Thankful

                  Levi made a whole bunch of characters from Mario Bros. out of paper.

 

Jaida made feathers for a garland to string on our windows.

                                                        Herbs for Mother's Cordial.

                                       A poem by Shel Silverstein..Jaida copied it out today.

                                  Green smoothie: avocado, banana, mixed greens, and mangos!

 Today was a really good day. Our airline and hotel tickets for New York got re-booked for March, good laughs and playtime with my kids, healthy food that felt so nourishing, made some mother's cordial, and the day ended with some deep conversation among women on spiritual matters..I am thankful!

prayers go up

The husband and I have been planning our NYC trip for months, and we were set to go next week, but this past weekend the crazy "Sandy Superstorm " wreaked havoc on the area. I have been addicted to CNN these past few days, seeing the destruction and lives (and futures) lost...and thinking we should reschedule our trip. Last night was Halloween, and it was the first Halloween that Ezra understood...so it was really fun for the big kids to watch him waddle to the doorsteps and stick out his bucket. This pumpkin is from our garden!

baby in the wings

There has been a baby boom this week (at least for me)...i have had 4 clients give birth, none of my doula clients, but 2 women from my classes, and 2 births where i was the second..well one so far, but i am headed to the second tonight as soon as i get the "pushing" call. I have a very sore mouth from some dental surgery yesterday and i felt like i was ran over by a truck all day..but i am  excited to head to this birth tonight.

I have been reading a lot of Michel Odent lately...here is a very informative article about the hour following birth. 
"Certain midwives can still practice authentic midwifery. This means they are not prisoners of strict guidelines and protocols. They can play their role of protectors of the physiological processes. Immediately after the birth of the baby the main preoccupation of such midwives is the release by the mother of a high peak of oxytocin because it is necessary for safe delivery of the placenta and is the hormone of love.

They first make sure the room is warm enough. During the third stage women never complain that it is too hot. If they are shivering, it means the place is not warm enough. In the case of a homebirth, the only important tool to prepare is a transportable heater that can be plugged in any place and at any time and can be used to warm blankets or towels. Their other goal is to make sure the mother is not distracted at all while looking at the baby’s eyes and feeling contact with the baby’s skin. There are countless avoidable ways of distracting mother and baby at that stage. The mother can be distracted because she feels observed or guided, because somebody is talking, because the birth attendant wants to cut the cord before the delivery of the placenta, because the telephone rings, or because a light is suddenly switched on, etc. At that stage, after a birth in physiological conditions, the mother is still in a particular state of consciousness, as if "on another planet." Her neocortex is still more or less at rest. The watchword should be, "Don’t wake up the mother!"

Lost in Monday

I'm feeling a little bleary eyed today..i actually love Mondays as i usually don't plan too much since the weekends are so full. I finished teaching my last group prenatal class yesterday, and i woke up this morning and heard news of freshly born babies, a mother in labour (that i will attend later on today), and a placenta i need to go and pick of from the hospital to encapsulate. My kiddos are eagerly menu planning and waiting for the crisp to get out of the oven because we are eating dessert for a late lunch ;)

Ezra

I love this photo. I really dislike asking anyone to smile..it's so "everything is great", 1950's style.. and not very interesting. A sad thing is that all of my kids have a camera ready fake smile..i have to wait until it passes most of the time to have a genuine expression of some sort. In this photo, he was actually really happy about apples.(And the younger they are, the more real the smiles are).

FREE LEARNERS

As the school year recently started i have been asked many times about how we do school…mostly from other homeschoolers, and i ask the same questions since i am always interested in what works for other families and what they have found to be sustainable for them..what they are really doing, not just what they think they SHOULD be doing .

I have come to really dislike the word “unschoolers” as it sounds reactive and negative, like we “don’t school” as opposed to what we DO. I have taken the term “free learners” as my own since my children are free to learn what they are curious about, but i will certainly give direction if need be…and that ends up happening a few times a day!

                     

As i am a visual person, this blog will be a photo journal of my (our) daily life.