Read It All
This was our quick go-to vegetarian dish over the weekend. We try to abstain from meat at least twice a week, mostly for health reasons but also as a little reminder that just because you have access to all the food in the world, others do not. Almost like a suffering in solidarity sort of spiritual thing. The Coop had a handy-dandy bag of root veggies I had grabbed the other week, and we had black beans & tomatoes & rice in the pantry. Add garlic, onions, chicken stock, and some seasoning, and you’ve got a little feast. I think I diced up about 5 big cloves of garlic, two small onions, and added 2 bay leaves, basil & oregano. You know the drill: saute the onions in olive oil, add the garlic, seasoning, and chopped-into-1-inch-pieces veggies. Let it all season & soften for about 10 mins gently stirring it around. Then add the 6 or so cups of chicken stock (or veggie stock) and bring it to boil, then down to a simmer until the veggies are soft all the way through. Then put into Vitamix, and voila! Pepper, salt, and you’re all set. The parsnips make it so sweet and delicious! 1) Winter vegetable soup. 2) Beans with rice & tomatoes. How can you go wrong here? Just season the heck out of your garlic & onions & olive oil, add beans & diced tomatoes, then pour over rice! I…
Read More
Taking a little break from talking with and hearing from our mama readers about their birth and parenting experiences, we want to let you know about the Childbirth Collective Movie Premiere! The Childbirth Collective is this really great local non-profit organization that supports birthing families. This Saturday at Intermedia Arts in Minneapolis at 1pm come and see a fabulous film premiere on doulas’ roles in birth. AA & J & I are lucky enough to be interviewed for the documentary that features a number of local families, birth doulas, and local healthcare providers. It should be a real blast and a treat! It was made by our good friend & doula, Emily Rumsey, R.N. She’s pretty fabulous. The official Childbirth Collective website page discussing the film is here. The RSVP for the film itself is here. Please come and learn more about doulas and birth! Or just come and watch little J and how cute he is on film 🙂
Read More
People are always so surprised when I tell them (in response to the question, “What’s his favorite show?”) that SuperBoy doesn’t watch TV. Or have any screen time, really, except Skype with relatives out of town. I don’t think we’re that “out there” as parents to not have screen time for our less-than-two year old. Especially in light of the AAP’s serious recommendation of no-screen-time-before-two (see my post on that here). But because he’s not accustomed to being entertained by something, most of his activities are self-driven. He loves to pounce upon a pile of blocks, books, cars, and start sorting, or just wading through them. He directs his own play, instead of being a passive participant in it. (I’m not judging parents who do screen time; I’m passionate about ensuring parents make the most informed and best decision they can for their family lifestyle.) Does my child perfectly self-entertain while I do all the other things that parents need to do around a house? No way! I wish! But I will say that introducing books early has been my saving grace. Even if he doesn’t want to read by himself, he loves to read aloud to me. At almost 20 months, he’ll plop down in a chair in the kitchen and read to me so I can be at a hot stove, wash sharp knives, or blow my nose without his assistance. Sometimes the entire story is “mama, dada, baba, nunu (my mom’s name), NINA! (his beloved Great Dane).” 1)…
Read More
People who live south of Iowa think that the activities we do in Minnesota in the winter are nuts. Cross country skiing, alpine skiing, ice fishing, hiking, even camping (yes, all outdoors). But the advantages to being cold-weather-ready are that you really do toughen up your blood, live on the edge a little, and get your cheeks pink. I also think it makes us live longer because we have to endure more, and in a Darwinian way, nature will weed out the weak. (There are no stats that I know of to back me up, here.) We went to our family home in Wisconsin recently and J loved loved loved it. Even at almost 30 pounds, he still fits in our great backpack (see post on baby wearing and carrying here). His favorite part is throwing rocks in the creek. Lord help me as he ages!
Read More
This is part 4 of our Birth & Parenting Series. Part 1 (Thoughts From a Mother of Four) is here, part 2 (Mother of Seven Shares Her Empowering Birth Stories) is here, and part 3 (First-Time Mother of Twins) is here. This brave first time mama shares about how she and her husband met their son in a surprise emergency C-section after plans for an unmedicated vaginal birth. She suffered a placental abruption, but miraculously she and her son survived, thrived, and are already at 7.5 months into parenthood. As her story unfolds here, her faith in God and love she shares with her husband is particularly poignant. 1. Tell me a little bit about your beautiful son. Micah was born in June and is 7-and-a-half months old. He has big, bright eyes, and a sweet, curious personality. These days, he cracks himself up by spitting and razzing while we’re feeding him. I cannot get enough of this . . . even if it means I find bits of baby food in my hair afterwards. 2. When you first started to think about labor & delivery for your son, how did you envision it going? My husband and I had high hopes for a natural delivery. I would imagine myself being strong through the labor pains and just embracing the experience, no matter how difficult. We (naively) pictured ourselves having time to crack jokes and becoming buddies with the nurses, etc. I even included my hair dryer on my packing list! Apparently, I thought…
Read More
Here’s another guest post from Molly W, who wrote on Pregnancy Fitness here, and recently about Elimination Communication here. She and her husband practice co-sleeping with their little 5 month old girl and she shares why it works for her. “Aren’t you afraid you’re going to roll over on her?” People inquire. Yes, of course, which is likely the reason I haven’t yet crushed our little daughter who sleeps in our bed with us. You’ve heard of it, and probably have done it lots if you have a new baby since they seem to sleep best on mommy’s chest. I thought cosleeping was kindof weird, for poncho-wearing parents who add chia seeds to their homemade granola. Now I guess I just need to dig up the old baja poncho from ’94 to seal my entry into the club. We originally bought a mini-armsreach cosleeper. The name is deceiving because it is in fact a bassinet which sidles up along the bed, but is not easy to get baby in and out of if you are laying down. V would toss around in it and only calm down if I put my hand in it and touched her, totally uncomfortable sleeping position for me, but I didn’t want to “train” her to sleep in the bed with us since I feared she would never sleep anywhere else, also that I would roll over on to her. When she was 2 months old, I was going back to work soon, still sleep…
Read More