A buoyancy

The past few days have been positive and healthy in many ways.  Sometimes I feel like when it rains it pours, but also that when it is sunny it is a beautiful blinding light as well.

I received a small, but BIG, package from my dear cousin.  Upon hearing about how sick the family has been she "brewed" me up some natural oils to help scare the plague away from our house.  The cough blend has been great to help with the hacking cough the kids have, especially in combination with the Breathe oils in the humidifier (not pictured here).  While I am hopeful that the flu has taken its last Maloney victim, I have been putting the Flu Shot in a Bottle on the kids feet at night to boost immunity (as directed:).  I have at times dabbled in oils, specifically lavender for relaxation and eucalyptus for stuffiness, but have not really invested much thought in it.  My cousin swears by them, causing me to start my mind churning about using them more.  My scientific mind wants to research their efficacy and be all nerdy about it...we will see if my energy can rise to meet the occasion.  Either way, they aren't hurting anything and it leaves the kids smelling great:)

My best friend came to visit me over the weekend from Philadelphia.  She and I went to nursing and midwifery school together, and shared many of our waking hours locked in conversation.  After she left on Monday, I was filled with a buoyancy that is difficult to describe.  I processed through this with my therapist the other night, wondering how such a short visit with this wonderful woman could make me feel lighter.  Yes she is my best friend, that is a given and obvious answer, but there just seems to be so much more.  Her love, honesty and rawness touches me so deeply.  She makes me tap into my alternative, non-mainstream, hippy self.  There is a comfort, where things do not always need explanation or words.  We get to dream and scheme of working together, thrift store shopping, and changing the world.  She just gets me.  And I love her for it.

My husband is entering into the world of home-brewing.  Yep, he has moved onto brewing his own beer.  Let me take this moment to say that my husband, very much like my father, never does anything half-ass.  When he gets interested in something, whether it be guitars, cigars, politics, or now brewing, he learns EVERYTHING there is to know.  I have to laugh in the AM, when I pull out the computer and see his most recent search on google.  This morning it was "dry hopping".  His enthusiasm makes me giggle.

I read this article the other day on cultural concepts that don't exist in the US.  It made me wonder if we have anything like this in the US.  Not sure that we do.  I have copied the link below if you are interested in reading.

What I am reading now: Boston Girl

http://cdn-origin.mnn.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/blogs/7-cultural-concepts-we-dont-have-in-the-us

Soapbox

This is a soapbox post.  I apologize...

While driving my son's pumped breast milk to daycare today, I heard a story on NPR (which is always on the radio in my car if Peppa Pig or Super Why isn't:) that made my anger boil.  I had to write a post about it because currently, in Texas, the government is slowly chipping away at a woman's right to choose and it is beyond frustrating.  Below is a short little snip-it of the article/news cast that made me the most upset.

      "Texas Gov. Elect Greg Abbott has defended the abortion law as the state's attorney general. He's been clear that he opposes abortion, even in cases of rape and incest.

     "I'm Catholic, and I want to promote a culture of life that supports both the health and safety of both the mother and child, both before and after birth," Abbott said in a campaign debate last fall."

This is NOT ok.  Why is your right to choice (of religion and beliefs) more important that those of others, specifically woman and their families?!  Religion should play NO part in politics.  While I may not agree with someone's beliefs, they 100% have every right to have them and I respect their opinions.  However, a persons beliefs should not be forced onto anyone or impact the choices they are allowed to make, specifically with regards to their OWN BODIES.  If you are Catholic (or put in any other belief system) and if you don't believe in abortion, then don't have one, but PLEASE do not make that decision for others.

If you want to support women and children, then how about we provide access to healthcare, access to reproductive health services (including abortion), support for working women, improvement in education (including sex-ed), and fighting to end poverty....just to name a few.  I am a midwife, and everyday I support women, children, future children, and families....and I am PRO-CHOICE.

A few abortion facts via http://www.guttmacher.org
     >At current rates, about one in three American women will have had an abortion by the time she reaches age 45. 
     >58% of women having abortions are in their 20s
     >61% have one or more children
     >85% are unmarried
     >69% are economically disadvantaged
     >73% report a religious affiliation
     >No racial or ethnic group makes up a majority: 36% of women obtaining abortions are white
           non-Hispanic, 30% are black non-Hispanic, 25% are Hispanic and 9% are of other racial
           backgrounds

For the fully NPR article:
http://www.npr.org/2015/01/07/375396952/u-s-court-weighs-texas-laws-burden-on-women-seeking-abortions

B.R.A.T.

Yes, the B.R.A.T. diet has been instituted at my house.  It is currently in full effect.  In case you have not heard of this wonderful diet, let me share it with you.  This is the diet that you start when your toddler vomits all over your bed at 2am and then proceeds to have diarrhea in her underwear.  It stands for Bananas, Rice, Applesauce, Toast.  I am not entirely sure how we got another GI bug so quickly, but apparently if you are in the market for a colon cleanse then head over to our house.  There is nothing quite like stripping the bed of sheets, washing said sheets once the puke has been cleaned off them (since the last time this happened my husband just threw the vomit laden sheets into the washing machine and I had to clean up washed food particles from the metal basin...not a fun experience), and bathing a crying 2 year old in the middle of the night.

Today was spent with everyone recovering.  I slept.  Mark slept.  Bean slept.  JoJo slept.  Hopefully the house is now on the road to recovery.  I am happy to report that "sleep training" is working out...so far.  I am terrified to count my chickens before they hatch, but at least we are moving in a good direction.

Mark and I have been talking a lot about canning.  Even writing that I feel like it conjures up images of nasty pickled eggs or something equally as gross, but it is something i am pretty excited about.  Mark makes his own tomato sauce and I make my own applesauce, so it will be perfect.  If we get our new house, it has ~20+ blueberry and raspberry bushes, so jam will definitely be in the making.  We have to do some more reading (as we don't want to get botulism), but pictures to come when we finally commit.

I am on-call tonight, but got to put the kids to bed before I left, which is always a Strawberry! 

Keep Calm and Call the Midwife... just not tonight, so I can get some sleep:)

Crazy

I had full intentions of re-starting my blogging on New Years Day. I was going to put the kids to bed, make a cup of coffee and write....oh how the road to hell is paved with good intentions. My kids have been sick this past week with a GI bug and then bad colds, leading to a not so good night of trying to get them to sleep and keep them asleep. My 5 month old son is already a bad sleeper, combine that with being sick, and needless to say everyone was not snug in their beds till 11:30! That sleepless night was then followed by another sleepless night on-call at the hospital.

 Let me start by saying I don't think that I have anything crazy or interesting that is out-of-this-world worth blogging about, but I need an avenue to write and journaling has never stuck with me (although I do love to buy them:). As I have said in a previous post back in 2011, I was told by a healer in India that I should write. That it would be good for me. After the visit with him I took none of his advice. After my dad passed away suddenly from a heart attack with no history of heart problems (of which the healer said he had issues with his heart) and after I recently was diagnosed with Celiac disease (after he told me to stop eating wheat), I am taking those two signs as a chance to actually listen to what he said. Thank god I wrote it all down!

 I am a mother of two wonderful children, age 2 1/2 and 5 months, who suck all my energy...but I love every minute of it (well, except at 3am when I cannot get the baby to sleep...that I could do without). I recently went back to my job as a full-time midwife after a very nice 4 month maternity leave. The transition has been difficult, as we have a new medical record system, and I feel like I have to tape my eyelids open to not fall asleep at my desk. I love what I do and the women that I work with, but I definitely have days where I cry in the car after I drop my kids off at daycare.

The main focus of this blog is going to be centered around my family's New Year's resolution. We made a commitment to living a healthier life in 2015. My husband and I are notoriously bad at keeping our resolutions, so we decided to make it more broad and work on it from many angles. This resolution is not specific to "body health", although that is part of it. We want to be healthier in all that we do-- mind, body and spirit. We have talked about some ways this will happen:

Hopefully get into our new home
Start our own veggie gardens
Get bees and make our own honey
 Eat better and more "whole"-some foods
Get more involved politically
Dance and smile more
Go hiking
Really really try to get back to the yoga mat
Spend more time together as a family

Those are just a few ideas. I am hoping it will evolve organically and create a lot of fun along the way. In going with the blog name, I am also going to try to name 1 positive thing from the day...the strawberry. So today my strawberry is that I was able to leave the hospital a little early this AM and get home by 8am to see my family.

Until tomorrow!

Currently reading: Cuckoo's Calling (and also reading The Sleep Lady's Good Night, Sleep Tight...can you tell I am desperate to get my baby to sleep?!)