm not going to stop believing in global warming because it's cold outside (only idiots and Rush Limbaugh can pull that off), but I do have to say I've waned a little from my mission.

Cold weather. No car. These things have hastened my trip to crazyville. I've started taking Steve to work more often so I can do something other than sit at the kitchen table with a glass of red wine and my hands over my ears to quell the desire to run screaming from the house. And because of this newfound lethargy, I've started taking shortcuts to the daily feedings.

But an article in this week's New York Times Sunday Magazine has gotten me back on track. Unhappy Meals, an article by Michael Pollen, reminds me that eating food, real food, is the best way to combat illness, obesity and unsatisfying meals.

Thank you Mr. Pollen. Even the best intentioned housewife can fall off track.

My story worked! People, following my model of drive less/walk more, are driving less.

Uhhh. And gas prices might have had a little something to do with it. Maybe.

The winter of my discontent.

I told Steve the other day if I ever write a book about not driving, I'd call the chapter about these last few month, "The winter I almost killed myself."

"It's funny," I said.

Steve said in a year or two, maybe funny. Right now? It seems a little too likely.

Not having a car in the winter with two very small children is mind-numbingly dull. They are too little for arts and crafts. They have more energy than can be burned up walking around the block. And there are just so many episodes of My Little Pony I'm willing to let them watch.

So we trudge along, waiting for spring. On the plus side, I've taken to doing my crossword puzzles online. It took a little getting used to, but as Carolyn would say, "I did it!"

Here's what I remember about 2006...

There was no snow in February when we moved, something I rejoiced.

In fact, that whole winter of driving between Michigan and Illinois with a newborn baby, there was hardly any snow. Some days, I didn't even need a jacket.

When I stopped driving in July, it was so hot some days I couldn't leave the house because I thought it unsafe for Penelope, only six months old. This from a woman who walked her newborn to the park in February.

Thanksgiving day, it was so warm Carolyn went outside with a miniskirt. No tights.

So it should come as no surprise 2006 was the warmest year in more than a century. So why am I surprised?