Category: Motherhood Moments

Battle of Wills – I Don’t WANT to Ride a Bike

All winter long I begged, bribed and coerced my children into skiing with me. It’s not that they don’t like it. While out on the slopes both Big E and Little G have a great time – laughing, chatting, and racing down the hill. But the fight to get them to the lift is awful. You’d think I was asking them to spend two hours poking themselves in the eye. It’s skiing – fun, exhilarating, joyful.

Now that Spring is upon us and the slopes are riddled with dirt spots I’ve given up the fight and moved on to the next outdoor activity. Biking. 

I’m starting slow. Little g has a balance bike that she refused to ride all last year. I’ve taken it on our favorite local trail twice now. She refused to ride it both times. Big E is still on training wheels. I haven’t taken them off yet this season, but when I suggested he borrow a friend’s balance bike instead he locked himself in the car and refused to go on the trail with us.

Both Big E and Little G have said they don’t like feeling “wobbly” on the bike. I have attempted to explain that practice makes the wobbly feeling go away. But it seems like they don’t trust me where new sports are concerned.

I get it. Trying new things is scary, especially if there’s potential for self injury. But learning to ride a bike has the potential to add so much joy to their lives! I remember begging my parents to teach me to ride without training wheels and feeling so proud when I figured out how it all worked. I want that for my kids. Bike riding is not only fun, it’s a life skill.

Again I am faced with a dilemma. Just like with skiing, my children say they don’t like something, but I know they will have fun if they attempt it with an open mind. How much do I push it? How can I change my approach? Do I emphasize what a privilege it is to ride a bike? How lucky they are for the opportunity? Or do I accept the fact that my kids view bike riding as a chore and put it on their chore charts in the same category as Piano Practice?

One challenge of living near Sundance Mountain Resort is that middle word – Mountain. We live on a slope that would be deadly for a new bike rider, so anytime we want to practice riding we have to go somewhere flat and paved. It becomes an ordeal. Pumping up tires, loading bikes, finding helmets, driving, unloading, arguing, finally getting on the trail.

I want my kids to learn to ride, but not only that, I want them to work at something that’s tough. I want them to get up when they fall. Keep trying. Don’t quit. Have a good attitude even when it’s hard. If they can learn those lessons now, how much easier will their life be?

I don’t have a good answer for my question of how to make bike riding fun. I know I’ll try a few things.

  • Have special one-on-one bike outings with each of them. 
  • Bring Mountain Dad in for support. 
  • Talk about biking with a positive attitude. 
  • Set a family goal. 
  • Find them friends to bike with.

Maybe some of these things will help turn the tide from constant complaint to reluctant enthusiasm. Hopefully before spring ends I will hear them say something like this.

“Sure Mom, we’d love to go on a bike ride with you.” That’d be a dream come true.

How Hippee Are You?

I’m writing this while eating granola that I purchased in the bulk food section of Sprouts Market using refillable jars that I brought from home.

Yeah. I’ve gone a little hippee. 

I’m not the only one. Green living, sustainable agriculture, and climate change are big topics in the world. As an outdoors lover it makes sense to care about the environment and want to preserve the beauties of the earth. But living in an eco-friendly way requires sacrificing personal convenience.

How much do you give up for the sake of the environment?

In October, I read the book Zero Waste Home by Bea Johnson. Her family of four produces just one quart of garbage a year. That’s less than the average American produces in two days.

Zero Waste Home and its accompanying blog advocates living more simply by consuming less and using package free alternatives. Since reading the book, I analyze everything I throw in my trash bin – wrappers, bits of tape, food scraps – and think how I could compost, recycle or avoid tossing it altogether. It has changed my daily life.

I now use cloth diapers (much to Mountain Dad’s dismay), bring my own containers to the grocery store and carry a handkerchief instead of tissues. I choose to garden, make my own reusable bulk bags, and scrutinize every item that enters my home with a view on how to dispose of it when the time comes.

Living in the mountains requires us to haul our own trash and recycling away, so we naturally have an incentive to produce less of it. It also makes it easy to compost since our yard has no grass, just trees and native landscaping (mostly weeds).

But even so, I view my life from the outside and wonder, What happened to me? I used to think the only people who refused straws and used their personal water bottle at restaurants were the fringe of society. The crazies who hugged trees and wore free range wool or fair trade cotton. Now I am that person!

Maybe I should expect this kind of change living in an outdoors loving community. Tree hugging. Granola. Anti-plastic.

I realize that I live on the banks of mainstream society. But I don’t think I’m weird or abnormal. I think the rest of society is.

When I see people leave the grocery store with a cart full of plastic bagged food I judge them a little. It’s not hard to buy a few reusable shopping bags and keep them in your car. You go grocery shopping every week and will for the rest of your life. Why not invest $10 and a half hour of time to making the world a little greener?

Or my sister who continues to receive her bills by mail even though she lives in 2016 like the rest of us. I know automatic bill pay and ebills take time to set up, but one hour of your life is a small price to pay for greater convenience and fewer dead trees. 

Everyone has their comfort level in this area. For me it’s where cost, convenience and logic intersect. I compost and recycle because it’s cheaper and easier than hauling trash down the mountain. I cook homemade meals because it’s better for my family and I can use package free ingredients. Plus it tastes better.

There’s a little hippee in everyone. How Hippee are You?

Stranger Magnet – A Valentines Love Story


Mountain Dad is a magnet. A stranger magnet.
Unknown people ask him to take their pictures, or occasionally take pictures with him. If there is a car stuck in the snow he’s the one drivers approach. Every time we are on outdoor adventures a stranger approaches Mountain Dad for something – directions? Check. Recommendations? Check. Random small talk? Yep. Once we went UTVing and the only other person in sight struck up a conversation about suspension, towing capacity and aftermarket parts.
Some of the more outrageous stranger magnet moments he’s had? Two winters ago he and Big E were having a snowball fight in our yard when a random group of Korean tourists stopped and asked to take their photo. Snowballs, flannel shirts, flushed faces, maybe it felt like an Eddie Bauer catalog moment?

Then at the Sundance Film Festival this year, no less than five different groups grabbed photos with him in a single night while hanging out down at the Resort. Maybe they thought he was famous? I’m not sure why anyone would want to take their photo with random strangers, but of if they did, Mountain Dad would be the one they would ask. If we are on a hike or at a campground people come over to chat, not with me, but with the bearded guy in a flannel shirt. Stranger magnet.

It’s not like he’s the only person around. It’s not like he exudes approachability. He’s a broad shouldered man with facial hair. He’s introverted. Between the two of us, I would be the one most open to talking to strangers. But something in the universe makes people gravitate toward him. This is the mystery of our adventures. 

This interaction has happened so often in our lives that Mountain Dad has a nickname – American Friend James. What is it about a broad shouldered man in flannel that gives people a sense that he knows what he’s talking about? Does he exude friendliness? No. 
He exudes expertise. 
It’s true, Mountain Dad DOES know a lot. He researches, plans, and has experience with outdoor activities. When we invite other families to go camping with us I make a point to say, “It’s easier if you camp for your first time with us. We know what we are doing.”

Mountain Dad is confident. His quiet confidence leaks through everything we do in the outdoors. I trust his judgement with finding camping spots, loading up gear, and knowing where we’re going.  
When we were dating, he took me on hikes and camp outs for the first time in my life. He introduced me to the fresh air feeling of enjoying the outdoors. When we first got together, I never would have expected how much the outdoors have become a part of our lives. It has enriched our time together, become our vacation choice, been our family bonding time. For our ten year anniversary we spent the week in Alaska, camping in Denali National Park, viewing glaciers fall in Kenai Fjords National Park, watching bald eagles and grizzly bears and wild salmon.
I love that. I love him. The outdoors has been a large part of our life and our love story. What about yours? 

I Believe in God

This post might not be popular. It may be quickly deleted from your feed. You may not open it at all. But I’m still going to write it.

I believe in God.

When I view the beauty of the mountains, feel the wind on my face and breath in all that fresh air I experience the divine. There is glory in the outdoors, in the trees, trails, and animals. There is joy in sliding down a mountain on my snowboard, wonder at the growth of delicate flowers, fascination at the small and large. I believe in God.

For me the outdoors is a testament to the Divine. Being in the outdoors is healing for my soul, makes me more grateful for my blessings and helps me be a better human being.

I know the topic of God causes a lot of conflict in the world. I find this ironic since God is supposed to be Love. A lot of violence is justified in the name of religion, but I would like to invite anyone reading this to see the good in belief. Faith breeds humility. A higher power offers hope in an often dreary world.

The popular view in the world is that there is no Divinity. We’re the result of millions of years of evolutionary reiterations. But I think that sells us all short. The peaceful moments in life when I gaze at my baby, or hear my kids laughing have supernatural power. The beauty of a sunset or the lull of ocean waves on the shore, are those not Divine?

Truth comes in many forms. If the only sources of truth in the world are those you can quantify and have been approved by scientists I feel we miss out on the spectrum of human emotion and experience. Does a poet who can move you with words NOT speak truth? The sources of truth in the world are great and grand. The awe I feel when in the outdoors reminds me that there is a greater power at play.

Talking about a Divine Creator in this age of technological innovation may seem archaic or uneducated. But the truth is the outdoors helps me appreciate the beauty of creation. Being outdoors makes me pause in wonder and awe. The feeling of amazement that I can be part of this whole beautiful earth and share even a small part of it reaffirms that there is a God.

When I see the mountains I see God’s glory. When I see my happy family I feel God’s Love. I believe in God. Please, look for the higher power in your life. Let there be Peace on Earth and Goodwill to All.

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