Donating

One thing I am passionate about is donating items that I don't have a use for anymore. I have never liked throwing things away for the heck of it and figure there is someone out there that could use these things, even if it's something small.

With all the pumping I've been doing at work, I have a lot of extra milk in our freezer. Maggie loves to nurse but I'm not sure she drinks as much from the bottle as she does when she is nursing.

Before I was pregnant, a friend of mine was considering donating her milk. I'm not sure if she followed through with it but it got me thinking that I could do that with my extra milk after I started noticing that we had milk taking up so much space in our freezer it was squeezing out room for other goodies.

We have a freestanding birth center in Sacramento that also operates a milk bank so I did the testing and filled out the application and now I'm a milk donor. I'm happy to say that I get to donate my milk to hospitals for NICU babies and also to a local woman that hasn't been able to provide enough milk for her baby.

When I had Maggie and was going to a moms group, there was a mom there that found out she had breast cancer right after birthing her son and she had to stop nursing him and go through treatment. She was very thankful to have hooked up with a U.S. milk bank and recieve milk in the mail for her son in his first year. Hearing her story has always stuck with me and now I am in a position to offer my milk to other people's babies that need it. It's a great feeling to know I am helping others in this way.

Not many people know that this is possible. If you know someone that isn't nursing and instead goes the formula route, mention this to them. Educate your family and friends. It's a pretty easy process on both ends (donor and reciever) and giving your baby mother's milk is much more nutritional than formula.

Just typing "milk bank" into Google brings up all sorts of websites. Milk banks help during worldwide disasters like the earthquake in Haiti. Salma Hayek was filmed nursing a newborn in Africa, which after reading this article, is called cross-nursing. Huh! It's a controversial issue here in the U.S. but I think it's a wonderful thing. I tend to follow beliefs featured here, which is a great magazine encouraging more natural ways of parenting from all aspects. I highly recommend it!

It takes a village

I have heard this phrase before (Hillary Clinton?) and then I was reading my local parenting mag and there was a good story about a couple raising kids in Sacramento while also pursuing their dreams of running a restaurant. The author was talking about how she and her husband take turns being with the kids while one of them is running the restaurant and when they are both busy, their parents help out.

My life has drastically changed since I became a mom. Before becoming pregnant and being what I think was footloose and fancy free, I was often itching to get out of town or move somewhere new, yearning for new experiences. Not that I don't still yearn for those things, but that desire has been calmed in becoming a mom, which is something I wanted after meeting my husband.

I am thankful for many things I did not cherish to the fullest before having children. One of the biggies is being surrounded by family. I have always been very close to my family and my husband to his and for as long as we dated, we made efforts to spend holidays, birthdays, and Sunday nights together with family. However, sometimes I felt overwhelmed by it all and wanted more freedom, less ties.

I have come to learn how valuable it is to be close with family and it has really given me a new appreciation for what our parents sacrified in raising us. Sacrifices that come with raising childen can be many, including career changes, money going different places and sometimes not making what you used to, travelling different or less, relationships more work, and it probably goes on.

I have sometimes felt torn between wanting to be a stay-at-home mom in my mind or whether it would benefit me to work outside of the home. For me, this wasn't a hard choice to make since I knew I was going to go back to work but what I was lucky with was being able to map out my own plan. Taking a long maternity leave and working part-time has been ideal. I have struggled in the past with the fact that I spent most of my twenties building my career and then I felt like with making the decision to have children it also meant dealing with pressure about continuing a career. I happen to love my job and I have been lucky to find a nice balance.

Working brings me many joys: friends, field work, accomplishments, money, and free time for myself. I'm not sure I could list the joys of being a mom because they are too numerous but on the other side of that, being home all day, everyday, is not really my cup of tea.

Which brings me back to why it takes a village to raise a child. Our family is very involved in Maggie's life. All of her care is provided in our home by our family. The constant contact with family takes organization, but I'm good at that, and it has really enriched my family relationships. That and Maggie loves her family and you can see it in her face when a family member walks in the door. She is learning more than I could teach her on my own and I am happy for that. I hope that the decisions I'm making in our life now are ones that will have a lasting positive impact for the future.

Gifts and bikes...huh?

My friend visited her hometown, Mexico City, during Christmas and came back with goodies for Maggie and I. This is one woman that is very in touch with who I am. It's handmade dark chocolate to make hot chocolate with and she got a cute little 12-mo tee for Maggie (too big-perfect for spring) with Spanish writing. Thank you Lourdes!

Which leads me to my next topic...her niece is coming to stay with her for the next 4 months starting next week. I know we have babysitters coming out of our ears, but regardless, I'm excited to see if she will want to watch Maggie while Michael and I get back out on the Auburn mountain biking trails.

Michael just traded one of his unused mountain bikes for a pretty nice full suspension bike, which in turn is replacing another cracked frame that he just tossed. He'd had that frame since he was a wee one, so it was a difficult let go. Now he's got the new bike all ready to go and in the process, he beefed up my bike with new parts and a little cleaning. All of this motivated him to sell another one of my bikes (my single speed) that I didn't plan on using anytime soon.

At one time we owned about 10 or 11 bikes together! It may seem like excess and I guess it was, but Michael and I really had a purpose for each and every one of them and it was our big hobby. Now we only have so much room and so much of that room includes kid stuff. I love shedding old stuff and moving onto the new.

Lastly, here is our cute little Magpie on her new Christmas toy/bike-thingy that will grow with her as she grows. More on this in another post. And that hand out - I think she wants to say hi or just connect with you. She does it with family and strangers. More on Maggie too in another post...

Bright

Wow, I'm impressed.

It stormed all night and was bright and sunny upon wakening this morning. Things are looking up.

Dreary

Oh dreary days, when will I see the sun?

I'm stuck in the Valley fog and it's been a bit of a bummer. That and I've been taking care of a sick kiddo. Not much sleeping, doctors visits, etc. Her cold/stomach bug is clearing up though and I'm thankful it hasn't been something more serious. My heart goes out to others who have had recent tragedies and it really helps to put things in perspective.

I could go on a rant and rave right now about doctors and the medical system but I won't. I don't have the energy and don't want to piss a lot of people off. Let me just say that mothers instincts are worth a whole heck of a lot and I am eternally grateful that I had the opportunity to birth my baby at home.

I'm thinking I need to brave 2 more months of these foggy, drippy, chilly days and then we're onto spring, right? I keep wearing the same clothes over and over and that is also bumming me out. I'm in need of a little makeover. I got my 2-month haircut last week which was nice and always brightens my day no matter what the weather is like outside. That and a pair of consigned new-to-me jeans, maybe some running shoes in my future, and I should be good to go.
Oh, did I mention Hawaii? I think it is on the horizon. I dreamt last night of flying to a tropical island and I slept like my baby, literally. Not one of us woke in the middle of the night. We had good solid sleep which was such a blessing!

Comments

Sorry for the inconsistency with leaving comments, I was trying out a few things behind the scenes. Hopefully it is resolved with this post.

Foodie reviews

Besides actually cooking, I love reading and watching TV/movies about food and wanted to share a couple personal reviews.

Garlic and Sapphires

This book is written by Ruth Reichl, who in the book is a famous food critic. I came across this author when I picked up one of her early books Comfort me with Apples. I love anything having to do with good food and her writing seemed right down my alley. I read her first book a year or two ago and liked it. It wasn't until I heard her interviewed on NPR that I decided to read some of her newer books. This is a great one because it is the story of how she became the New York Times food critic and how she took on many disguises to do her job. But it's also about a period of her life and the changes that occur. I just find her life very interesting and she is extremely honest and so I love the realness of her writing. Ruth is a very fascinating person with a varied background and she is bold in her writing and in her review of restaurants. It think it would be fun to have a meal or cook with her and cant wait to read more new stuff.

Julie & Julia

This was a fun movie to watch. I am not a fan of Amy Adams but I am of Meryl Streep, who is a wonderful actress and a fellow homebirther in real life to boot. I held off on seeing this movie because Amy Adams was in it and waited for it to come out through Netflix.

My favorite part of the movie that got a good laugh out of me was when Amy Adam's character was boiling lobsters in her kitchen and the lid on the pot flew off which scared her to pieces! Meryl Streep played a very convivcing Julia Child and I'm saying that without much knowledge of Julia Child previously. This movie has definitely made me want to read a Julia Child cookbook or two or maybe try a French recipe. I was intriuged by the real life blog and book that inspired this movie. What I found in the reviews was that the blog was good for what it was but the book was a flop. Lots of foul language, too many strong opinions on world events, and not enough talk about food and recipes. So I guess I'm willing to check out the book still but am not expecting much. I think Nora Ephron, the writer/director, did a good job in taking the good and making a hit on the big screen.

Frustrated

One of my crafty New Year's resolutions was to sell my spinning wheel...but truth be told, I'm having a hard time letting go of Lolita. I have been waffling on whether to sell her for over a year, maybe longer. I've owned her for a few years and have never fully spun a useable skein of yarn on the wheel, yet many of my friends have. Go figure.

My friend just returned the wheel to me so that I can sell it and I was looking at it last night, so quiet in the corner, and can't bring myself to be ok with getting rid of it. I keep thinking that I will take it up and join my friends but I know myself and I would probably just keep moving it around the house looking at it since it's cute but not do anything with it since I have knitting patterns coming out of my ears - so many that I want to knit in the months to come that with chasing after my mogly-crawling baby I will maybe get a few things knit and not much else done. I know I talk about this subject a lot (not having enough time) and many times I tell myself I sound like a broken record but its just how I feel a lot.

I love my knitting group and the same girls who go to spin nite but spinning just isn't for me. So I kind of feel like an outsider right now and it bothers me because I love being in the thick of things :-) The other thing that has been bothering me is how I haven't progressed in my knitting skills as fast as some of the other experienced knitters in our group. I know I'm being hard on myself because I have progressed but it's hard for me to see it when I've been moving so slowly. I tend to put a lot of pressure on myself with everything though - work, parenting, and in my craft projects - and I am constantly recognizing that and trying to give myself some slack.

I was thinking on a recent snow trip about a recurring dream of mine to live in the mountains, but hubby isn't fond of the idea. It occurred to me that if I can't live there, I could buy a cabin. Hubby was much fonder of that idea (actually excited) so then I made the resolution that I would sell my wheel (one dream passing) and put that money toward the new dream of owning a cabin in the woods. When I think about that becoming a reality for our family, it makes me really happy so I think I need to go with this. I like the idea of trading one thing in for another, something about it seems poetic.

Ok, I feel better now. Here is to everyone else's New Year's resolutions. Good luck!