Birthing Community of Utah

We dropped the ball!  Completely and totally dropped the ball!  Why did Senator Dayton of District 15 get reelected?  She has done her best to strip the rights of birthing women in this state.  We knew this!  We fight every single year on the hill for our rights because of bills she is sponsoring.  She was up for reelection this year and won by a landslide of nearly 80% of the votes!   Why, as a birthing community did we let this happen?  Why were we not campaigning against her?  For six more years she will continue to try to strip the rights of birthing mothers in this state.  For six more years we will be fighting for our rights on the hill every year.

Utah has a large community of birthing women.  This effects us all.

I am so disappointed in the organizations that should have been standing up to her this election.  This was your chance to get her out of office.  And you blew it.  You didn’t even try.

 

Election Day

Today is election day.  It is a great day of the year.  A chance to speak our voice as Americans.    I was able to take advantage of early voting and it worked out really well with my little girls.  The lines weren’t too long and the people helping were all really nice to them.  I am excited to see the results come in tonight.  Maybe one person I voted for will win.  I doubt it.   But one can always hope!

Interesting note

Of all registered voters in the state of Utah, 9% are registered democrats.

Slow Down

I have been focusing on simplifying my life and focusing on my children.  I am happiest when focused on my children and they respond better.  Today I experienced another example of just how important this is.

It was a busy morning.  Bread to make, laundry to be washed and put away, dishes to be washed, shopping to be done.  My goal was dinner in the crock pot before noon and I had to make a supermarket trip to make that happen.  It was already 11 a.m. and I was trying to get the little girls ready and out the door.  Rush rush rush.  We were now at the supermarket rushing to get done and Z wanted to get the oranges.  She wanted to do this herself.  Of course anytime a four year old wants to do something herself it is going to take more time.  But I relented and let her get the oranges.  So very sweetly she started counting the oranges as she put them in the bag.  One, two, three…..and then I realized I was playing my morning all wrong.  It wasn’t about getting dinner in the crock pot by noon.  What is another hour going to do?  It is about enjoying my little girls and giving them the opportunity to explore their world.

Through the eyes of a child

Today was our first snowfall of the season.  I am not one that loves winter.  In fact, I could probably do without it and be just a happy little lark.  But I live high in the Wasatch Mountains.  Winter comes early in my neck of the woods.

I woke to snowfall.  We had an amazing hail storm last night.  I enjoyed listening to the hail bounce off my roof and windows.  Snow for me is a little different.  This morning we woke up to just a dusting.

I was trying really hard to think of something positive to say.  I came up with “Well, it’s white.”  Not positive, not negative.  Just a neutral fact.  Then I got even more clever.  ”White, Cold, and Wet.”  Still…all neutral facts.  I was grasping.

Then sweet Z woke up.  I told her it had snowed and she got big eyed and excited.  ”Can we make snow angels?”  There isn’t nearly enough snow for that.  But to see the snow through her eyes was refreshing and wonderful.  I now could think of some positive things to say about the snow.

Snow Angels with my little girls.

A Nice fat snowman in our front yard

Maybe even a snow cave!  That would be awesome (we would have to get quite a bit for that and we don’t always.)

Sledding at the park.

All things wonderful I loved about the snow when I was her age.  All things wonderful to now experience with my children.  In the next several weeks we have to look forward to snow angels!  Can’t beat that.

**On a side note**

When I was pregnant with baby L I was walking home with Isaac.  He was laying down in the snow to make snow angels.  He asked me if I wanted to do this.  I was 9 months pregnant.  I said “If I lay down to make a snow angel, I wouldn’t be able to get back up.”  In his sweet little 6 year old voice he said “A crane could lift you up.”

a little disappointing

Isaac and I have been anticipating the meteor shower that hit this weekend.  We had big plans of going to the cabin to watch it.  We talked about where it would be.  We talked about how to tell the difference between the stars, the planets, the meteors and satellites.  And then we had heavy cloud coverage with rain all weekend and we couldn’t see anything!  Isaac took it all in stride but is a little disappointed.  We will try to catch the next one.

Halloween Unit

We started our Halloween unit today.  I love the weeks we do a unit study.  We skip them in Calvert (we are working ahead) and then go back and do them.  But I’ve found when we go back it just seems redundant and things Z already knows solidly.  I review the lessons quickly and we get to spend the rest of the week doing some extra fun stuff.  Today we did arts and crafts.  We made ghost hands and accordion jack o lanterns.   Z did several mazes and we colored, painted, worked on the letter B (for Bat).  I am amazed how fast Z is learning right now.

L was napping through most of school today.

Cooking and Baking

I enjoy cooking and baking.  I feel connected to my people, the mothers that have gone before me when I cook.   I think about the mothers before me who cooked for their little children.  There is such a connection to the earth and my heritage through cooking.  My people are Irish/Scottish/Welsh on my mother’s side and Scandinavian on my father’s side.  I especially love to cook foods I think that my ancestor mothers cooked and fed their families and their children.

Back to Homeschooling

Today Z and I went back to school.  Z spent last week with her Dad in California and this week we had the last of the amazing weather and spent the week outside and trying to get her on schedule a little bit.  L and I have been doing her school the past couple of weeks.  She stayed home with me and she gets up earlier than Z.

Z and I did lessons 69 and 70 in Calvert Pre-K.  Next week we will do a Halloween Unit.  L and I have been reading “The Little Rabbit” and doing the BFIAR activities.  She isn’t quite old enough to do most of the activities so we do lots of drawing.    She will do the Halloween Unit with us next week.

It was wonderful being back to school with them.  I love homeschooling.

Hypnobabies really works

Today the big kids and I had dentist appointments. I can not tell you how much I dread the dentist. So much that I have rescheduled my appointment twice. I almost called and cancelled yesterday but it was a good week to go. I was last of the three of us to go. It had to do with getting kids back to school and worked best if I went last. Extra time to stress about it.
Once in the chair I flipped right into my hypnobabies mode and went right to my happy place. I had taken a hypnobabies class for my doula training and have worked with a couple of clients using some form of hypnobabies/hypnobirthing. (I’d rather give birth than go to the dentist, at least you get a squishy little newborn out of that.) I was surprised how easily and quickly and without thinking about it I went right into hypnobabies techniques. They need a new slogan “hypnobabies, not just for birthing.”