Easter!

Today was a glorious day. I can't imagine better weather to celebrate the resurrection of our Savior. . . the spring reminds me of new life everywhere I look in nature--trees are starting to grow new leaves, my garden's flowers are budding, on the way to a friend's house the baby calves were out in the fields with their mothers, and the horses' colts were outside as well.

We went to church very early, because I was singing in the choir and helping in the nursery. Terry was ushering. The service went well, and the auditorium we were in was packed.  The little girls looked so cute in their beautiful Easter dresses everywhere I Looked! Grace sat nicely with friends and AJ survived the makeshift nursery.

We went to a friend's house for Easter lunch, sans Terry, who had to work on a project for school. AJ's been recovering from his flu last week, and was tired and a bit grumpy. But he loves my friend's mother. He was sitting on her lap, letting her read to him and talking to her about anything he could think about. It made me miss my family terribly. In fact, someone commented on how hard it is to live away from famly, and I began to weep at the table. In front of everyone. Nancy (my friend's mom) hugged me and said she understood completely, having lived away from her family for a long time when her kids were young. She is so mothering and nurturing, and one of the kindest people I have ever met. My short little cry has left me feeling raw, even though the day continued, of course. The kids played, Grace hit my shoulder hard with her shoe on the way home, which I then confiscated, and life goes on.

Dance with Cinderella

This is such a beautiful song. I first really listened to it making pancakes for the kids one morning, and ever since, Grace reminds me that this is the song that made me cry into the pancakes. And every time I hear it, I tear up at least a bit. This song has made me stop what I'm doing and play with my kids, spend time with them--because this time is so precious. Every day is another day that my children are growing up.

Grace loves to be a princess. She dances her way through life, at the grocery store, in the living room, in her bedroom, in the front yard, in the back yard, at church in the lobby, at church during the music, and even when there isn't any music except that in her heart. It brings me such joy to see the innocence, hope and joy unbridled in her. She wears her ballet shoes everywhere that I allow her, and she selects the most beautiful outfit she can find every day, including red plaid skirts, pink and red flowered shirts, pink tights, and red sparkly shoes, paired with a magnificent white cape. All at the same time.  I love this spirit in her. Her favorite game is "Cinderella." Ever since we moved, I have been her new playmate. She begs me to play Cinderella. I get to be the royal messenger, evil stepmother and handsome prince. She gets to be Cinderella. Her favorite part is dancing with the prince and running away when the clock strikes midnight. (Sometimes, I, as the clock, strike a bit too early for her fancy.) And in the end, when the royal messenger trips on the stepmother's foot (fancy double acting by me, I do declare) and I cry, "Oh, no, my life is ruined. We will never find the beautiful girl, the prince's true love. . . " Cinderella delights in interrupting me wit her favorite line of all time, "No. All is not ruined. You see, I have the other slipper," which she then presents to me. Of course she then marries the prince and I can go back to cleaning the kitchen.

She likes to play Ariel in the pool. I get to be Ursula. And if I'm really lucky, she lets me be King Triton. Eric is played by Daddy. Lucky him!

And in another way, it makes me remember being a little girl, dancing with my daddy at Girl Scouts and playing tickle torture and X Marks the Spot on his back, and then getting married.  We had a lovely moment before the ceremony when it was just us, and he looked at me with tears in his eyes and said, "I just wish Grandma (his mother) was here for this."  Stephen Curtis Chapman really outdid himself with this song, and I love this video with the dancing in the background. I hope it touches your heart the same way it touches mine.

Autism/Vaccine Link

After receiving nine doses of vaccines at once, Hannah Poling developed severe health issues and brain damage resulting in autism. In a landmark court case, the CDC was compelled to admit that Hannah's issues were caused by the vaccines.

 Watch this:CDC Admits Multiple Vaccines Injection Caused Autism

Mommy words

Gracie was just poking my eye. I flinched, backed away and said, "STOP STOP STOP!!!"

 She told me that I need to use mommy words instead of baby words. I asked for her suggestions, and she told me I should say, "Please, stop doing that."

 *rolls eyes*

MOPS and random thoughts

I joined a MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) group this semester. So far, so good.  The other mothers are nice, there is a clear structure to the program, and I look forward to getting to know everyone better. Plus AJ is learning to play in the nursery with the other babies, and that's good for him. We talked about family traditions, such as eating dinner together every night, playing High/Low around the dinner table, Pizza night, etc. I was asked to share about celebratory traditions, so I shared about St. Lucia's Day in our family, and the Christmas star ornaments we make every year.

It was my small group's turn to bring snack, so I brought a fruit tray. I got to use my Pampered Chef Chillzanne platter, which has a freezable insert to keep the fruit and dip cool. It presents so beautifully, and I made a Hawaiian fruit dip, which received rave reviews. It's nice that people seem to like it. The freezer insert ended up with a rust stain due to the old freezer it was in, and I scrubbed and scrubbed and couldn't get it completely off. A friend and I were brainstorming and came up with a cloth napkin, perhaps, to cover the stain?? And then I thought of it--lettuce!!! Lettuce lined it beautifully and added a bit of "fancy'--and  the best part, no one knew there was a stain on the plastic.

Tangent: I make a sun dried tomato dip that my pastor always tells people, "Try it, it will change your life." Now THAT's a high standard!!! I did not submit the recipe to my church cookbook because, well, it's nice to have a signature dish. Perhaps that's selfish of me, but I did say I would bring it whenever there is a gathering!!!!

Daylight Savings

I hate it. It seems so pointless to me, and the kids and I Have been imbalanced since Sunday. Not to mention that so many people made it to the late service at church accidentally, due to stupid Daylight Savings!

 Here's my favorite quote:

I object to being told that I am saving daylight when my reason tells me that I am doing nothing of the kind. I even object to the implication that I am wasting something valuable if I stay in bed after the sun has risen. As an admirer of moonlight I resent the bossy insistence of those who want to reduce my time for enjoying it. At the back of the Daylight Saving scheme I detect the bony, blue-fingered hand of Puritanism, eager to push people into bed earlier, and get them up earlier, to make them healthy, wealthy and wise in spite of themselves."

-- Robertson Davies, The Diary of Samuel Marchbanks, 1947, XIX, Sunday

Spring!

Spring is coming. I've never lived in a place where all 4 seasons are experienced. The flower bed out front has little blooms beginning to pop their heads up, take stock, and open a bit. It's quite beautiful. It brings me hope. It reminds me of Ecclesiastes--that there is a time for everything. We've had a whole week of beautiful weather in the 50's, and have enjoyed taking bike rides and walks together, and heading to the duck pond to feed the ducks, swans and overbearing, obnoxious geese. But I digress.




The weather is a bit horrid today--it's a rainy, cold, windy, snuggly, sleep in, play indoors kind of day. It's a great Treehouse day, though. And it's a great day to sleep in--which is exactly what my kids did today!!!! They went to bed a bit late last night, and slept until 10:30 this morning. Thank God for miracles! :)

Another reason not to VAX

I've always been suspicious of vaccines. At Grace's very first pediatric appointment when she was a newborn, I asked the doctor about the presence of thimerosal in the shots. He looked at me as if I had grown a 3rd head and pretended he didn't know what I was talking about. So, not wanting to look dumb, I went ahead with the vaccines. Why do doctors do that? Whether he thought it was a petty issue or not, the fact is that thimerosal was just beginning to be phased out of vaccines in 2001, and he could have told me that or explained why he thought it was a non-issue.

Regardless, now that thimerosal has been phased out, a new ingredient has been added to vaccines: aluminum. Some alarming studies have come out showing elevated levels of aluminum in children who have received certain vaccines, and also showing that those children have a difficult time processing the aluminum out of their bodies.

Now the chicken pox vaccine is recommended to be administered every 2 years! And once you put the virus in a child's system, this make them more likely to experience shingles. Why not let the kid experience chicken pox and get it over with??? And why are we still vaxing for polio? It's been mostly eradicated from our country. It just seems that we're vaxing more and more, yet potentially causing serious Autistic problems in many children and exacerbating illnesses that are underlying but not full-blown--yet, until the vax.

I've decided not to put more vaccines into my children. And my daughter will never receive Gardasil, which to me represents most of my disagreements with the medical community. It's a "vaccine" to prevent cervical cancer, which is truly caused by risky sexual activity. I plan to teach my daughter responsibility and abstinence. The long term risks of Gardasil are not known, because it's such a new drug. And meanwhile, its maker is making tons of money off of this new drug which has now been shown to have considerable complications.

Vaccine Court Case

Masking Maternal Mortality

I received my Mothering magazine online today, and read with great interest an article from my hero, Ina May Gaskin. 

In the United States, our infant mortality and maternal mortality rates are extremely poor for an industrialized country. In fact, we rank at the bottom, compared with the UK, Scotland, Wales, Holland, Norway. . .

And what are we doing about it? Nothing. Doctors refuse to allow VBACs, instead jumping to do a Cesarean, based on litigation fears and extra income from a C/s, and how much easier it is for them to just cut us open and take our babies rather than waiting for women to birth naturally, a process of many hours, in most cases.

And maternal deaths go largely unreported as pregnancy/labor complications. In only 21 states does the question "Was the woman pregnant in the weeks or months before her death?" get asked. Why aren't there better records? Even the media largely shows inattention to mothers who die after giving birth. Yes, it's an unpleasant topic. But if we don't know who is dying and why, how can we improve maternal services?

Every three years in Britain, a book is published called "Why Mothers Die." It looks at accurate records and is a report card of sorts of Britan, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. As a result, they have been able to reduce maternal death. They have created an accurate, standarized form for reporting, and through their "Why Mothers Die" report, have been been considered the "gold standard" regarding self-audit, according to Gaskin.

The Department of Health and Human Services states that the mortality rate should be 3.3 maternal deaths per 100,000. Yet our reported numbers are around 13 per 100, 000. And the CDC has admitted that due to under and inaccurate reporting, our reported cases of maternal deaths could actually be three times greater than what the numbers say. This is completely unacceptable!!!! 

I understand this is an unpleasant topic. But ignoring it won't make it go away--it will, in fact, exascerbate this issue! How can we fix something if our professionals won't admit it's broken? We have a false sense of confidence in the hospitals and doctors, and until the reality is exposed, nothing will EVER change.