Lately, my body has been craving some vitamin C.  I often think we crave what we need and I now see that I had been gearing up for lots of busyness and stress with little extra room to be sick… Way to go body for sending me that signal!

Here’s what I’ve been whipping up lately: Strawberry Lemonade

7-8 lemons squeezed

1-1.5 cups of sugar

2ish cups of water

4-5 big strawberries

**Bring about 1 cup of water to boil and add to the sugar in a bowl.  Stir until it dissolves.  Squeeze the lemons into that bowl.  When it cools, add it to a blender with the strawberries and blend.  Add the extra water (to taste) or extra sugar if you like. After it is blended you can strain the seeds but we just drank as is… we couldn’t wait!

“After an unexpected delivery in a parking lot which intervention by the nurse has highest priority?”

A: Put baby to breast!!!! WOOOHOOO!  Rationale: Breastfeeding releases oxytocin which is a uterine contracting hormone.  This will make the uterus contract down and decrease postpartum bleeding.  Hooray Breasts!!! (The book didn’t actually say “Hooray Breasts” I added that for effect).

I have not tried anything in this video… just found it today.  So please take with the grain of salt and do your own further research before embarking on the hunt for plantain ribworts.

Check out this video!

However, I bought my vitamins (a generic brand of a women’s vitamin) and when I got home I saw on listed ingredients: Red #40, Yellow #6, Blue #2!!  “WHAT! You’ve got to be kidding me,” I laughed to my Mr.  I bought vitamins under the pretense of doing something good for my body and in the process acquired some really rad chemicals.  I seriously have never considered checking VITAMINS for toxins… geez oh pete, is this world exhausting!

There’s been quite a bit of hubub in the news the past few years about food dyes and preservatives and, as a result, a great shift towards more natural and basic foods.  Families are consuming real foods like they haven’t done in several decades since big companies like Kraft and General Mills have been in the food industry (Oh, not to mention that these are Fortune 500 companies… awesome).  One site that provides great information on food is Center for Science for the Public Interest. I read a great article on food dyes and here’s what I found interesting:

“The science shows that kids’ behavior improves when these artificial colorings are removed from their diets and worsens when they’re added to the their diets,” said Dr. David Schab, a psychiatrist at Columbia University Medical Center, who conducted the 2004 meta-analysis with his colleague Dr. Nhi-Ha T. Trinh. “While not all children seem to be sensitive to these chemicals, it’s hard to justify their continued use in foods—especially those foods heavily marketed to young children (http://www.cspinet.org/new/200806022.html).”

I believe that something has to change.  It is and has been changing at a very slow pace but I do believe we need to make personal decisions that show those Fortune 500 companies and all the others that follow their lead that toxins and unnecessary chemicals in our foods and health products will not work for us.  I really despise spending money on products that weigh the consumer economy in such a way that these companies think that they can still make money off my ignorance or business or lack of options.  I demand better products for myself and my family.  This is the biggest reason that I inspect my food so painstakingly.  I also demand better for my hospital clients.  I don’t know how and I don’t know when but I want to be a part of the movement that provides better foods for our sick hospital clients.  It aches me that hospitals have canned soup for patient snacks that can be warmed up in Styrofoam cups.  As a nurse (almost) I want better for those people that so desperately need healing.  Their bodies do not need another toxin or chemical, red #40 to filter out.  They need better than that.

And in closing… if a food just must be red and it isn’t red, use beet juice for crying out loud!   I have made many ‘o birthday cake with frosting that has beautiful colors in it. One that I must share with you is this one I made for a good friend’s Bachelorette party! It’s  lavender  because I squashed blueberries in a mixer and added it to my vanilla cream cheese frosting.  It was tasty and SO much fun, without Red #40.

For the past several years we have been advocates of minimizing the amount of flouride that we consume… it’s already in our drinking water, why do we need to add it to our toothpaste?  We don’t!  Our family bounces back and forth between whatever is cheap and the best of the best toothpastes which costs almost $6 a tube! Say WHAT!?

I began to consider making my own and found some recipes and then sorta developed my own.  I collected these cute pimento cheese glass jars (because I LOVE glass jars like a grandma does!).  I whipped up the following recipe and filled the jars! I made one for me and one for the husband since it might require dipping to get it on the toothbrush.  I get the green one!

Recipe:

-2 TBS. coconut oil

-3 TBS. baking soda (I use aluminum free for things that I consume)

-about 40 drops (2 ml) of peppermint or spearmint extract from the baking section of your grocery)

-a few drops of water (to make it more creamy)

*Mix up with a fork in a bowl… then stuff in a pimento jar!   Some recipes call for fine salt or stevia – but we don’t have stevia and we use coarse salt (ouch!)

Second question… what does this have to do with birth? Well… I believe with many things in life that it isn’t the end result that we strive for, but the climb to that goal.  In birth, for it truly to be fun, we must indulge ourselves in the entire experience of creating and bringing forth.  Of course, we all want healthy baby and healthy mama but consider for a minute if you didn’t have to struggle and wait and work with our sometimes “disobedient” bodies.  The end result of health baby and healthy mama would lose some of its luster. It’s the struggle and the adversities that make the end product that much sweeter.

Having experienced birth, I can tell you that it is a hoot! It’s a blast.  It’s hard and it’s definitely not for the weak of heart… but believe me lady, you were made with a heart to birth and you can do it. I have taken this premise with me in other endeavors in life and I believe even if it seems weird to make my own yogurt, bread, or toothpaste that it is very fulfilling to create with my own hands and enjoy in the sweet reward.

Perhaps this is a stretch and there aren’t that many similarities between these two topics but my births had such a profound effect on me that I can literally sit and philosophize about toothpaste! :0)

***Please note that I consider ANY birth fun!  EVERY birth requires work, struggle, sweat, and a strong lady heart!

We’ve all heard the old saying “Breast is Best!” and I’m sure have even used it on our own a time or two to communicate the value of breastfeeding.  ”Breast is best!  It decreases your chances of breast cancer, it is the best milk for baby, it’s free, it’s ‘organic,’ it’s easiest on baby’s tummy…”

But we don’t all live as the BEST variety of ourselves.  We don’t all live ideally, right?  We make excuses as to why we don’t rest enough, why we don’t exercise or eat right, etc, etc.  So, feeding our babies the “ideal” food isn’t really reason enough for us to change our ways of living, huh?

So, in BabyBodyBirth fashion… breast isn’t just best… it IS the way to feed your baby!  Now, I am NO breast feeding judge.  I won’t judge you AT ALL  if you use formula (I used formula with my first from 10 months on)… but please know that it is very way inferior to breast.  It is NOT close enough to breast milk.  It is produced in a factory where mistakes are made.  It is produced by a company that exists to make money!

An recent article on arsenic found in baby formula (even organic formula!)

(P.S.  Look out mass produced cereal bars too… yikes!)

Please don’t be tricked into thinking it is “just as good” or “the closest thing to mama’s milk” or “almost ideal.”  It is in every way inferior!!!

So, if you’re one of those mamas that adopt, or have had a baby in the NICU or just don’t have enough milk or time for nursing consider your alternative options carefully.  If you want to use breast milk, check out milk banks such as the one we have here in Lexington, KY (way to go Cerise!!!!!) Mother Nurture Meet with her or another lactation specialist and learn how to use your breasts for their #1 intended use!

And now… I’m crawling off my soapbox to go back to reading for my nursing exam! Thanks! )

Tonight we enjoyed gluten-free pasta tossed with salmon, roasted red peppers, sauteed swisss chard with garlic and lemon juice. And now… mango and banana drenched in honey with, of course, coffee… because I’ve got studying to do.

And seriously my kids cleaned their plates.  And for all the parenting fails I’m certain I’ve earned, I’m SO thankful for kids that eat better than most grown ups! One parenting task I can put a check mark by! Yay!

I like reading these blogs because they’re so sweet and pretty and inspiring for the “moments in between” as I’d like to call them.  For me, at least, I call their daily posts the “moments in between” because I truly feel that moments that are posted aren’t the nitty gritty moments of motherhood, but the very best of the best.  The best pictures of kids in their best attire and with the best smiles and happenings.

But motherhood is NOT like that.  In my experience, motherhood is mostly about chaos and dirty kids, running late, shooing kids out of the kitchen because as I say “too many knives and hot pans… go play”.  Add in a job, hobbies, more kids, nursing school (for me), a new move, sick relatives, church groups, etc. and your perfectly captured “blog” motherhood had changed.   It becomes realistically chaotic!

But sometimes, we have the “moments in between” when we actually rack up some GREAT mommy points!  Sometimes we make something so special and so memorable that it trumps the other mothering moments.

This past week has been full… TONS of preparations for a test I had today (thank God it’s over… 1 test down 8 to go!)  But there were two moments (yes… I said two… only two) we managed to squeeze in.

One was when we made the impromtu call to go ice skating downtown… and I’m so glad we did now that it’s 50+ degrees!

It was fun/really hard!

And today, to make up for the busyness of the past week… a little tea party with my little ladies.

Of course, today’s tea party ended in F not wanting her nuts, and then playing in her tea – making a huge mess.  E ended up throwing a big fit in the evening at bedtime.  Chaos returned not even 10 minutes after our tea party had ended.  But… for that moment, it was SO worth it!

I’m calling their bluff. I do not NEED nor want this:

Ok, so I cannot have the Gracie Mansion of New York (above picture).  But you get the idea.

I have always said that I never wanted a house so big that I alone could not clean it.  I don’t want a maid to regularly clean.  I want to enjoy being a steward of my things.  (I don’t judge, btw, maids or those people having them… I just knew it wasn’t for me.)

This home is more like something I’d like to squeeze my family into:

This is a Tumbleweed tiny home!!!

This particular home is one of the largest of the tiny homes at 557 square feet (for the 2 bedroom plan that is)… isn’t it darling??????  I know it sounds a bit crazy and most people have vehicles larger than this abode… but one day I’m gonna just buy me one – as my starter and finisher home!

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