Aww look at my sweet girl!

I have no idea what she is licking or why she is licking it. In our two years together I have learned not to ask such outrageous questions.

We all know she’s a bit of a blogaholic. In some smaller circles, there might even be a bit of a following for her blog, Two Dolla.  But as of today, I believe she may be entering the blog elite.  She was interviewed!  You can read that little bit of Interweb history here.

Midwifin’ My Life

We all know that I’m going to school to become a midwife. It’s pretty much all I talk about, if you let me.  Really. If you don’t’ want to hear about how excited I am for the semester to start on May 3, do not ask me about school. Because I’ll probably talk your ear off.

But I started thinking over the last few days about that word “midwife”, to midwife. It’s really so much larger than just a woman who catches babies.  It’s a really verb. To love, to honor, to support, to respect, to usher, to midwife.

And wow. I’ve been midwifing the hell out of my life lately.  My life has truly moved into a new era and I really love it.  Had you asked me ten years ago if I ever thought my life would get to this place, I would have honestly had to tell you no. I had no faith or hope left in me. I could not imagine being able to pull of my daily responsibilities, let alone be thriving the way I have been in the last few months.  It’s amazing really.

Working Girl, Healing Girl, Traveling Girl…Does it ever end?

So, two weeks ago, I started a job.  A real job where I have to put on stockings and heels in the morning and stop at the coffee shop on my way into the office. It’s not bad. Pretty mundane really. But it is a means to an end. I want to use the money that I make through this job to be able to fund the remainder of my education, and possibly be able to set some aside for some travel and workshops this summer/fall.

The office world is one that I seem to have forgotten the ins and outs of, but I’m catching back on quickly.  Remembering that I cannot get sidetracked, that I need to keep myself focused and organized.  It’s hard for me to know that I can’t go on a two hour tangent of searching for information on something I find interesting when I have a deadline for the project I’m currently working on.

Last weekend we went to Milwaukee to celebrate a friend’s birthday. There were 8 of us in our little “party”.  We managed to get hotel rooms in a beautiful hotel right in downtown for $40 a night, thanks to Priceline.  We toured the wonderful Lakefront Brewery, which was much more fun than the Miller Brewery tour we took on our trip there in July.  Beer flowed freely (at least by my standards, five beers over the course of a tour is freely), W got to reenact the infamous Lavern and Shirley Glove Scene as we all sang the theme music, and we get to yell Bung Hole.  Glorious, truly.  We had dinner at a bar/restaurant that delivered peanuts to us via a bomber on a metal track. Being the notorious international secret agents that we are, we had to pay a visit to the Safe House.  Unfortunately, half way through the first day I started feeling a cold coming  on.  By the time we made it to the Safe House on Saturday night, I was exhausted, feverish, congested, and truly had hit my wall.  I wandered back to the hotel along the Riverwalk and ordered room service.  I love room service and it always makes me feel fancy.  That kind of made up for being sick on vacation.  All in all, it was a wonderful trip, even with the plague hitting me. Let’s just not mention the bartender.  Ever.

The plague has continued since we got home late Sunday.  I’ve been fighting it off, but it’s a slow process, which has lead to me being unable to hear much of anything from the clogged ears, unable to taste or smell anything due to the clogged nose, and essentially unable to move at anything more than a snail’s pace because I’ve been unable to breathe.  I’ve been using my neti pot religiously, drinking Emergen-C, taking echinacea and golden seal. Nothing seems to be working.   I’ve had to resort to NyQuil and AlkaSeltzer Cold.  It’s that bad.  The body aches are gone as of this morning, and it seems as though the congestion is starting to fade.  Hopefully only a few more days of this.

Dreaming

I got on the computer this morning fully intending to write a post for my student midwifery blog.  I was looking through sites and reading articles to formulate the post when I came across this beautiful little family:

Enchanted Gypsy

And the crazy little nomad that runs my brain started dreaming; dreaming of finding an old bus or van, converting it over to WVO (waste veggie oil), and traveling; dreaming of falling asleep surrounded by redwoods one night and next to the ocean the next night; dreaming of offering women’s health care at festivals and gatherings around the continent out of the back of my little house on wheels.  It’s been my dream since 1996, when I was 19 years old and living on site at Hawkwood Fantasy Faire.  I became pregnant with The Boy at that faire and wanted so badly to just stay ensconced in that beautiful little world inside a world. It felt safe and comfortable; cloistered, but instead of religious vows, vows of freedom and love and autonomy.

It’s idealistic. I know.  There is no part of me that is delusional enough to believe that my dream is idealistic and romantic.  The life I have created is not quite condensable to bus size, i.e there is no way on God’s green earthThe Boy or W would be willing to sell off everything and live in a bus.

But I won’t give up the dream all together.  I will travel at some point.  Most likely it will be after The Boy is gone on his own and it will only be for summer’s, or  a month or two at a time.  Most likely it will just be me and one of the dogs.  But it will be my travels and my adventures and my dream.

Families On The Road

Live Lightly Tour

Happy Janssens

Building Luna

Poor neglected little blog, and an unexpected parenting rant

I have not been a good blogger in the last few months.  I have gotten fairly overwhelmed with things in analog life and, unfortunately, have let my digital life slide to the wayside.  I have two blogs that have just been languishing in the dark. Poor things. I really need to make a more concentrated effort on blogging.  Maybe I will take this new time I have set aside in my schedule to do that.

The midwifery education trudges on. I won’t bore you with details here, but if you want to, you can keep track of that portion of my life over at Birthing Journey.

I generally hate personal rants and diatribes on blogs. I tend to gloss over. And if you want to gloss over this one, you are totally allowed to, of course. But I gotta put it out into the world cause it is driving me absolutely batty as of late.

See, the thing is… Parenting is really hard. And I get that. I really do. I’ve been doing it for nigh on 13 years myself. I get it. It’s the hardest job we will ever, ever be given.

That doesn’t however excuse you from being a responsible member of society and, more importantly, teaching your children how to be responsible members of their society!

Case in point– We’ve been planning on The Boy taking a school trip to Mexico for about six months now. Within the last month, there has been torrential rain and mudslides in the area that they would have been spending the majority of their time. The village has been evacuated and when the residents begin to return, they will be filling the majority of the accommodations available because their homes have been destroyed.  This left us with the option of sending the kids to Mexico, but having them remain in Mexico City with no definite itinerary or plan, or canceling the trip all together and receive airline vouchers for the kids’ tickets.  To me, this was an incredibly logical choice. These are 11, 12, and 13 year old children, ten of them to be exact, with three parent chaperons and one teacher. In one of the largest cities in the world. With one of the highest crime rates (one police officer was killed and one was injured PER WEEK in 1997!)  With one of the worst cases of pollution in the world.  Not exactly a place I want my 12 year old spending 6 days without a very definite plan.

1. She was relying on a child to make a very adult decision (COME ON! If I asked The Boy what he wanted, he would gladly go to Mexico City by himself!  Who cares about safety, logistics, planning…)
2. In a very heated ADULT conversation, she was keeping her kid updated on what other parents and teachers were saying, including her own ranting which was not in anyway forgiving of the teacher or the school for that matter. There were a number of bold and direct insults about the school and the individual teacher in all of her emails.

I’ve been looking for a great new pair of winter shoes.  I found a cute pair of Mary Janes last week at the thrift store, but once the snow hits the ground they just aren’t going to cut it.

I got an invitation to check out Sterling Leather, and they seems to have some decent prices and a great selection of Frye Boots and Minnetonka Moccasins. Not that I’m much of a moccasin person, but hey, ya never know when you’re going to need to make a trip back to 1983.

These on the other hand, I could handle…

Life moves on

WOW.  Things have changed so much around here in the nearly two months since I have posted.  I feel completely disconnected from this blog and that is such a shame.  I really truly love it.

But I got incredibly engrossed in my other blog for a few months while I was going through the treatment program.  I won’t grouse about that here, because really it’s a pretty boring topic.  I’ll tell you though that it is done and I couldn’t be happier about it.  I have time to actually DO things again.

And do things I am!

I don’t even know where to start.  I am finally back on my path to becoming a midwife.  This has been a long time coming and I think I just really needed to focus in for awhile to get reacquainted with myself before I could put this much effort into something so life altering.  And now, I’m much more ready than I have ever been.

I made the decision shortly after my last post, dated August 2, to completely delve into birth work again.  I dug out all of my old information on doula certifications, started researching midwifery schools, talking to midwives, talking to doulas….  Now mind you, education in the birth world never ends.  It doesn’t require curriculum.  Traditionally women learned about birth from other women.  And so I have been in a constant state of educating myself since my passion for birth bubbled over about ten years ago.  I spent some time working toward doula certification five years ago, but life got in the way and I had to pull back for awhile.  Now I am back with more zeal than I realized that I had in myself.  I have been meeting doula clients left and right, and have two confirmed births scheduled over the next few months.

The biggest news for me was that I was awarded the Heart of a Midwife Scholarship from Ancient Art of Midwifery Institute.  It is such a wonderful gift and I am so very honored to feel that kind of support from the school. I will be starting school when the new term begins on November 1.

I’ve begun documenting the process in yet another new blog, Birthing Journey.  Hopefully I will be able to keep up both blogs now.  We will see.

Tags: future, midwifery

Hah~  I’m so good at trying to come up with ways to get myself to blog and then totally blowing them off.  It’s pathetic.

I have to admit that I’ve been pretty overloaded with all the health related stuff I’ve been trying to do.  Between writing on my other blog, riding my bike further and further each day, and trying to stay on top of the rest of my health, I’ve kind of been lazy when it comes to trying to post here regularly.

But, I actually have been following through with the cleaning and organizing.  Just not in the method I originally intended and not on the time line that I had planned.

Thus far I have been taking on one major project a week.  I started out with the pantry.

BEFORE                                                  AFTER

As part of the process I bought myself a brand new label maker and promptly fell head over heals in love with the damn thing. Honestly, I’ve considered labeling W and The Boy with it.  Each and every basket in the pantry has a label.  Each shelf has a label.  It’s perfection.

My next major project was the bathroom.  We adore our duplex.  We really truly do.  It’s vintage and cozy and cute.  But the bathroom downright sucks.  There is not a single cupboard or cabinet in the place.  So, back to Target I went for more baskets and storage drawers.  It is now also perfection, though I haven’t had the chance to photograph it yet.

I think my next project will be the sun porch, but honestly that’s going to drain me of all available cleaning resources for a week or two.

W and I have also taken a  5 A Day Clutter Away Challenge, along with Jenni and Matt and Jumi.  It will culminate in what will look like a big ol’ Awesome Garage Sale, but will really be the group of us drinking lots of cocktails and convincing people to buy our George Foreman grills for $.50.

My contributions to the clutter box thus far have been –

Day 1:

1. Pedometer that I replaced with a much more reliable one
2. Black canvas Mary Janes that gave me big ol’ blisters
3. A lovely kitchen prayer sign that I received for Awesome Christmas but didn’t match our kitchen.
4. A box of short pillar candles minus one candle.  I bought them because I wanted ONE unscented white candle and could only find them in an eight back.
5. A blue plastic Easter basket.

Day 2:

1. A ceramic monkey head bank that The Boy has no interest in.  He can’t seem to save fifty cents, let alone enough to bother putting in a bank.
2. A bunch of perfume and scented lotions my sister gave me, including four purse sized tubes of Sunflowers Hand Cream and a bottle of Tommy. . Um…So not my style.
3. A pretty, heavy-cardboard box that my sister gave me to store girly stuff in, but I never got around to using.
4. Floral silky shirt that I got on clearance at Target and only wore once
5. Blue tunic style shirt that I got on clearance at Target, wore a few times, and then stopped because someone asked me if I was pregnant every time I wore it.

So that’s 10 things and it’s only day two.  Keep an eye out here if you want to a preview of all the other amusing and amazing things that you’ll be able to find at the garage sale, or if you want to see all the strange and useless stuff I’ve managed to gather up over time.

Motivation to blog

This blog has been so neglected.  But I just haven’t had anything to write about.  I’ve been trying to keep my health stuff on the “other blog” and since it has been taking up so much of my time,  and I haven’t had a lot going on, I just haven’t had the motivation I need to write posts here.  That needs to change.  I need to find more balance in my life and obviously if my focus has been completely on the “other blog” then I’m not balancing very well.

I’ve decided to take on a couple of projects for this blog to chronicle.  Hopefully to get me back into the right frame of mind for writing.

Spring Cleaning/Decluttering

It’s still Spring.  The first day of Summer isn’t until June 21.  So, I figure if I get started on Spring Cleaning before that date, it is still technically Spring Cleaning.  I’m going to be using a combination of the Spring Cleaning Party plan on Simple Mom and the “party” variations and tips on Organizing Your Way.

Starting tomorrow, I’ll try to post some before and after photos as I work through each area.  We’ll see how it goes.

“Soon-To-Be Niece/Nephew” Baby Blanket

I’m working my way through a blanket for my sister’s baby.  She is due at the end of October or beginning of November.  She is 40 and this will be her first child.  She’s been wanting this for so long and it’s incredibly exciting for her (and really for our whole family).  So, I started a blanket for her.  It’s a pretty simple pattern but with a rather pretty yarn, and it doesn’t require that I do a whole lot of thinking while I knit.  I’m going to try to get some early stage pictures here in the next few days.  I’m only about 2/9 the way through it (heh.  9 squares, obviously).   We’ll see how the finishing goes, since I’m going to have to sew up all those seems.  Should be an interesting learning process.

Photographic State Weeks Five Through Nine

Week Five

1. 29/365: Grumpy’s, 2. 30/365: Minnesota Blue, 3. 31/365: Classic camera of a camera, 4. 32/365: Worry and Obsess, 5. 33/365: daily dose, 6. 33/365: Hennepin Avenue Bridge, 7. 35/365: In the club….

Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.

Week Six

1. 36/365: Counterpart, 2. 37/365: TOO MUCH!, 3. 38/365 Humpty Dumpty Sat On A Wall, 4. 39/365 NE Arts District, 5. 40/365: Beautiful Abigail, 6. 41/365: The Boy, Me, and The Nephew, 7. 42/365: Time to start my seeds!

Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.

Week Seven

1. 43/365: Clean Kitchen!, 2. 44/365: Surprise Garden, 3. 45/365: Neighbor Caprice, 4. 46/365: Home Spa Day, 5. 47/365 Pre Game Drinks, 6. 48/365: LACROSS!, 7. 49/365: Doodling my imminent future

Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.

Week Eight

1. 50/365: The Parking Lot, 2. 51/365: Not a fan of the rain, 3. 52/365: Jell-o shot bullets, 4. 53/365: Uno and Foster Mama, 5. 54/365: Fixin’ the brakes, 6. 55/365: Pure Class, 7. 56/365: Black and white

Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.

Week Nine

1. 57/365: Worst GB Sign photo EVER, 2. 58/365: Off to the laboratory….., 3. 59/365: Post Therapy Flush, 4. 60/365, 5. 61/365, 6. 62/365, 7. 63/365

Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.