Oh, I love my girl so much. She's been down with a nasty cold but this evening she had that "I'm getting better" energy. We went for a walk and came home to blow bubbles. Watching her is pure fascination, she looks at everything through eyes of wonder and so intently. She is so unashamed, she stares until she figures it out or decides if she likes the person or not. She is so bossy (hopefully she'll outgrow that). She tells dogs that bark (anywhere) "hush doggie" and is so serious. She tells us to MOVE and then quietly adds please. She is funny and bossy and wonderful. She is a light. We are so lucky to have her in our life. She saved me for sure.
I am finally adjusting (after almost 2 years, don't let anyone tell you postpartom depression lasts a short time) and I could not be more thrilled to be a mom. My perspective has shifted, I used to think I was a part-time worker and a mostly at home mom. My work was my job...now I've figured out that my girl is my job. There is no job for me except taking care of my family. The part-time work I do is money and that's it. Every moment with my family is a moment to treasure. I want to thank Sarah at Clover Lane and Rhonda at Down---to---Earth for their encouraging posts.
Mostly I would like to thank my mom for being the kind of mom that all moms should be: encouraging;kind;live by example;hug;care;nurture;pouring on the love when needed and so much more! She was there at school for the Mother's Club, she was a room mother, she dressed as a clown. She "babied" us, you know by staying near us, doing her best to guard our innocence, not working so she could be home and do all the great SAHM stuff, etc.
Mom didn't work which meant no extra car, no extra money, even food stamps for a while but until the mean kids at school started making fun of my lack of Guess jeans or Keds shoes or whatever the trend was I would have never thought that I went without anything (truth be told we didn't). Grandma and Grandpa (living nearby as all of our family did) helped out as much as they could.
And I survived...happily.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Unschooling
Like most people I never had much reason to think about the education system in this country until we had Little Miss. The Chief and I both have a very negative view of "education" in our area. We've both been in private and public schools and we agree with neither system. He had a lot of trouble in school, he was misdiagnosed with learning disabilities, had other disabilities that weren't diagnosed, embarrassed, bullied and generally abused. I was bored, so bored that I spent my high school years getting in trouble instead of getting an education and since I didn't make waves at school no one ever said a word. There was never discussion about the fact that I wasn't living up to my potential or that I should skip a grade or start taking college level courses. There are a lot of other things I could go on about, but I'll stop here for now.
The truth is that our girl is very smart and wonderful and funny and beautiful and I don't trust her education in the hands of an underpaid, overworked, annoyed test teacher (because that's what they do now...teach testing). My husband is not totally sold on the idea yet but we've had discussions about our lack of faith in the current system. We want our girl to keep her sense of wonder, to explore her world, to be confident and to keep herself (most of all this). She is a learner by nature (all kids are), she craves knowledge and I think that makes her a prime candidate to unschool. Now, to convince my husband...
Monday, March 8, 2010
People Don't Eat Food Anymore
As I perused the office fridge this morning I came to the realization that people don't eat food anymore. It would seem that we eat "food". The freezer is chocked full of frozen entrees. Leftovers are a rare sight in the fridge. I have been cooking at home more (to the point of even putting a menu on the fridge) and I have my leftovers which are so much more filling than anything in that freezer.
The state of our food in this country is quite terrifying. I just watched Food Inc. for the first time and I love that it's just the facts. I spoke to several people about the film and all had the same reaction, they don't want to watch the film because they are afraid they will feel compelled to give up their favorite foods.
For me, the film gave a lot of information that I already knew but had sort of stored away. I feel especially sensitive toward the farmers for all they have been through. I haven't made any radical changes but slowly I am definitely heading in what I consider to be a healthier direction. Slow food is definitely the way to go. I hope that eventually I will be baking my own bread, making my own yogurt and harvesting from my own garden. As a new mom I have learned that this takes time and trying to do things all at once just means things will not be done properly and I will be frustrated (and possibly quit altogether). So one step at a time.
The state of our food in this country is quite terrifying. I just watched Food Inc. for the first time and I love that it's just the facts. I spoke to several people about the film and all had the same reaction, they don't want to watch the film because they are afraid they will feel compelled to give up their favorite foods.
For me, the film gave a lot of information that I already knew but had sort of stored away. I feel especially sensitive toward the farmers for all they have been through. I haven't made any radical changes but slowly I am definitely heading in what I consider to be a healthier direction. Slow food is definitely the way to go. I hope that eventually I will be baking my own bread, making my own yogurt and harvesting from my own garden. As a new mom I have learned that this takes time and trying to do things all at once just means things will not be done properly and I will be frustrated (and possibly quit altogether). So one step at a time.
Friday, January 8, 2010
The Girl Effect
So, today I came across this awesome video about "The Girl Effect" which is touching and amazing. I am so impressed with the video and the fact that people realize that changing a young girl’s life can change the world.
When you nurture a young girl, you nurture her future children, her neighbors, her parents, her children's children and on and on. While this video is about girls all over the world, I think we could start in our own backyard.
Is there a girl in your life who is in need? In need of love, nurturing, a hot meal, shoes without holes, a skirt that fits? Show the love, help that girl.
We could also try being kind to all girls and women. We should show the way, a path of love and kindness for our future generation. It's time that women and girls stop looking at each other as competition and start looking at each other and thinking, "How can I help her?".
There was a time when women helped each other survive, if one had food she shared with another, they watched each others children after school and helped mend clothes or tend gardens. The point is that they worked together for a better community. I think that the loss of the sense of community among women has been a serious detriment to our society.
I think we could just start with kindness.
When you nurture a young girl, you nurture her future children, her neighbors, her parents, her children's children and on and on. While this video is about girls all over the world, I think we could start in our own backyard.
Is there a girl in your life who is in need? In need of love, nurturing, a hot meal, shoes without holes, a skirt that fits? Show the love, help that girl.
We could also try being kind to all girls and women. We should show the way, a path of love and kindness for our future generation. It's time that women and girls stop looking at each other as competition and start looking at each other and thinking, "How can I help her?".
There was a time when women helped each other survive, if one had food she shared with another, they watched each others children after school and helped mend clothes or tend gardens. The point is that they worked together for a better community. I think that the loss of the sense of community among women has been a serious detriment to our society.
I think we could just start with kindness.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Chemicals detected in Cord Blood
BPA Invades the Womb
December 2, 2009
By Elaine Shannon
Back in the 1960s and 1970s, the outcry over Rachel Carson's path-breaking Silent Spring and global mobilization around the first Earth Day spurred scientists to attempt to quantify how much pollution was getting into people. Early methods -- measuring contaminants in water, air and soil, constructing mathematical models, analyzing lifestyles -- were roundabout and ultimately unsatisfying.
Well, no more guesswork and no more denials. Biomonitoring techniques -- testing blood, urine and human tissue -- are producing irrefutable evidence that human bodies are awash in toxic and endocrine-disrupting chemicals.
This week, a newly published laboratory analysis of 10 umbilical cord blood samples, commissioned by Environmental Working Group and Rachel's (as in Carson) Network, an organization of grassroots advocates, offers sobering new insights on the extent to which environmental pollutants are inescapable, even in the womb.
The 10 samples, from children born between December 2007 and June 2008, in Michigan, Florida, Massachusetts, California and Wisconsin, were randomly selected from a cord blood bank. The only stipulation: all 10 are of racial or ethnic minority descent, because EWG and Rachel's Network want to make sure that minorities are considered as various biomonitoring studies construct a mosaic of the "human toxome," the pollution in people.
EWG asked five laboratories with international standing to look for 383 chemicals. They found up to 232 of them. That's a big number. It's troubling that many substances detected, like lead and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), have been banned or heavily restricted for decades.
But other chemicals are dangerous, ubiquitous and mostly unregulated, except for huge spills and on-the-job exposures. These are the targets of current debates over U.S. toxic chemicals policy:
Bisphenol A (BPA), an integral ingredient of polycarbonate plastic and epoxy resins, also a synthetic estrogen, found in 9 of 10 samples. First reported U.S. finding of BPA in cord blood. The federal Food and Drug Administration is contemplating banning BPA in food containers. A few states have already barred BPA in baby bottles, sippy cups and a few other children's items. Many others are considering legislation, as is the U.S. Congress.
Perchlorate, a rocket fuel component and widespread water pollutant that disrupts thyroid function key to brain development, found in 9 of 10 samples. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is weighing proposals to regulate the chemical in drinking water, effectively forcing an expensive clean-up at Cold War-era missile and rocket test sites and chemical storage facilities. Defense and aerospace contractors are lobbying against such a move.
Tonalide and Galaoxolide, synthetic musk fragrances in cosmetics, detergents, soap and other scented household items, found in 7 of 10 samples. Health risks are unknown, but because the chemicals are widely detected in people and aquatic environments, health advocates such as the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics are urging disclosure, rigorous testing and regulation of ingredients in cosmetics and personal care products.
In all, EWG's 11 biomonitoring investigations have detected 414 industrial chemicals, pollutants and pesticides in 186 people of all ages. These findings help answer the "what's out there" question. They may also guide scientists and government officials as they decide where to focus research and regulatory efforts. Clearly, contaminants found in utero warrant urgent assessment.
Want to know more about biomonitoring? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) biomonitoring program site offers a wealth of information. Especially interesting: an article entitled Human Biomonitoring of Environmental Chemicals, by CDC and academic scientists, that describes biomonitoring as the "gold standard for assessing people's exposure to pollution." You can download it at this link.
And so my question is why do they continue to try to make us believe that all of these things are okay, have no effect, the problems have been created in our heads. There is no global warming, what we do has no effect on the planet. How do these people sleep at night? Probably with chemical laden sleeping pills.
December 2, 2009
By Elaine Shannon
Back in the 1960s and 1970s, the outcry over Rachel Carson's path-breaking Silent Spring and global mobilization around the first Earth Day spurred scientists to attempt to quantify how much pollution was getting into people. Early methods -- measuring contaminants in water, air and soil, constructing mathematical models, analyzing lifestyles -- were roundabout and ultimately unsatisfying.
Well, no more guesswork and no more denials. Biomonitoring techniques -- testing blood, urine and human tissue -- are producing irrefutable evidence that human bodies are awash in toxic and endocrine-disrupting chemicals.
This week, a newly published laboratory analysis of 10 umbilical cord blood samples, commissioned by Environmental Working Group and Rachel's (as in Carson) Network, an organization of grassroots advocates, offers sobering new insights on the extent to which environmental pollutants are inescapable, even in the womb.
The 10 samples, from children born between December 2007 and June 2008, in Michigan, Florida, Massachusetts, California and Wisconsin, were randomly selected from a cord blood bank. The only stipulation: all 10 are of racial or ethnic minority descent, because EWG and Rachel's Network want to make sure that minorities are considered as various biomonitoring studies construct a mosaic of the "human toxome," the pollution in people.
EWG asked five laboratories with international standing to look for 383 chemicals. They found up to 232 of them. That's a big number. It's troubling that many substances detected, like lead and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), have been banned or heavily restricted for decades.
But other chemicals are dangerous, ubiquitous and mostly unregulated, except for huge spills and on-the-job exposures. These are the targets of current debates over U.S. toxic chemicals policy:
Bisphenol A (BPA), an integral ingredient of polycarbonate plastic and epoxy resins, also a synthetic estrogen, found in 9 of 10 samples. First reported U.S. finding of BPA in cord blood. The federal Food and Drug Administration is contemplating banning BPA in food containers. A few states have already barred BPA in baby bottles, sippy cups and a few other children's items. Many others are considering legislation, as is the U.S. Congress.
Perchlorate, a rocket fuel component and widespread water pollutant that disrupts thyroid function key to brain development, found in 9 of 10 samples. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is weighing proposals to regulate the chemical in drinking water, effectively forcing an expensive clean-up at Cold War-era missile and rocket test sites and chemical storage facilities. Defense and aerospace contractors are lobbying against such a move.
Tonalide and Galaoxolide, synthetic musk fragrances in cosmetics, detergents, soap and other scented household items, found in 7 of 10 samples. Health risks are unknown, but because the chemicals are widely detected in people and aquatic environments, health advocates such as the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics are urging disclosure, rigorous testing and regulation of ingredients in cosmetics and personal care products.
In all, EWG's 11 biomonitoring investigations have detected 414 industrial chemicals, pollutants and pesticides in 186 people of all ages. These findings help answer the "what's out there" question. They may also guide scientists and government officials as they decide where to focus research and regulatory efforts. Clearly, contaminants found in utero warrant urgent assessment.
Want to know more about biomonitoring? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) biomonitoring program site offers a wealth of information. Especially interesting: an article entitled Human Biomonitoring of Environmental Chemicals, by CDC and academic scientists, that describes biomonitoring as the "gold standard for assessing people's exposure to pollution." You can download it at this link.
And so my question is why do they continue to try to make us believe that all of these things are okay, have no effect, the problems have been created in our heads. There is no global warming, what we do has no effect on the planet. How do these people sleep at night? Probably with chemical laden sleeping pills.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
What needs to be better?
Well let's start with just a few things I want to be better.
I want to be healthier for Little Miss and Chief.
I want to have more energy through better eating and I want to be an excellent example for my little girl.
I want to garden (successfully) and continue to expand a nice organic garden for my family over the years.
I want to make wonderful healthy recipes for my entire family.
Speaking of family, I want to have an open and welcoming home where family is always running in and out (tough for me because I love my private time). I want to host a family game night every month. I want to be thisclose to my sis-in-laws and enjoy all kinds of fun activities together. I want to be sexy and fun for my husband so that we can laugh our way into old age. I want to teach my daughter to respect the earth and all living things. I want to pirate a giant ship (you still with me?). I want to bring back what the world is missing; generous, caring, loving, accepting people who truly want to have everyone around them be happy and have a good (safe) time. I want to keep my home nice and tidy (as much as you can with a child. I want to make lovely gifts for people and be super thoughtful. I want to re-learn to crochet and learn to quilt. I want to start making things I used to make like jewelry, soap, bath goods, clothing and more. I want to do all of this...and still kick ass with or without taking names.
I want to be healthier for Little Miss and Chief.
I want to have more energy through better eating and I want to be an excellent example for my little girl.
I want to garden (successfully) and continue to expand a nice organic garden for my family over the years.
I want to make wonderful healthy recipes for my entire family.
Speaking of family, I want to have an open and welcoming home where family is always running in and out (tough for me because I love my private time). I want to host a family game night every month. I want to be thisclose to my sis-in-laws and enjoy all kinds of fun activities together. I want to be sexy and fun for my husband so that we can laugh our way into old age. I want to teach my daughter to respect the earth and all living things. I want to pirate a giant ship (you still with me?). I want to bring back what the world is missing; generous, caring, loving, accepting people who truly want to have everyone around them be happy and have a good (safe) time. I want to keep my home nice and tidy (as much as you can with a child. I want to make lovely gifts for people and be super thoughtful. I want to re-learn to crochet and learn to quilt. I want to start making things I used to make like jewelry, soap, bath goods, clothing and more. I want to do all of this...and still kick ass with or without taking names.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)