I don’t think I’ve mentioned it on the blog yet, but a week ago this past Saturday, our little family of three took a drive over to the local Wal-Mart and bought bikes for Cliff and I to join the bike Caleb got at the beginning of the summer. The main reason for this was so we could all ride bikes together since up to this point, we’ve only done family walks with Cliff and I walking and Caleb riding his bike.

So, in the past 7 days, we’ve made a point to ride our bikes at least four times. Sunday’s late afternoon ride made five. The first ride was ambitious, I’ll admit. It’s usually my way to jump in with both feet and never be one to hold back when first trying something new, and my poor husband has been married to me long enough to know that. So the first bike ride we did was a drive over to the local rec center to check on tennis lessons for Caleb.

Sure we could have driven over there, but we had bikes now! Calling it The Adventure, the three of us set out to drive the 2.1 miles from our house to the rec center, cutting through the neighborhood that’s next to us. Note: 2.1 miles there, 2.1 miles back. That’s over 4 miles for those of you who enjoy math.

It’s been awhile since I’ve ridden a bike. As in years. Many, many years. I forgot how painful it can be to break in your, uh, backside. By the time we’d made it to the rec center, inhaling water as soon as we got there and me being the cheerleader for The Adventure, offering lots of “yay, we did it!” and “aren’t you proud that we went so far?” and ignoring I’m-annoyed-but-I-love-her-anyway looks from Cliff who was also remembering the pain, er, joy of riding a bike, we were dripping with sweat.

The ride back was a little less enthusiastic with the cheerleading talk, but I was still happy (and relieved) that we did make it back to the house in one piece. And though the next few rides were anything but enthusiastic, thanks to some serious soreness in the saddle, we’ve kept riding and I’m happy to say that this last ride on Sunday wasn’t as bad.

We are also still working on eating healthier. Last night we tried some zucchini. I sliced it up, put it in a baking dish and poured marinara sauce over it and baked it at 400 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes and then sprinkled cheese on it. I think in my fear and worry of trying to get Caleb to actually eat it, I probably put too much spaghetti sauce because all you could really taste was spaghetti sauce but he did take a few bites of it, so that’s a start! I have some zucchini left over so we will probably attempt fried zucchini in a couple of days. We’ve added oranges and grapes to our snacks this week and I have fresh strawberries cut up and ready to go for breakfast in the morning as well as strawberries in the freezer for smoothies.

Now for the big news. We are going without television for one week. When I broached the subject with my husband today, I actually attempted to ask for 30 days. 30 days without the boob tube. But that was a bit too much. The wincing look of pain that came over Cliff’s face as he realized I’d put “no” and “tv” in the same sentence made me realize I’d asked for a full leg amputation when I should have just asked for the initial toenail. So, we’ve compromised and are going to try it for a week. When I broke the news to Caleb, he promptly went upstairs and spoke to Cliff about it.

“Did you know about this?” he said.

When Cliff nodded, acknowledging that he and I had talked, he said Caleb just shook his head and shot Cliff a look. “I am not happy about this,” he said. As if we were expecting him to be anything else? :)

I’m not happy either, trust me. I missed Drop Dead Diva and Army Wives last night! But I figured if I was going to get my guys to go along with the plan, it was better for me to make the first sacrifice.

I’ll let you know how the withdrawl symptoms go.

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