You're not going to get any higher gearing on the front chainring unless you swap over to a standard crank, where you'll lose your low end for climbing. Plus small ring and smallest gear makes for a more severe cross chaining situation. I would consider changing to a different rear cassette (12-28 or similar) so you are less likely to have to use the small ring on the smaller rolling hills. You can use the 50-28 combo for short hills.

I lived in your area for a while (Fond du Lac) and the more I rode the less I needed my small ring. Same thing will happen for you.

Anyway, shifting isn't a bad thing. The gears are there for a reason - no need to commit to one chainring or the other.