It appears that spring has, at long last and after much struggle, arrived in Chicago. Trees and bushes are budding, daffodils are blooming, the sun is making more frequent appearances, and there’s even a new baby bunny in our courtyard.

The somewhat warmer weather and increased presence of the sun have me wanting to be outside more. I started by going for walks around lunchtime at work. And then I decided to challenge myself a bit.

My office is a little over two miles from home, and because the nearest bus is half a mile away from either place, it takes me a good 45 minutes to get home by bus. I know from past experience that I can walk it in about an hour.

The pedometer on my watch lets me know that I rarely make the standard goal of 10,000 steps in a day. Although I am on my feet for much of the day with my standing desk, I don’t have reason to move around all that much.

So, in an effort to move more, I decided on Friday that I would walk home. And then I did the same thing on Monday, and again on Wednesday (Tuesday I stayed home from work and barely moved at all, but that’s another story). I’ve surpassed 10,000 steps by a fair margin five days this past week. And I feel pretty good about that. (Good is relative. I’ve been pretty sore, but generally am still functioning okay.)

So we’ll see how long this lasts. I know once it’s 90 degrees and humid I won’t want to be walking home anymore, but as long as the cooler, nicer weather holds, it’s a fun experiment seeing how many days in a week I can push myself to do that little bit (or, let’s be real, significant bit) of extra moving.