Living in Harmony » blogs

Continued blog overhaul

AttachedMama — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 18:56:48 +0000

The blog overhaul I started in September is ongoing, albeit very slowly. I finally got around to adding links to an rss feed for specific categories. On the right, you can see you can subscribe to the whole blog, or just subscribe to “living and learning” (which is basically most of the blog), homesteading (where I’ll talk about our new house, our move, steps we take to self-sufficiency, renovations, etc.), and food (recipes, food thoughts, meal plans, etc).

I still have some things I want to do, but other things in life take priority. I did want to point out the new categories though for anyone who might be interested.

September Favourites

AttachedMama — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 17:53:49 +0000

I used to read another blog that did something similar to this every month or so, though I don’t remember whose it was. Every month there are always posts someone else writes that are particularly funny or thoughtful or that just say something that I could say in better words than I ever would. Sometimes I bookmark these, but then they get lost in with all my other bookmarks. I thought doing a monthly blog post about them would make them searchable for me, as well as giving me one spot I can go to to go through my favourite blog posts. I don’t know if I will do it again, but there were so many posts this month that I keep going back to that I will at least do it once.

Cosleeping

Two of my favourites this month were about cosleeping. I love cosleeping. I can’t imagine not having my babies right there next to me all night long, where I can reach out to touch or stroke them. Meredith has started sleeping in her own room, sometimes more than others, and I’m really cherishing the times she’s in our room now (which recently have increased again). It’s hit home how short a period it really is in the scheme of life. Yes, we have hard nights, and often the ones with Meredith in the room are harder because my stirrings with Fiona can disturb her too, but waking up with two little girls snuggled into me, being able to kiss their heads and hug them close to me, having them wake up and see me watching them and smile up at me… it’s priceless. Nothing can replace those moments. Meredith napped on me every nap in the mei tei until she was 14 months old (and still many naps after that too), and now that’s generally where you will find Fiona napping too. Either there, or in my arms if she’s fallen asleep nursing.

Annie wrote about A Sleepy Moment and also shared a favourite album, which we ended up downloading from iTunes. Meredith loves it. Rachel shared her thoughts on Co-Sleeping, Night-Waking, and Growing-Up. I loved this post. Her descriptions of nights with a small baby are so spot on. And though Meredith isn’t as old as her son yet, I often have the same feelings about her growing up when we’re cuddled up together at night. Her post is so eloquent and beautiful, and has really made even some pretty difficult nights recently a lot easier. As she says: “I chose to have both of my kids know that I was there and I was their mama, no matter what the clock said.”

Living and Learning

September is back-to-school month, and so I think school is at the forefront of most parent’s minds, even unschoolers whose thoughts are how nice it will be to have the parks back to being quiet again. I loved this post on the Flow of Love blog about Limiting Beliefs and Freedom from Fear. She discusses the messages that we as parents send to our children through our words and actions. We try hard not to use labels (even unschooling), because I feel like you can become stuck in this rigid box with limited sides, and labels can be interpreted differently by different people. I try not to label Meredith in front of her (she’s shy, she’s outgoing, she’s a leader, she’s a follower), because she can be all of these things, and none of them, depending on the situation. Even positive ones can create a box. I was labelled “gifted” as a child and suddenly I had this label I had to continually live up to for fear of disappointing those around me. This post is a reminder that children and people aren’t the only ones who are labelled, but the world around us as well.

I loved the Solace comic on Mama-Is. There are many times while wearing my babies (either of them) out and about that I just have to stop and kiss their heads and give them a hug and forget all about whatever’s happening around us. It’s one big reason I prefer to wear them on my front as long as possible.

A local unschooler wrote a post on her blog in response to an article about stay-at-home moms that was going around Facebook that really connected with me: Thinking SAHM. I adored this post, and I think it’s one I will be going back to. It is another that pretty much sums up my own feelings much better than I ever could. And I love Wendy Priesnitz’s comment to the post too: “If we don’t value our work as mothers, how can we expect society to do so?”

Another great post is Sarah‘s guest post at the Mahogany Way on Allowing Ownership. It’s a great reminder to me to really look at the reasons behind any rules or requests we may have, and to examine my underlying fears. It was timely too. Shortly after reading the post, Meredith started drawing on her Jenga blocks. It’s a not-even-full set we got with a bunch of other wooden blocks from Value Village for something like $3.99. My first instinct was to ask her not to draw on her toys, but I was able to step back and just watch her having fun and being creative with her own things.

Nutritionism

I first heard the term “nutritionism” when I came across the Food Renegade post Food – Not Nutrients – Is the Fundamental Unit in Nutrition. It’s not a September post but I just came across it so I’m putting it here. It makes so much sense. For a class I’m taking, I recently had to do a report on my eating habits and how well I follow the Canada Food Guide. I had to answer questions like “Do I choose low-fat dairy products?” My husband and I joked about how easily I could make a case for a McDonald’s diet being healthy using the criteria listed on the homework page. There is still no emphasis on real foods… ones that don’t come from a package. As long as you’re meeting some arbitrary minimum based solely on gender and age (but not body type, weight, health), you’re supposedly getting the nutrients you need, but are you really getting the food you need?

This month, Breastfeeding Moms Unite had a great post on Understanding Nutritionism and The Problem with Infant Formula. It really puts into perspective for me what the problem with formula really is, and why it’s only fourth or fifth best and can never be “just as good”. (First being directly from mom, second being pumped from mom, third being pumped from someone else (preferably not pasteurized), fourth is debatable but some say a homemade formula made of raw goat’s or cow’s milk, and last comes formula.) I feel for those women who can’t breastfeed for some reason, I really do. I would be devastated if it were me. But there is no way I could honestly say that formula is “just as good” or even “almost as good” as breast milk. It’s just not. It doesn’t mean I think women who knowingly choose to formula feed should feel guilty, especially not those who really can’t breastfeed (I know it’s hard to get enough donor milk), but just because you don’t have any other choice doesn’t suddenly make it better than what it is. I think this post had a very good point, in that formula alone is certainly not a deciding factor in future health, and a lot of the studies done on the effects of formula may not take into account that people who formula feed may not place as much importance on food as a whole and may be more likely to feed less real foods later in life too.

Stainless steel bakeware

AttachedMama — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 20:41:09 +0000

The Food Renegade blog is giving away stainless steel bakeware. Go check it out, and while you’re there, if you have any interest in “real” food, fermentation, raw dairy, healthy fats, etc, have a look around the rest of her site too.

Undergoing renovations

AttachedMama — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 17:22:48 +0000

I’ve spent a bit of time over the last little bit redesigning my blog. It’s still nothing fancy, but I want to make it a bit easier to navigate, add some options for subscribing based on categories, and add some extra pages with links to various types of posts all in one spot. I’m also going to be relooking at my categories and tags and redoing those.

The recipes are being completely redone too, since the point of my recipes is mostly for me to have a place to put them, so they’re going to be separate from the blog itself. That specifically may end up taking longer than this weekend since I’m recopying them all and having to figure out formatting and such.

The point being that over the weekend if you happen across my blog and it looks funny or isn’t working well, just try again a bit later. Hopefully by Monday I’ll have it all looking the way I want it to and be back in business. I really want to start blogging again more and recording our journeys through life and learning.

Real Food Online Course Giveaway

AttachedMama — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 22:13:17 +0000

Food Renegade is giving away one spot in Kelly the Kitchen Kop’s Real Food for Rookies course. Don’t go check it out though, I want to win it all for myself. Do check out the rest of her site though. There is lots of great information about cooking [...] Related posts:

New Theme

AttachedMama — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:27:10 +0000

I’m switching up my blog a little bit and trying out a new theme. It’s mostly default right now, but I’m going to spend some time working on it in the next little while. Just a heads up that if you come in the next few days and it looks terrible, I’m probably right in the middle of changing or testing something and I’ll likely have it working again soonish.

Toddler Science: Smell

AttachedMama — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:21:00 +0000

I had wanted to keep up with the weekly Unplugged projects, but through the summer we spent a lot of time outdoors and it fell to the wayside. This last week Meredith wasn’t feeling well and had no interest in going outside, getting dressed, or really doing much besides cuddling on the couch. In my search for some quiet, easy indoor activities, I went and checked out the Unplugged blog and saw the theme for the next week was “smell”. It reminded me of an activity I’d read about and filed away for a later time. Now seemed perfect.

The idea is to create your own homemade perfume. We don’t actually use perfume, and I had no intention of actually wearing it, but I thought it would be something fun for Meredith to help out with. The only downside to doing this now is that our garden is pretty much dead. At the time that I had first seen it, we had lavender and roses and other yummy smelling things out there. But we were able to make due.

We filled three jars with a cup of water each. In the first jar, we put some orange peels. The second one had cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice. I chose the spices but she dumped them in. The third I let her go to town a little bit on. I gave her some jars of spices and let her smell them all and told her she could put some in the last jar. She put a whole lot of rosemary, and smaller amounts of basil, thyme, and oregano. We put lids on the jars and then she shook them up and we sat them aside to sit over night.

The next day we pulled out the jars and I pointed out to her how the colour of the water had changed in all three jars. She unscrewed the lids, and we used new jars and poured the mixtures through coffee filters into the jars. She loved this part, as she was able to do it mostly on her own. I did do the oranges, but when I realized the filters would stay put on their own she did the rest. She poured a little too fast for the first jar, which was the rosemary one. (Excuse the funny cropping/painting in these, once again she was pants-less.)

But she realized quickly on her own that pouring slowly would result in less mess and more of the liquid getting into the jar and didn’t end up spilling any of the cinnamon one.

Then we waited for them all to strain and I squeezed out the filters a little bit.

Now we had three jars of strained “perfume”. The orange and rosemary one turned out really well, but I don’t think we used enough cinnamon in the third one. I kept the orange peels aside and brought out the jars of cinnamon and rosemary spices and had her smell them and then the “perfume” jars in turn, and asked her if she could tell which ones were used in which perfume. She figured out the orange one quite quickly, though she pointed out that the water was yellow, not orange. She didn’t seem to get the cinnamon and rosemary ones though.

Overall I think this was a fun project to demonstrate some different scents to her. I think it would be fun to repeat it when she’s a bit older and can understand better how the scents transfer to the water, and also when we have some things in our garden we could use for it. One unexpected benefit at her age though was watching her pour the jars out. I could see her noticing how the water went pretty slowly through the filters, and adjusting the speed of her pouring based on that. She experimented with faster and slower pouring and seemed quite intrigued by the whole thing. I think I am going to think up some sort of pouring experiment for her involving different filters, as well as different substances to pour. I have even had some ideas for some simple diffusion and osmosis experiments, though those ones might have to wait a year or two. It’s neat how so many ideas can come out of one simple project though!

Organic Pouch Sling Giveaway

AttachedMama — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 16:14:16 +0000

Continuum Family is hosting a giveaway for an organic pouch sling in honour of International Baby Wearing week. Go here to enter. While you’re at it, check out her website and all her other great products. I’m lucky to live so close to her (within walking distance if I got brave ), though I’ve never actually had a chance to go down and see everything in person, it’s definitely a goal before this baby comes. She’s really sweet and has a lot of great stuff for EC and for natural family living in general. I’d like to try some of the co-operative games eventually.

Snapshot Sunday

AttachedMama — Mon, 11 May 2009 19:46:55 +0000

I’m a day late, but at least I’m actually getting this up this week! I’ve been busy again and haven’t had a lot of time for posts. I’m going to be really busy this whole week and then we’re leaving Friday for Calgary. If I have a chance, I’m going to try and get a few posts I’ve been working on written and schedule them so I actually have some content up while we’re away.

Here’s my Snapshot Sunday for the week:

I found these in the cupboard just like this lol. I'd been wondering where those toys were.

Tomato seedling repotted and hardening off outside

More gardening supplies, I'm trying to get everything done before we leave. I'm lucky to have a good friend willing to keep an eye on the garden while we're away.

Meredith's current favorite. We got it for $5 off Used Victoria.

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Mother's Day chocolates already gone. In my defense, I got them a day early and I shared!

Etsy's Mothering Street Team Spring Fling Give Away

AttachedMama — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 05:11:42 +0000

I adore handmade items, and Etsy’s Mothering Street Team is hosting a giveaway of a big bundle of handmade items for mothers. I’m posting here for my own chance to win.