Living Simply… Parenting by Instinct

This post is going to be all over the place and just a record of things I’ve been doing and things I’ve been thinking.

We’ve moved in and I’m happy b/c we’re all unpacked. Our mail is forwarded, our addresses changed on all our cards, our woodstove is working and the kids are moderately less cranky.

I’m definitely pregnant again. Xander and baby 3 will only be 15 months apart. This one shows signs of sticking it out till the end so…

I’ve been reading Childbirth without Fear and its really striking a chord with me. I think back on Austin’s birth which was without a doubt painful, and then contrast it to Xander’s birth which was more overwhelming sensations as opposed to pain. I did request pain relief both times (Austin’s didn’t seem to do anything and Xander’s arrived too late) but looking back when I asked I had reached transition and was more looking for someone or something to make it stop then really wanting pain relief. I don’t know if this makes any sense but I will be more aware with this birth that once I reach the overwhelming point to remember the baby is most likely almost crowning and it won’t be much longer. After the crowning moment the feelings come back down to a point that I can handle again. 

I came across a site today: www.savetheplasticbag.com; and may I just say "wow" I cannot believe some people but again there are still people who deny climate change and even document historical events like the holocaust. I guess it takes all kinds. I just shake my head when he states that plastic is good because it doesn’t decompose and release gases into the environment. I guess by that logic all forests, gardens, and fields should be taken down and paved over? 

Anyway thats my disjointed rambling for today. 

So I am trying to organize my thoughts on informed refusal as it relates to pregnancy and childbirth. I’ve been reading A Thinking Woman’s Guide to A Better Birth, Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth, Spiritual Midwifery, among others. I have drastically revised my view of the medical model of birth (actually more like the medical model of everything) because of these book and several websites and online forums.

I have a sister who is trying to conceive right now. I am trying to both organize my thoughts and figure out how to give her some free information without offending her; she tends towards the mainstream world views on many things. I just can’t think how to educate some of the people I know without uprooting all their beliefs towards the medical community. 

I do not want to force my opinions on her… I just want to offer her a view of another side; in my opinion a more balanced risk vs benefit tally with which to make a more informed decision. I’m just unsure as to how to proceed. 

I know its a huge fad but there may be something to this movement. I am currently reading the 100 Mile Diet. I am highly intrigued by the downsizing of the variety in our diets. I am researching old time pioneer type heirloom varieties that were once raised successfully in our area. I’m thinking of conducting experiments with fruit trees and other crops and see what I can coax into growing. Its going to be a challenge considering our location. My husband thinks I’m crazy but what is there to be lost by trying right??

I’m looking into programs like Community Supported Agriculture but I can’t find information for anything in our area. I have found some farms in both my mother and my little sister’s locations and have passed on the information; though whether or not they will do anything with it remains to be seen. I have found one farmers market in Kapukasing only 100 km away. We’re going to go check it out on Saturday. We need some produce at least until my indoor vegetables start to produce. I also have some patio tomato seeds and some strawberry seeds coming from Stokes. I’ve never tried indoor fruits and vegetables before so this winter will be an experiment.  Wish me luck.

So I’ve just finished reading  In Defense of Food and it just strikes me as such an important book.  I really was struck by the realization of how little dietians and nutritional scientists actually know about the interplay between our bodies and our foods. It makes so much sense that you cannot take individual nutrients/vitamins out of a food and test them in the lab in a vacuum and get an accurate sense of their reactions and interactions inside the body and within the context of the different foods. I can totally get behind the idea that supplements are virtually worthless as they are removed from the food context. It just makes more sense to say get more vegetables, get more eggs, get more leafy greens, get more whole grains instead of get more vitamin D, get more zinc, get more folate, ya know?

I personally have huge arguments with family members of mine who feel that the junky processed foods out there are equivalent to traditional whole foods because everything is so fortified now that everything is equal. How can you fortify something sufficiently when you don’t even yet know what makes those whole foods behave the way they do in our bodies??

In our house more and more lately, we have been attempting to buy only foods that are close to their source. In the words of one health guru, “they remember where they came from.” We favour butter over margarine, homemade bread with four ingredients over store bought with several dozen,  simple oats over premixed oatmeal. We tend towards products with ingredients we can pronounce and readily identify. We don’t use a microwave (got rid of it when it malfunctioned when my oldest was 6 months old) and since we’ve found we don’t eat as much, or as much junk. We no longer eat out boredom because it takes 10 minutes to even heat up leftovers and we tend to think before we eat. We’ve also started portioning out dinners and immediately putting leftovers in the fridge. We eat less this way and we’re just as full as ever.