New Shoe Love

I got my new shoes today. They're pretty sweet :) I was going to get the camera out and take some cute pictures but, I'm not that in love with them, lol! Maybe when I post all the pics of the sweet Christmas stuff I'm making, I'll post the shoes, too. For now, I'll leave you with links and you can drool. These Teva Nisha Hiking shoes in the brown & blue combo (I've had them on all afternoon and they are soooooo comfy!) for a sweet $ 20.99! And for many years I've been desiring a pair of strappy leather sandals for summer but the ones I like are always through the roof expensive and I can't quite do it. But these were a can't-pass-it-by $14.26. Anyway, thanks to Maria for the heads-up! It's been a long time since I splurged on shoes :)

Free the Midwives!!!

As many of you know midwifery, as practiced by Certified Professional Midwives (CPM's), was legalized in the state of Missouri this year. This is wonderful and terrific news for women across the state who want to have more choices than are available to them in a hospital setting. Our own little baby was peacefully and gently born at home, caught by a dear midwife (who was outlawed at the time). Personally, the experience so completely outshone my previous experience in the hospital that I hope to only have homebirths from here on. But, the process of fighting the legal battle (hiring attorneys to combat the insurance and Doctor's group lobbyists who had the law overturned the first time around) has cost a pretty penny. And the bill is due now. If it's important to you that women have the right to make educated choices about where their babies are born and to legally act on those choices; or if you have had a homebirth with a midwife who risked seven years of imprisonment and a felony charge on her record to attend your birth, I'm asking you to make a small contribution towards paying off the legal fees. For instance, I'm giving up my coffee allowance for the month. It's a small but do-able sacrifice! Please consider how you can support this group of women.

Free the Midwives is a private, legal expenses fund for the purpose of raising money for Missouri Midwives as they defend their new law and profession in court. Follow the link to donate! And thanks for listening (I mean reading).

A little rant

I need a little space here to rant, feel free to skip this post. I am so frustrated and overwhelmed by all things house. I am sick of living in constant chaos. I am sick of tripping over toys ALL DAY LONG. I am sick of picking up toys 50 times a day only to have them everywhere within 5 minutes of picking them up. I am sick of fighting every step of every moment with my three year who is both bossy and defiant (yeah, yeah, I know he comes by it honestly, but let me have my rant). I am sick of clutter: clutter on my shelves. Clutter on my floor. Clutter in my bedroom. Clutter in my basement. Up to my ears in my basement. Over my head in my basement. Clutter in my head. I am sick of not being able to do the very few things that actually relax me (like sewing) because I don't have even a closet to make my own space. I am sick of being in almost constant contact with a child, truly almost 24/7. I am sick of getting no more than one three hour stretch of sleep a night and that's a good night. I am sick of being unable to focus on anything or get ANYTHING done because there are twenty interruptions before I've even set anything up.

OK pity party over. I have a real post brewing. Maybe I'll actually get it posted soon. Now there are diapers to be washed and dishes to be done before someone wakes up.

Urban Homesteader Mama

I did it :) Today I helped my friend slaughter her backyard flock. 5 chickens, 4 hours, 2 fussy babies & 2 rockin' mamas! It was not as bad as I thought it might be. The first bird suffered for our complete city slicker ignorance as we didn't get the throat cut in the most effective way, but after that it went pretty smoothly. It was a lot of labor, that's for sure! And I am glad we did it on a cold day so we didn't need to worry too much about bacteria growth. Anyway, earlier I posted on how domestic I felt. Now I feel like some sort of macho urban pioneer or something (although any real pioneer would have laughed their heads off at how stupid we were bungling that first kill. Or plucking. Or how we never could quite figure out how to eviscerate the bird without splitting the breast.)

Maybe I can do this whole urban homesteading thing ;)

Tomorrow...

is a National Day of prayer for the Creation. Join me :)

Mothering...

The more I mother; the more I meet children raised by vastly different styles of parenting, the more I firmly believe that there's a short list of things we can do that will truly harm our children. And crying your baby out, bottle feeding, crib sleeping, or conversely cosleeping, child-led weaning, and carrying your baby attached to your body are not on that list. I'm sick of the strange, catty judgment that we inflict upon each other as mothers. It's sickening. And it's stupid. We all make mistakes and we will all hurt our children. But what we can do is to look at our children and connect with them and love them.

that's my rant for the night ;)

I couln't say it better...

I know a lot of posts have been related to birth activism recently, but I feel pretty strongly about this stuff! Here is a great article from the LA times questioning the motives behind the absolute refusal to look evidence in the face by the AMA and ACOG. So, since she says it better than I can, I'll just leave you all the link!