Wordless Wednesday:"Extended" Breastfeeding: Does This Make You Smile, Or Shudder?

Wordless Wednesday:"Extended" Breastfeeding: Does This Make You Smile, Or Shudder?

100,000 Playspaces in 100 Days.

Recently, we have been experiencing beautiful warm weather and have been spending most of our days outside. The girls love having a back yard now, and they love their new swingset. But, whenever they want a change in scenery or to play with other children, we are lucky enough to have a number of local parks to choose from.

Some families aren't so lucky. There are many communities out there that do not have any local playgrounds or playspaces, or they cannot use existing ones due to run down conditions or dangerous neighborhoods.

Playing in a playground and playspace is important for a child's development, both physically and socially. So what can we do for these children who have nowhere to play?

That's where KaBOOM! comes in. KaBOOM is a non-profit organization dedicated to creating and finding playspaces within walking distance for every child. Right now they embarking on a mission to help create playspaces within every community, and they have teamed up with Mom Central with a goal of mapping online 100,000 playspaces in 100 days.

All you have to do to map a playspace is fill out a quick form at their website: or, even easier, twitpic a picture from your cellphone. Mapping a playspace requires an address, a photo and description, and a rating. Places that qualify as playspaces include: playgrounds, roller skating parks, dog parks, lakes, basketball courts, etc.

Best of all, for every playspace mapped into KaBOOM's database on behalf of Mom Central, KaBOOM will donate a dollar to Jumpstart, a non-profit organization with a goal of improving literacy.

I highly encourage you to head on over to KaBOOM and map in your favorite playspaces to take your children to. You'll be helping out two non-profit organizations, and it's really simple and quick. Head on over now!

100,000 Playspaces in 100 Days.

The Judgement Is Far From In

There's a great article in the news today concerning vaccines and the dangers of over vaccinating children. From the article:

Recently, I was amazed to hear a commentary by CNN's Campbell Brown on the
controversial vaccine issue. After a ruling by the 'special vaccine court'
saying the Measles, Mumps, Rubella shot wasn't found to be responsible for the
plaintiffs' autism, she and others in the media began making assertions that the
judgment was in, and vaccines had been proven safe. No one would be more
relieved than Jenny and I if that were true. But with all due respect to Ms.
Brown, a ruling against causation in three cases out of more than 5000 hardly
proves that other children won't be adversely affected by the MMR, let alone
that all vaccines are safe.

And:

We have never argued that people shouldn't be immunized for the most serious
threats including measles and polio, but surely there's a limit as to how many
viruses and toxins can be introduced into the body of a small child.
Veterinarians found out years ago that in many cases they were over-immunizing
our pets, a syndrome they call Vaccinosis. It overwhelmed the immune system of
the animals, causing myriad physical and neurological disorders. Sound familiar?
If you can over-immunize a dog, is it so far out to assume that you can
over-immunize a child? These forward thinking vets also decided to remove
thimerosal from animal vaccines in 1992, and yet this substance, which is 49%
mercury, is still in human vaccines. Don't our children deserve as much
consideration as our pets?

The article isn't too long and is definitely worth the read. You can read the full version here.

The Judgement Is Far From In

Best Friends

Growing up, my sister and I were very close and remain so today. We never really bickered or had too many "sibling fights". My sister is only one year and six days younger than me, and I've always thought that our close age had something to do with it and therefore wanted to have children closer together. Although not that close, because I could never imagine being pregnant when my first baby is three months old (I still don't know how you did it, mom!).

I'm really happy that so far, the girls get along really well. They are each other's best friend, and very protective of each other. While this may change, for now I am going to enjoy these moments of peaceful friendship and love.

Do you find that your children get along well? What do you think is the perfect "age gap" between children?

Best Friends

Weekly Deals and Bits and Pieces

I hope everyone had a great weekend, we had a simply fabulous one! Saturday I hit the stores and then headed up to my IL's house where the girls and the Knight were manning the yard sale. We put out one small table of things and ended up making $42, not bad for selling off random stuff we didn't want, and we got to declutter the house!

The Mermaid was absolutely adorable. I took this opportunity to teach her about recycling, money, and decluttering all at once and asked her to go through her toys and pick out the ones she wanted to sell, and she could keep the money. She picked out so many that at first I didn't think she understood that what "selling" meant, but it turns out she did and was willing to let go of so many toys. In fact, I ended up putting some of my favorites back when she wasn't looking, ones that I would like the next baby to play with! She ended up making around $25, and was very proud of herself.

We spent a lot of time out in the sunshine and the girls were thrilled that they didn't have to wear pants and long sleeves under their dresses (they insist on wearing dresses every day, so I have to put them on over their warmer clothes). All in all, it was a very relaxing weekend and I got some great deals on top of it!!

Grocery Deals:

I made two trips out to grocery stores this week, both to Big Y and Price Chopper. Big Y had double coupons up to $1 in their weekly flyer this week, so I went twice to take advantage of the great deals!

First trip:

Big Y had their Light Silk Soymilk on sale this week, 2/$5. I love this stuff and buy it every week, and I just so happened to three coupons for $1 off one. Double all three coupons and with the sale price, I got all three soymilks for $1.50 (regularly priced at $2.98 each at my local WalMart).

Price Chopper was also doubling coupons this week, but only for coupons from pet manufacturers. I had three coupons for whiskers cat food, $2 off one ten pack of food. Price Chopper happened to have them on sale for $4.99, with the coupons and double coupons it came to $3.12. Those packs will last us three months! I saved 89% with this trip.

My second trip to Price Chopper, they had on sale Special K cereal with strawberries (which I buy every week) and V8 Fusion (which I've recently fallen in love with), both products on sale 2/$5. I had two $1 off one V8 Fusion, so the total came to $8, I saved 50%.

Big Y had lots of great sales this week! I got mushrooms BIGIF, apples BIGIF, Romaine Lettuce BIGIF, Frosted Flakes on sale for $2.89, and Mission wraps one sale for $3. I had a coupon for the Frosted Flakes and the mission wraps, and also for the Cascadian Farms Organic cereal I picked up. After sale prices, coupons, and double coupons, it came to $15.84 (total value before discounts was $37.68

Finally, my trip to CVS:

The Palmolive was on sale for $0.88 each, and the Toms of Maine deodorant was on save for $4.99. The Schick Intuition was on sale for $8.99 and with a $4 ECB reward with purchase. I had a coupon for the razor and the Palmolive. Total value of products came to $15.74, after coupons and $10 in ECB's from last week, I paid $0.78 and got $4 back in ECB's to roll with next week.

My "normal" grocery bill this week came to $52, and after hitting the deals to stock my pantry up some more, the total for the week came to $79.62, so I was $20.38 under budget.

Weekly Deals and Bits and Pieces

Raising A Little Mother

I've always been surprised at how well my girls get along (although I probably just cursed myself by writing it), but lately I've been amazed at how "motherly" the Mermaid is towards the Guppy.

Being the early riser in the family, the Mermaid is usually already awake when the Guppy wakes up. When she hears the Guppy wake, she tries to beat me to the room so that she can be the first to greet the Guppy, with a "Good morning sweetie, did you sleep okay?". I kid you not, she calls the Guppy "sweetie".

She's always making sure the Guppy isn't too warm or too cold, asking her if she is hungry or needs a drink, etc. Yesterday was another good example. Whenever we go to the Mermaid's gymnastics class, she always insists on packing a bag of toys for the Guppy to play with while she is in the class. Yesterday, the Guppy had taken a early nap and slept through lunch, and I had to wake her up to leave for the gymnastics class. I remembered to throw in some snacks into my purse for the Guppy to eat since she missed lunch. Imagine my surprise when I opened up the backpack that the Mermaid packed for the Guppy as usual, and discovered that not only did she pack toys for the Guppy to play with, but she also packed two bananas and a sippy cup of water. Somehow, she realized that the Guppy had slept through lunch and wanted to make sure she wouldn't go hungry!

To those moms with more than one children: do your children surprise you in any way with how they treat each other? I'd love to hear your stories!

Raising A Little Mother

Stepping Back For A Bit...

Two nights ago, at around 1 AM, the Guppy woke me up because she wanted to nurse. As I started nursing her, I started to feel a pain in my chest and it became hard to breathe.

I was having an anxiety attack. One that left me desperate to breathe and panicky from the pain. The kind of pain that I never want to feel again, that I would rather go through ten hours of active labor than another minute of this pain, the kind that leaves me banging on the kitchen counter in anger and frustration because it hurts SO BAD and why oh why is it taking so long to pass?

This is the third anxiety attack I've had since Kalei died, and each one is getting more painful and takes longer to pass. In fact, this one took so long that the Knight got worried and ran to wake up our neighbor, who is a nurse. Thankfully, it finally passed not long after she walked in the door.

I'm taking steps to lower the level of stress in my life and make sure that I am taking care of myself. I can't make my home a loving and warm place when I am snapping at everyone because I am stressed and rushed and wondering how I am going to do everything that I volunteered to take on. I'm learning how to say "No" and I'm learning how to literally schedule time into my day when I do something for me and only me, and I've recently fallen in love with yoga.

Why am I sharing this? I'm not sure. Maybe because I'm frustrated with living in a society that believes fully in the myth of the "super mom" and expects every mother to be one. Maybe I feel saddened by all the new mothers out there, who don't realize that after their babies are born, its okay to have a messy house and no makeup and laundry piled up. Maybe I wish our culture would value mothers for the work that they do, like other cultures do. Instead, we are expected to be perfect mothers and women while being looked down upon for being a "stay at home mom" and not bringing home a paycheck. Never mind that we are raising our future society, never mind that because all we do is "sit at home all day watching soap operas and eating bon bons".

Maybe I am wondering how many other mothers out there feel the same way, and are afraid to say anything for fear of being criticized.

In other countries, women have six months of paid maternity leave, then usually fathers have six months of paid paternity leave, so that the first year of a child's life is spent with his or her parents. Meanwhile, women in our country had to fight and fight for six weeks of unpaid maternity leave. So just when you've finally got breastfeeding established, just when you finally start to feel healed, just when you are finally getting the hang of this mothering thing enough where you can actually sit back and start to enjoy your baby, you have to hand him over to someone else to raise or else you lose your job.

The way our society treats its mothers, children, and families in general is disgusting. And I am no longer going to fall into that trap. I refuse to live the "super mom" myth. I will only direct my energy towards things that are important to me, not to what society dictates should be important. Instead of wearing myself thin, I am going to take care of myself and nourish my body and soul.

The pain I feel when I have an anxiety attack is something that I never want to feel again. But it is nothing compared to the pain I would feel if I realized that I helped raise my daughters into believing that they have to be perfect, have impeccable homes, and give every bit of their energy and soul to other people while leaving nothing for themselves.

For my family, it stops here.

Stepping Back For A Bit...

In The News

New law protects breastfeeding moms in Massachussetts! It's about time my home state joined in! From the article:

"This law is a long time in coming. The idea behind this law is to make sure
that women who want to breastfeed their children aren't prevented from doing
that. And the message should go out that security guards and storekeepers and
even police officers don't have the right to prevent a woman from breastfeeding
her child," said Representative David Linsky, a Natick Democrat who backed the
bill.

Homebirth is as safe as hospital birth. From the article:

The largest study of its kind has found that for low-risk women, giving birth at
home is as safe as doing so in hospital with a midwife. Research from the
Netherlands - which has a high rate of home births - found no difference in
death rates of either mothers or babies in 530,000 births.

Here's an amazing video of the breast crawl: a newborn baby crawling to the breast right after birth:


And finally, a story on the importance of breastmilk for preemies:

Watch CBS Videos Online

In The News

She Keeps Me Laughing...

One of the great things about going to the library more is that I've discovered they have a great number of exercise videos. This week I checked out a yoga video, and to my surprise, the Mermaid jumped right into it as well!

Also, today we were sitting at the table drawing pictures, when I remembered how Jack Newman told a story at the La Leche League conference to illustrate how deep our bottle-feeding culture influences children. He told of a mother who asked her six year old daughter to draw a picture of a mother feeding her baby. This girl had never been given a bottle, and has watched her mother breastfeed her baby brother countless times, and her baby brother had never been given a bottle, either. So what did her picture show? A mother giving a baby a bottle :o/

Curious, I asked the Mermaid to do the same thing; to draw me a picture of a mother feeding her baby. This is what she drew:

There is no bottle present. She drew a picture of a mother giving "na nas" to her baby. *tear*

This girl keeps me laughing every day, even in my darkest moments.

She Keeps Me Laughing...

Deals of the Week

I got some good deals this week.

Grocery deals:


Stop and Shop had Polar seltzer water on sale, 10/$10. I could live off this stuff. I bought five, saving me $1.25 off what I usually pay.

Price Chopper had Frehofer's wheat bread on sale, buy one get two free, saving me $2.00. They also had a sale on the four pack of 9 Lives cat food, $0.99 each. I bought three packs and saved $2.50 with that deal.
Then, I went CVS'ing. They had a sale on Aveeno products this week, buy $25 worth and get $10 in ECB's. They also had an ECB deal on Edge shaving gel and Act mouth rinse ($2.89 and $2.00, respecitively).

Transaction 1# bought one Edge shave gel at $2.89, got $2.89 back in ECB's. Price after ECB's is FREE.

Transaction #2: bought one ACT Total care mouth rinse at $4.99, used $1 off coupon from the Sunday paper insert, used the $2.89 ECB's from transaction 1, OOP cost: $1.16. Final price after $2 in ECB's that I got back: $0.84 overage.

Transaction #3: bought one ACT TOtal Care mouth rinse at $4.99, used another $1 off coupon from paper insert, used $2 in ECB's from transaction #2: OOP $2. Final price after $2 ECB's that I got back: FREE.

Transaction #4: Bought one Aveeno skin scrub at $7, 1 Aveeno daily moisturizer at $6, and 2 Aveeno body washes at $6 each, for a total cost of $25. I used $4 off of $20 coupon I got from CVS, four of the $2 off any Aveeno product that can print offline, and $2 in ECB's from transaction #3. Final OOP: $11.55, and I got $10 back in ECB's to roll with next week.

Total cost of products purchased: $37.83
Total out of pocket cost: $11.55
Saved: $26.25 with $10 in ECB's to use next week.

This week, my normal grocery bill only came to $62.00. Much better than the $85-$100 that it normally was. After stocking up, final money spent this week was still only $87, so I stayed $13 under budget this week, woot-woot!

Deals of the Week

No Cable Experiment

While looking for ways to save even more money to put towards the debt snowball, the Knight and I got into a discussion about cable television. We pay a good amount for the cable we have, and by cutting it, we can save over $900 a year.

I think we should cut cable. My argument is that: we don't watch it that much anyway, especially with the warmer weather coming up; what few shows we do watch are available online, most of the time the day after the scheduled air time; it's better for the girls, because they won't be exposed to so many commercials; and finally, between the internet, library, and Netflix, we will always have something to watch.

The Knight wants to keep the cable. His argument: he thinks we watch more television than I realize; and he wants to watch the sports games (which I haven't been able to find online. Anyone have any links they can send?).

So, we made a deal. If I and the girls can go two weeks without watching cable TV, then he will seriously consider cutting it. It's day three, and I must say, it's been a lot easier than I thought. On Monday I went to the library and stocked up on some videos for the girls, so they have those to watch, but for the most part...they haven't asked. I am really surprised at how easily they accepted that the TV was "broken".

As for me, although I'm a little miffed that I have to wait 8 days to watch House (What's up with that, Fox? You're the only channel that won't put the shows up the next day!), I'm happy that I'm getting good use of my Netflix and Library, for the few times that I have wanted to "watch something" while folding laundry.

So, who else out there has cut their cable, and how does it work for their family?

No Cable Experiment

Wordless Wednesday: Not A Morning Person

For more Wordless Wednesday, click here.

Wordless Wednesday: Not A Morning Person

Deals of the Week

This week I took my first shot at "CVSing":


Transaction #1: Venus Embrace Razor, $7.99 OOP (out of pocket). Get $4.00 in ECB's back.

Transaction #2: buy softsoap body wash, $4.99. - $4 in ECB's, = $0.99 OOP; get $4.99 in ECB's.

Transaction #3: Buy 1 box of Raisin Bran, $2 - $1 coupon = $1
Buy Pantene Pro V, 2/$7, $8 total - $4.99 ECB's = $3.01 OOP, get $2 in ECB's.

Transaction #4 2 boxes of Kotex Pads, 2/$9$9 - $1.50 coupon = $7.50 - $2 ECB's = $5.50 OOP, get $2 in ECB's

Transaction #5 Buy 2 CVS Tissues, get one free.$2.58 - $1 coupon = $1.58 - $2 ECB's = $0.42 overage.

Plus, Venus Embrace Razor has mail in rebate.
$33.56 normal price for all products, $9.50 is what I pay after ECB's, coupons, and rebate.

I could have done better with coupons, but I didn't have all the coupons that were out there, since I've only just now been saving the full inserts.

Here are my deals from Price Chopper:

Bananas, $0.48/lb. Price Chopper cheese slices, 2/$3, Price Chopper Sour Cream, $0.99 each, Price Chopper white bread twin pack, $1.99 each, and Price Chopper salad dressing, 2/$3

Price before discounts: $33.97. Price after discounts: $16.35

Our normal grocery bill this week came to only $69, and that was with easter shopping and shopping for chips, dip and soda because we had friends over Friday night. If those two events didn't happen, it could have easily come to $60. So, I had a little extra in the budget to build my stockpile, which is why I hit CVS, and I still stayed under budget.

It's still a lot of work because I'm not organized yet and I don't have all the best prices memorized, so I have to do a lot of math still to figure out by ounce if a deal is really a deal. But, so far it is worth and, and sad to say, I'm actually having fun with it!

Deals of the Week

Pictures From Easter

So excited to decorate!!

The Guppy was concentrating really hard!!

Showing off her work

Note to family: please, no more easter grass in the easter baskets!!

Pictures From Easter

Corneille Winners!!

And the two lucky winners are:

My Fabulous Self and YZgirl4!! Congrats and I'll be contacting you shortly for your mailing address.

Thanks to all who entered!

Corneille Winners!!

Too Many "Shoulds"

Today, I should be 26 weeks pregnant. I should be getting to know his movements and kicks. I should have a nice round, cute pregnant belly. I should be having to go to the bathroom every two minutes, be uncomfortable at night, and have slightly swollen ankles.

Instead, all I have is an urn and a box of mementos.

It's been six weeks and I still feel a small emptiness inside of me. Going to the La Leche League conference was great, but it was really hard to see so many newborn babies.

It has gotten a little less hard as more time goes by, but once in a while Kalei will pop up in my thoughts out of the blue, making my heart skip a beat and my stomach flip. The world slows down, and my mind goes blank, except for the image of his perfect little body, wrapped in the hospital blanket.

And I have to stop what I'm doing, sit back, and let the tears come.

Too Many "Shoulds"

She Just Loves Her Math..

The Mermaid has discovered a passion for math. She loves doing math problems and asks to do it every day.

We've already done a little addition and now she has asked me to show her how to "minus things". I'm not sure where she is picking up this love of math, but I'm a little relieved.

I've always hated math. Anything to do with numbers, I tried my best to avoid. So I was a little worried that I would unintentionally pass off these feelings towards math to my daughters.

This just goes to show what different experiences my kids will have towards learning. I hated math, and the more I was forced to do it, the more I hated it. The Mermaid loves math and asks to do it every day, and to her it is fun because it is something she is interested in and isn't forced to sit down and do. However, she isn't as fond at practicing her handwriting. Some days she wants to do it, and some days she doesn't. And on those days, I don't push her. I don't force her to sit down and finish the page and tell her she has to do it; I just tell her that it is there when she is ready.

I've also learned that the Mermaid likes having structure in her day. Like me, she likes having a plan and set time to do things. I was originally leaning towards unschooling, but the Mermaid asks every day for "learning time" and sits at the table, excited about whatever we are going to learn that day. So, for now, I'm just following her lead.

For other homeschoolers out there: what surprises have come up for you since you started homeschooling?

She Just Loves Her Math..

Wordless Wednesday: The Beginning of My Pantry

It's definitely a work in progress, but so far so good.

For more Wordless Wednesday posts, visit here.

Wordless Wednesday: The Beginning of My Pantry

Gazelle Intensity

As huge fans of Dave Ramsey, the Knight and I have been following the Total Money Makeover plan to get ourselves out of debt. It allowed us to pay off lots of debt and buy a house. After we moved in, we continued our debt snowball and made one HUGE payment to our last credit card.

Then Kalei died and things fell to the back burner for a bit. We didn't feel much like cooking, so we ate out at almost every meal and blew our budget to pieces.

It's taken us a while to get back on track, but we are determined to get back to gazelle intensity. We don't tend to spend much in the first place, which is what allows us to live off one income, but I wanted to figure out new ways to save even more money.

That's when I stumbled upon Coupon Mom. I'm hooked. I've started scouring flyers and looking for coupons. It's almost a hobby of mine now. The Knight pokes fun of me because every week I get all excited and tell him about how I saved us $0.04 per ounce in apple juice this week, and so forth. And you may laugh, too, until you realize that the $0.04 per ounce saved added up to $7.48 total.

I admit, it's a lot of time and work. A lot. But if it gets us out of debt faster, then I am willing to do what it takes. My goal is for our grocery bill to be down to $60 per week in 6 months from now. Right now we spend anywhere from $80 - $100, depending on how much toiletries we need that week.

I've got quite the pantry going and I plan on sharing some of my favorite tips, sites, and deals as I go along. Living simply and frugally is part of my life. It lets me stay home with my children and raise them, so it is important to me.

What do you do to save money on groceries, or around the house in general? Do you find living frugally a blessing or a hardship?

Gazelle Intensity

Ultrasounds and Autism

There's an article in Midwifery Today recently that discusses the link between ultrasounds and autism, as well as other birth defects.

From the article:

Early studies showed that subtle effects of neurological damage linked to
ultrasound were implicated by an increased incidence in left-handedness in boys
(a marker for brain problems when not hereditary) and speech delays.(5) Then in
August 2006, Pasko Rakic, chair of Yale School of Medicine's Department of
Neurobiology, announced the results of a study in which pregnant mice underwent
various durations of ultrasound.(6) The brains of the offspring showed damage
consistent with that found in the brains of people with autism. The research,
funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, also
implicated ultrasound in neurodevelopmental problems in children, such as
dyslexia, epilepsy, mental retardation and schizophrenia, and showed that damage
to brain cells increased with longer exposures.(7)

I heard something similar through the grape vine after the Guppy's birth and vowed not to get another ultrasound done unless it was truly medically necessary.

We once x-rayed pregnant woman and believed it was safe. Why is it so hard to believe that ultrasounds aren't as safe as people think? Another case of technology being over-used to the point of harming mothers and babies.

Let's also not forget that thanks to the ultrasound, so many moms are being told that their babies are "too big" to be born vaginally and are scheduled for a c-section or induction. Ultrasounds are not guaranteed. They can be off by as much as five pounds!!

*sigh*

Ultrasounds and Autism

Book Review: Leslie Patricelli

Thanks to Team Mom, I recently got the chance to review two of Lisa Patricelli's children books, Baby Happy Baby Sad and Higher! Higher!

Patricelli's books are beautifully illustrated and make teaching simple concepts to children easy and fun. She has received great reviews from Scholastic Parent and Child and School Library Journal.

Baby Happy Baby Sad teaches children about emotions, and, more importantly, about empathy. The Guppy loved looking at the bright and beautiful illustrations and telling me whether the baby was happy or sad, while the Mermaid emphasized with the baby in the story, telling me that she gets sad too when her balloon flies away.

The girls especially loved Patricelli's newest book, Higher! Higher! And I would see why: what child doesn't dream of a swinging adventures to the stars? Like all the Patricelli books, the illustrations were beautiful!

Patricelli's books are published by Candlewick Press. For more information on her other titles, you can visit her website.

Book Review: Leslie Patricelli

My Head Is Whirling...

...from all the information I absorbed at the La Leche League Conference!!

And can I just say that I love Jack Newman? He is such a great speaker!!!

I learned so much over the course of the conference that I'm a little overwhelmed. I think I need to take some time to go back over my notes and absorb the information more slowly and quietly to organize it all in my mind. It certainly gave me a lot to think about!

My Head Is Whirling...

I'm Not Ready To Be A Mom...

Lately, the Mermaid has started to call me "Mom" instead of "Mommy".

I don't like this one bit. Mom is what older children and teenagers call their mothers. I don't like to think of the Mermaid getting older, she's still my little girl to me. So, I don't feel ready to be a Mom.

The Mermaid has other names for me that I like. She calls me Queen (because she is a princess of course, so I must be a queen), Mama, Mommy, etc. I like all these names, but I don't like Mom.

I've tried to gently steer her back to calling me Mommy, but she insists on calling me Mom.

Sigh.

At least the Guppy still calls me Mommy.

I'm Not Ready To Be A Mom...

Book Review: The Food of Love: Your Formula For Successful Breastfeeding

I was a little skeptical when I first picked up Kate Evan's book, The Food of Love: Your Formula for Successful Breastfeeding. After all, after all the other breastfeeding books I read, I thought that Evans would have nothing new to offer me.

Boy, was I wrong! Evans presents breastfeeding in an informative, yet funny and refreshing way. Her cartoons are hilarious and realistic, rather than the many pictures found in other books of mothers serenely smiling down at their newborns, who are perfectly nursing away.

Not only that, but she also discusses the benefits of co-sleeping, babywearing and other aspects of "traditional" mothering while at the same time presenting the information in a non-judgmental and non-biased tone. Her emphasis is on supporting all women in all their choices in parenthood.

I would recommend this book to every expectant and new mom. It makes a great baby shower gift!

Book Review: The Food of Love: Your Formula For Successful Breastfeeding

It's Days Like These....

It's days like these that can really bring a mom down.

Days when the laundry is piled up and the dishes are taking over the kitchen.

Days when your to-do list is too long and your bills outweigh your checking account.

Days when your four-year old is being impossible and your two-year old is being so incredibly clingy that you literally think you can see velcro growing on her skin.

Days when your energy is low, your patience is thin, and you start to wonder if you are going to spend the rest of your life changing diapers and cleaning snotty noses and washing sticky hands.

Days when you look at your child-less friends who are traveling the world and appear to have no cares in the world and you start to wonder "What would my life have been like if...."

Days when you really and truly feel the weight of living in a society that doesn't value your hard, hard work and your contribution to society simply because you don't get a paycheck at the end of the week.

Days like these do not come very often, but when they do it can feel like you have been stomped and trodden on and devalued, all because you have been stuck with the label "housewife".

I'm having one of those days today. And while I know that tomorrow will be a much better day, I'm wondering how often other moms have these days. And what they do to help themselves out of the funk. So....how do you deal with these days?

It's Days Like These....