Mama Mentor

You might not realize it, but chances are you have a mama mentor. It may be your mom, but (no offense, mom) most likely your mom’s methods are a little outdated, if she remembers child rearing at all in the first place. I am thinking more of a friend, or a sister, someone whose initiation into motherhood came before yours. This person has introduced you to all methods, products and philosophies that you hold dear in parenting. My mama mentor is my old roommate and dear friend, Leanne.

Leanne’s youngest daughter is about a year older than my daughter, so when I was pregnant, Leanne was eager to help me out. She introduced me to baby legs, cloth diapers, EC and Ina May Gaskin. Once I had my daughter, Leanne sent me books on parenting that she found helpful. Since she is a buddhist, a life philosophy I wholly admire, I knew that her methods and my own would jive.  Now that she has daughter #2, her time is more constricted, but I still look forward to learning from her whenever I can. Thanks, Leanne.

What’s Behind that Organic Label?

When I became a mom, I became a bit more fanatical about buying organic foods, especially dairy. We all know about hormones and antibiotics in dairy. There is always the debate in the food aisle about whether to buy local or buy organic. Generally, I choose organic. Local is great for the environment, but I am thinking of the more immediate effects on my family. Our local co-op does a great job of stocking shelves with local goods that are organic, but not certified organic. That way, I know what I am getting. However, sometimes, in larger stores, we don’t have that extra service and have to choose based solely on labels. In this case, I choose the lesser of the expensive organic. But not today.

After reading this article on alternet, I had to rethink my purchase. Organic is the conscious choice and already a lot more expensive than non-organic. But when I realized that buying the cheaper organic milk, such as Horizon, was actually contributing to larger, less socially responsible, big corporations, those I try to avoid when they are in my face, I chose Organic Valley instead. It cost 70 cents more, but it is a cooperative, not a corporation. That explained the higher price tag. So, now, I am paying even more for organic.

What is truly irritating about this, money aside, is that I spend so much time reading labels on everything from shampoo to juice, and now I have to read even closer to see what corporation I am giving my money too. Even worse, most of the time the product doesn’t even tell you, for fear of losing customers.

Sometimes, we don’t have a choice between organics because there is only one, or sometimes we don’t even have organic at all, but when we do have the choice, we should make it count. This brings us back to buying local as much as possible and supporting small businesses.

Excerpt from article: “What’s important to keep in mind is that these big corporations are getting into organics not because they have doubts about their prior business practices or doubts about chemical, industrial agriculture,” said Ronnie Cummins, national director of the Organic Consumers Association. “They’re getting in because they want to make a lot of money — they want to make it fast.” He said the companies couldn’t care less about “family farmers making the transition to organic farms.”

I Want (Blank) Now.

My daughter’s new favorite words a la 22 month old is, “I want (fill in the blank) now.” She doesn’t say it in an obnoxious manner as you may imagine those words would come out. Instead it is very matter of fact twinged with a bit of sweetness, which of course is greatly emphasized by her cute little face. Regardless, the fact is, she wants something. It is as if she has begun her initiation into consumerism, the constant need to have something. It starts young. Read more »

West Coast Road Trip ’09- The Last Leg…

The impetus for our journey was our friends Yi-Jau and Brenda’s wedding in Portland at the end of June. So, once we reached our destination, we knew we had reached the climax of our journey and only the denoument was left to wrap it up.  So, we figured we better have a rockin’ good time, which we did.

We arrived in Portland on Last Thursday on Alberta Street, which was just an amazing raucous celebration of creativity, ingenuity and fun. Since we were there before the street was closed to cars, we meandered very slowly along the sidewalk checking out the bounty of wild artistry. Read more »

West Coast Road Trip ’09- Newport, Oregon

From Eugene, we had lunch in another cool little Oregon town, Corvalis, before heading to the coast. Unfortunately, we didn’t see much of it because it rained the whole time, but we did have one clear morning where we took advantage of the chilly beach and absorbed more ocean. We ended up at the very cool Newport Aquarium, which our daughter absolutely loved.

Newport Aquarium

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West Coast Road Trip ’09- Week 3

After climbing a volcano, I was ready for some serious relaxation. Since we have a hot tub at home, we are spoiled, and all I could think about was soaking in some hot water. That is when we found the wonderful and quirky Stewart Springs Resort, a historic clothing-optional mineral bathhouse in the mountains of northern Cali, east of I5.  They were very cool about having a kid. I had anticipated the possibility of having to trade off bath time with my hubby, but we ended up being able to spa simultaneously. Read more »

West Coast Road Trip ’09- Lassen Volcanic N.P.

The peak of the peak of Lassen Peak

This weekend my family and I hiked 2.5 miles with 2,000 ft elevation gain in two hours (only one way, that is) up a volcano, half of which was in the snow, at Lassen Volcanic National Park. Phew. The last portion was most grueling with some iffy snowy ledges and very steep scree-covered switchbacks. Read more »

Still Truckin’- West Coast ’09

a Joshua Tree

My husband and I both thought that Joshua Tree National Park was named for one large amazing tree that an entire park revolved around. Ends up that Joshua Tree is just a type of tree. Seems the name is deceptive because it is not called Joshua TreeS National Park. Anyway, it’s a wacky spiky tree out of Dr. Seuss. Really, the whole park with it’s weird rock formations is out of the Lorax or some such Seussian thing.  The view from Keys View was pretty amazing too; you could see the entire wind tunnel that is Cochilla Valley. Great place for kids, not so much for dogs.

Skull Rock

First Leg of West Coast Road Trip ’09

Our fancy "retro" paint job on this fixer upper

Our '66 Cardinal Travel Trailer

When my daughter was six months old we spent five weeks on the road with her driving to New Orleans (from New Mexico) and back. Things were different then. We owned a ’77 Dodge Santana Camper Van and my daughter did not walk or crawl. We sold the van and bought a travel trailer so that we would no longer have three vehicles. More importantly, my daughter, at 20 months, walks and talks, all the time. Yet, the adventerous ones that we are, we are taking another five week road trip, this time to Los Angeles and up the coast to Portland, OR. We have managed the first part of our trip and made it to L.A.

I put a lot of preparation into this trip from fixing up our ’66 Cardinal travel trailer (including setting it up with a solar power system) to packing all our basic needs, but my biggest priority was entertainment. Read more »

Vaccines?

Choosing whether or not to vaccinate my baby was one of the most difficult parenting decisions I had to make. Back in the day, people were happy just to have vaccines, but nowadays, there is so much controversy around them, you can’t take it lightly. When it was time to take my daughter to her first doctor appointment, I knew that I had to go equipped with the necessary knowledge or be bulldozed by an M.D. Read more »