A mini-van mom no more

I have to give my hubby credit. When he decides to do something, no grass grows under his feet. Yesterday, he decided that it was time to put our minivan up for sale on Kijiji. He enlisted the girls' help to clean it up, took pictures, decided on a fair price, and posted it. The phone rang all evening last night, and Lee agreed to meet with one of several prospective buyers early this evening. The buyer brought cash, and the sale is final.

I was a little emotional, watching Clyde (as we called it -- our remaining vehicle, a little Hyundai Accent, is known as Bonnie) drive away with a new owner. It's the end of an era. Clyde took my little ones (now big ones) and me many, many miles. But I'm not too emotional, because at the same time, I'm seeing the realization of a dream I've had since embracing Voluntary Simplicity: we are now a single vehicle family. Our girls are of an age where they can handle taking city buses most of the places they need to go, and I am committed to doing the same, and, hopefully, walking to work once these dizzies are under control. When we run up against needing to be two or three places at a time, we'll just have to get creative -- busing, riding bikes, or catching cabs. You can take taxis quite a few times for what we paid yearly in insurance, gas, and maintenance on Clyde. (Though Lee was really ticked tonight when he called to cancel the insurance, and instead of giving us a refund, the company actually charged us an additional $73/annum for insurance on Bonnie, being that it's our only vehicle and now at "higher risk." We're looking for a new insurance provider...)

To be honest, I never really considered myself to be your typical mini-van mom because we aren't the types of parents who have our girls in too many extra-curricular activities. It's not like we lived in our vehicle. Our "passionate cranberry" Dodge caravan was helpful for those years that I was an after-school care provider, but beyond that, I wasn't driving soccer teams around or anything. I haven't been a mini-van mom in the last year for sure, simply because I haven't been able to drive. At L'Arche, Thomas doesn't even ask about the van anymore. "You catch the bus?" he enquires.

I feel a little lighter already, knowing that our family's carbon emissions have come down another big notch! Bye, Clyde. Thanks for many years of good service. I hope the new owner appreciates you as much as I did.