Saturday, November 6, 2010
Saturday Cleaning
I'm grateful for Saturday mornings where Birch and I listen to NPR on the radio, wash the dishes, vacuum the carpet, clear up all the toys into the toy box, mop the linoleum, take out the trash, wipe down the bathroom, dust the piano, take out the corner cobwebs, brush Olive, clear off the various surfaces in the living room, clean out the fridge, and spend the rest of the day in a clean apartment squealing and rolling about with Keats and Olive, playing with toys and spreading them throughout the room once more.
Friday, November 5, 2010
Vaccines
I'm grateful for the vaccinations we have against disease. For my generation, it's hard to picture the very real threat of diseases that once devastated communities and that is something to be grateful for, not complacent about. Our pediatrician was very clear that he thought it best for Keats to be vaccinated, but seemed to feel the need to convince us of this fact. We whole-heartedly agreed with him, so questioned this need to convince us. He said that many new parents weren't having their children vaccinated because they felt it was an unnecessary medical procedure that subjected their children to dangerous illness. I understand the logic here, but I think we've forgotten what the "real" diseases do to our children. Polio, measles, Diphtheria, Rubella, etc., are really scary viruses/diseases that are far worse than any reactionary illness a child may have in response to receiving the vaccine (not including an allergy to the vaccine/something in the vaccine). Birch and I take Keats' health so seriously in the other aspects of his life, it seems backwards to not protect him in such a simple manner, especially since it's covered by our insurance!
I highly recommend reading the chapter on vaccines in Baby 411. In it, Dr. Brown discusses the facts and misconceptions surrounding the vaccine debate.
I don't remember the momentary pain of the actual shots as I received them, but I do remember having a very healthy childhood (still going strong). Yes, I had chicken pox and had to quit ballet after only one day (still slightly bitter about that. Darn you chicken pox!) I'm grateful that I'm living now and not just one hundred years ago when these vaccines didn't exist and hundreds of thousands died because of it.
Hint: The first time we took Keats to get his shots, the nurse gave him the sweet, liquid vaccine in doses between injections. This greatly calmed him down, taking his mind off the pain. The second time, we had someone else and she didn't do this. We now ask the nurse to give the liquid between injections. Distraction is a great tool... so is a little sweetness.
Schedule of Vaccines from Birth to Age Six
Vaccinatiohns/Healthcare for the Uninsured (in the Bay Area)
I highly recommend reading the chapter on vaccines in Baby 411. In it, Dr. Brown discusses the facts and misconceptions surrounding the vaccine debate.
I don't remember the momentary pain of the actual shots as I received them, but I do remember having a very healthy childhood (still going strong). Yes, I had chicken pox and had to quit ballet after only one day (still slightly bitter about that. Darn you chicken pox!) I'm grateful that I'm living now and not just one hundred years ago when these vaccines didn't exist and hundreds of thousands died because of it.
Hint: The first time we took Keats to get his shots, the nurse gave him the sweet, liquid vaccine in doses between injections. This greatly calmed him down, taking his mind off the pain. The second time, we had someone else and she didn't do this. We now ask the nurse to give the liquid between injections. Distraction is a great tool... so is a little sweetness.
Schedule of Vaccines from Birth to Age Six
Vaccinatiohns/Healthcare for the Uninsured (in the Bay Area)
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Turning In My Ballot
I'm grateful for my ability to vote for what I believe in. I'm not a very patriotic person, at least not in the waving-the-flag, singing-the-national-anthem, reciting-the-pledge-of-allegiance kind of way, but I have some serious convictions about the very real value in our right to vote.
Sometimes it feels like we're voting for the lesser of two evils and it's hard to find the truth and the excitement behind that little black line between two rectangles. Sometimes there is a very clear choice and every ounce of political energy is poured into that issue, so much so that the opposing side makes me cry just thinking about their position on the matter. So often politics is two-faced and wildly hypocritical, disgusting and down-right scandalous, but every so often, someone has a good idea, a way to carry us all through to a better reality, to an easier life, to an accepting and understanding community. However, no matter what the issue, no matter what the cause, my vote is my signature on my beliefs. It is my own declaration of independence. It gives me the right to hope for the best and complain about the worst. It spurs me to make changes in my own life and to lovingly discuss those ideals with those around me.
There is so much panic and anger in our politics lately, it's hard to feel truly grateful for all the opposing ideals, but as Evelyn Beatrice Hall wrote, "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." She wrote this describing Voltaire's politics, his passion for freedom of speech. Sometimes, elections don't turn out the way we want them to and sometimes devastatingly so, but we have to have faith that the world will keep on turning and time will keep moving forward, and as it does, what we hope for will come to pass.
I've made several personal choices in my life that have been devastating to me, but they were each made in the hope of a better life. More accurately, they were made in the hopes that I would become myself--the best version of myself. The choice to give up my own child for adoption when I was seventeen and my choice to leave the religion I grew up in because I could no longer reconcile my personal beliefs with their religious ones stand out to me as the two major decisions of my life, both heartbreaking in a way I cannot express in words, though I've tried often. Some seem to shrug off the second as my desire to not "live the standards" set forward by the religion, but it was much more difficult than that. I thought about it carefully and for a very long time. I wanted there to be an easier solution, one that would be less damaging to both me and my family, especially my parents who I felt like I was betraying. But I was miserable and ashamed living amongst something I no longer felt right, so I had no other choice. It was the vote of my life.
Our choices and beliefs make a difference in this world. No matter how much the media tries to twist our votes into their biased meaning, we are the only ones that truly know what our vote meant, what we were declaring by making it. My hope is that we take this right seriously and research our options carefully. There isn't always something on the ballot that we naturally care about, but someone out there does (otherwise there's no way it would be there) and we owe it to their fervor to take it seriously. I love to vote. I love the quest for Right behind it. I don't always love the result of the nation's choosing, but I put in my say and that is everything to me and my own feeling of worth in our society.
I'm grateful for my right to vote.
Sometimes it feels like we're voting for the lesser of two evils and it's hard to find the truth and the excitement behind that little black line between two rectangles. Sometimes there is a very clear choice and every ounce of political energy is poured into that issue, so much so that the opposing side makes me cry just thinking about their position on the matter. So often politics is two-faced and wildly hypocritical, disgusting and down-right scandalous, but every so often, someone has a good idea, a way to carry us all through to a better reality, to an easier life, to an accepting and understanding community. However, no matter what the issue, no matter what the cause, my vote is my signature on my beliefs. It is my own declaration of independence. It gives me the right to hope for the best and complain about the worst. It spurs me to make changes in my own life and to lovingly discuss those ideals with those around me.
There is so much panic and anger in our politics lately, it's hard to feel truly grateful for all the opposing ideals, but as Evelyn Beatrice Hall wrote, "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." She wrote this describing Voltaire's politics, his passion for freedom of speech. Sometimes, elections don't turn out the way we want them to and sometimes devastatingly so, but we have to have faith that the world will keep on turning and time will keep moving forward, and as it does, what we hope for will come to pass.
I've made several personal choices in my life that have been devastating to me, but they were each made in the hope of a better life. More accurately, they were made in the hopes that I would become myself--the best version of myself. The choice to give up my own child for adoption when I was seventeen and my choice to leave the religion I grew up in because I could no longer reconcile my personal beliefs with their religious ones stand out to me as the two major decisions of my life, both heartbreaking in a way I cannot express in words, though I've tried often. Some seem to shrug off the second as my desire to not "live the standards" set forward by the religion, but it was much more difficult than that. I thought about it carefully and for a very long time. I wanted there to be an easier solution, one that would be less damaging to both me and my family, especially my parents who I felt like I was betraying. But I was miserable and ashamed living amongst something I no longer felt right, so I had no other choice. It was the vote of my life.
Our choices and beliefs make a difference in this world. No matter how much the media tries to twist our votes into their biased meaning, we are the only ones that truly know what our vote meant, what we were declaring by making it. My hope is that we take this right seriously and research our options carefully. There isn't always something on the ballot that we naturally care about, but someone out there does (otherwise there's no way it would be there) and we owe it to their fervor to take it seriously. I love to vote. I love the quest for Right behind it. I don't always love the result of the nation's choosing, but I put in my say and that is everything to me and my own feeling of worth in our society.
I'm grateful for my right to vote.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Ready, Get Set, Jump!
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| The obligatory JUMP photo! Photo by Cindy Loughridge. |
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| They even got me to destress before the wedding enough to be a bit sassy! Photo by Cindy Loughridge. |
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| Me with Cindy, herself! Couldn't have been happier to have her and her "crew" shooting us that day. Photo by Seth Restaino. |
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| Sensei Jeremy giving Birch a real massage before the wedding. Photo by Seth Restaino. |
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| Eight months pregnant with Keats and feeling beautiful with Cindy and Seth at the helm. Photo by Cindy Loughridge. |
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Lists Make My World Go 'Round
I am grateful for grocery lists, grid paper, and budget spreadsheets. I used to be a real impulse buyer, and yes, I still let the occasional spontaneous inspiration strike me, but ever since I was pregnant and became crazy forgetful about everything, lists became my best friend. We're like this: ____.
Oh, wait, you can't actually see me. Right. Well, anyway, now I research all big furniture purchases like crazy and plan everything out on grid paper before I buy. I consult my handy-dandy Excel budget spreadsheet and figure out how much we can afford that month and if we'll need to stow some away into savings for next month to make the purchase then. This may seem very stuff-oriented, but it has actually greatly diminished our acquisition of stuff. It's great! We tend to spend a bit more on each item due to its better quality which translates into having nicer and less stuff = perfect for clutter-loving people that now have a crawling baby. That's not necessarily true. We don't really love clutter, but we have a real hard time at saying goodbye to things, especially little knick knacks. Sometimes we think we'd like to rent a storage unit, but as my wise eldest brother said once, "By the time you've paid a year's worth of storage unit rent, you could have bought everything in that unit four times over." That is especially true with our crap, because it really is purely of sentimental value. Which leads me to the wonderful To-Do List.
Some shiver just at the thought of a To-Do List which I completely understand, especially in light of my status as one suffering from panic and anxiety disorders. But I figured out a way to make it a less-stress, if not no-stress, kind of list. I list things as they come to mind and for the most part, do them as I'm inspired to tackle them. Some things lose their priority as others pop up and more often than not, things simply disappear off the list entirely which is glorious in its own way. I include both dream-type to-do's as well as absolutely necessary to-do's. What is a dream-type to-do? Oh, like "research organic farmland available for sale in California," "make every present by hand this year," and "go to Thailand for a year." They are not necessarily the type of thing you merely cross off a list. Oh, and I love crossing things off the list. Sometimes I'll add things to the list after I've done them just so I can cross them off and feel like I accomplished more during my day. Example: "Change Keats' diapers." I would actually love to start a project where I use a chalkboard for the daily to-do's and take a picture of it everyday for a year. THAT would be interesting... to me.
I wish I could say that the monthly budget is a lifesaver, but we struggle to keep to it. Right now we're in the process of re-examining what we spend our money on and how much. We've made it a priority to spend at least half of our income (after rent and bills) to our food. Obviously, this makes the purchasing of anything else during the month a major purchase and we've decided that though it can feel tight, etc., we enjoy the feeling of eating local, sustainable, better food each day. I know for a fact that it has seriously contributed to my general health, especially while breastfeeding. Going about our budget in this way also opens up some serious communication between Birch and I that I wouldn't trade for anything. We don't just talk about how much we want to spend on what but why we want to spend our money on that thing. Each month it changes and sometimes we even trade off access to the truly extra money each month. In September, we had the great enjoyment of hanging around with my sister and her family while they visited in England (and still managed to buy Birch several new pieces of clothing for work). In October, I got to go to a Cat Power concert and a girls' night out with Miriam and Leslie (so fun!), I bought a new hand knit scarf (so obsessed), Birch went to a bar with our neighbors to watch some UFC fights he was particularly interested in, and I got to procure the necessary ingredients for a Human Cannonball costume for Keats. This month: a chair for Keats, Thanksgiving dinner ingredients, and Christmas presents!
So, here's to making lists, making life easier, making plans, making dreams come true, and making time for the things we enjoy most!
Oh, wait, you can't actually see me. Right. Well, anyway, now I research all big furniture purchases like crazy and plan everything out on grid paper before I buy. I consult my handy-dandy Excel budget spreadsheet and figure out how much we can afford that month and if we'll need to stow some away into savings for next month to make the purchase then. This may seem very stuff-oriented, but it has actually greatly diminished our acquisition of stuff. It's great! We tend to spend a bit more on each item due to its better quality which translates into having nicer and less stuff = perfect for clutter-loving people that now have a crawling baby. That's not necessarily true. We don't really love clutter, but we have a real hard time at saying goodbye to things, especially little knick knacks. Sometimes we think we'd like to rent a storage unit, but as my wise eldest brother said once, "By the time you've paid a year's worth of storage unit rent, you could have bought everything in that unit four times over." That is especially true with our crap, because it really is purely of sentimental value. Which leads me to the wonderful To-Do List.
Some shiver just at the thought of a To-Do List which I completely understand, especially in light of my status as one suffering from panic and anxiety disorders. But I figured out a way to make it a less-stress, if not no-stress, kind of list. I list things as they come to mind and for the most part, do them as I'm inspired to tackle them. Some things lose their priority as others pop up and more often than not, things simply disappear off the list entirely which is glorious in its own way. I include both dream-type to-do's as well as absolutely necessary to-do's. What is a dream-type to-do? Oh, like "research organic farmland available for sale in California," "make every present by hand this year," and "go to Thailand for a year." They are not necessarily the type of thing you merely cross off a list. Oh, and I love crossing things off the list. Sometimes I'll add things to the list after I've done them just so I can cross them off and feel like I accomplished more during my day. Example: "Change Keats' diapers." I would actually love to start a project where I use a chalkboard for the daily to-do's and take a picture of it everyday for a year. THAT would be interesting... to me.
I wish I could say that the monthly budget is a lifesaver, but we struggle to keep to it. Right now we're in the process of re-examining what we spend our money on and how much. We've made it a priority to spend at least half of our income (after rent and bills) to our food. Obviously, this makes the purchasing of anything else during the month a major purchase and we've decided that though it can feel tight, etc., we enjoy the feeling of eating local, sustainable, better food each day. I know for a fact that it has seriously contributed to my general health, especially while breastfeeding. Going about our budget in this way also opens up some serious communication between Birch and I that I wouldn't trade for anything. We don't just talk about how much we want to spend on what but why we want to spend our money on that thing. Each month it changes and sometimes we even trade off access to the truly extra money each month. In September, we had the great enjoyment of hanging around with my sister and her family while they visited in England (and still managed to buy Birch several new pieces of clothing for work). In October, I got to go to a Cat Power concert and a girls' night out with Miriam and Leslie (so fun!), I bought a new hand knit scarf (so obsessed), Birch went to a bar with our neighbors to watch some UFC fights he was particularly interested in, and I got to procure the necessary ingredients for a Human Cannonball costume for Keats. This month: a chair for Keats, Thanksgiving dinner ingredients, and Christmas presents!
So, here's to making lists, making life easier, making plans, making dreams come true, and making time for the things we enjoy most!
Monday, November 1, 2010
I Have a Confession: I've Been Thinking About Christmas Since August...
From Anthropologie (I love their ornaments each year):
From Pottery Barn:
I love looking through catalogs and getting ideas for what to make myself for this year's holiday season. So many things could easily be made yourself with just a little "empty" time. I'm the first to admit that I also love purchasing a few (I'll most likely grab those stocking holders). Despite myself, sometimes buying things really does make me feel a bit better, or perhaps just a bit easier. It helps me to feel like I'm not constantly thinking about money, about scrimping and saving.
Plus, I absolutely LOVE decorating for the holidays. I'm actually somewhat ashamed at myself for completely letting Halloween go by unnoticed in our home. I'm not really into the spooky decor you see in the shops, though, so I'll have to think of something fitting for next year. Perhaps just a plethora of black cat cut-outs doing different things among a bunch of jack-o-lanterns? We'll see. Here's to planning (most decidedly another favorite thing)!
So, for the next two months, I know what I'll be doing! Searching, planning, and crafting my way to the holidays. If I spot anything super sweet, I'll let you know. Maybe I'll even get in a tutorial or something fancy like that. I'll ask now.. any favorite shops, recipes, activities you especially love during the holidays? Let me know!
p.s. - Believe me, I'm all over Etsy on this one, but didn't have time to pick my favorites for this blog. Plus, Etsy totally deserves its own blog, for sure. :)
Chow Mein from a Pan
I am thankful for homemade chow mein. Birch makes this treat of a dinner almost every week because I love it so. I was absolutely obsessed with noodles while I was pregnant and my taste for these in particular is not waning. He gets the noodles fresh from a place in San Jose (they sell them at the market here), boils them, then stir fries them with carrots, greens, onions, ginger, spicy peppers, mushrooms, and all kinds of different sauces that I am afraid to use. Sometimes he even fries up tofu slices and that just throws this already amazing dish over the edge! With the addition of Thai basil fresh from our garden, there's very little in the culinary world that makes me happier.
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