Dumping Ground

Italian Basil, Day 16: The AeroGarden has been a great adventure...

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 21:45:29 -0400

Italian Basil, Day 16: The AeroGarden has been a great adventure for my 4 year old niece. Every time she comes over, she pulls out the kitchen stool to get a closer look, and to ooh and ahh at the rate of plant growth. It’s very exciting and gratifiying for her to see tangible new growth every time she comes over.

Purple Basil, Day 16

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 21:45:24 -0400

Purple Basil, Day 16

Chives, Day 16

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 21:45:19 -0400

Chives, Day 16

Thyme, Day 16

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 21:45:12 -0400

Thyme, Day 16

Mint, Day 16

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 21:45:07 -0400

Mint, Day 16

indonesia - a set on Flickr

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 12:12:27 -0400

indonesia - a set on Flickr: Steph Goralnick, one of my favorite Flickr photographers, went to Indonesia and has graced us with an awesome set of photos. Steph is also on tumblr… Funemployed

Got Two Cents for Bonnie?

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 10:29:20 -0400

Got Two Cents for Bonnie?: Bonnie Kaplan, of the Hudson Valley Writing Project, is working on a Digital Storytelling piece about the NWP/ELL conference and has a draft up on YouTube. She is looking for feedback, so check…

Now I Know Why SAHMs Stay Home…: Too Much Laundry!! My...

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 11:02:59 -0400

Now I Know Why SAHMs Stay Home…: Too Much Laundry!! My babe is not even born yet and her wardrobe is three times the size of mine.

King Likes Paper: We got a baby gift today that came packaged in...

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 23:14:42 -0400

King Likes Paper: We got a baby gift today that came packaged in a big box stuffed with a huge sheet of crumbled up kraft paper. Perfect cat bedding, apparently!

Tuesday Slice of Life, Chapter 12

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 08:27:16 -0400

Tuesday Slice of Life, Chapter 12:

I knew that when I left my school back in January, I would miss my teachers the most. We had great comradeship and got along houses afire. Yesterday evening, the lovely ladies I taught…

The Diaper Cake: I was BLOWN away by this centerpiece. My...

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 08:11:35 -0400

The Diaper Cake: I was BLOWN away by this centerpiece. My friends Leslie and Marlyne built it togther, from the diapers up.

The Phoenix: A caffeine-free Rooibos tea, with honey, caramel...

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 08:11:29 -0400

The Phoenix: A caffeine-free Rooibos tea, with honey, caramel and vanilla. I’m so glad I had my own pot! I couldn’t have shared.

The Girls

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 08:11:21 -0400

The Girls

The Spread

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 08:11:15 -0400

The Spread

Go-Go: I need to get the babe some white go-go boots to go with...

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 08:11:07 -0400

Go-Go: I need to get the babe some white go-go boots to go with this dress!

: This little doll recites The Lord’s Prayer when you...

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 08:11:01 -0400

: This little doll recites The Lord’s Prayer when you squeeze it. Too cute.

: A girl can never have enough clothes!

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 08:10:56 -0400

: A girl can never have enough clothes!

Don’t tell my mom…: Lee gave the babe a Yankee...

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 08:10:45 -0400

Don’t tell my mom…: Lee gave the babe a Yankee outfit, which will surely make my mother unhappy but made my friend Sue VERY happy, especially since Lee was thoughtful enough to get a matching outfit for Sue’s little girl, so our babies could be Yankee “twins.”

Memoir Mondays, Chapter 3

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 08:35:53 -0400

Memoir Mondays, Chapter 3:

On Thursday, we had our 36 week check-up. All is well with the babe but she is currently presenting breech. The hospital where I am giving birth has a policy of doing C-Sections…

My creation: On Thursday, we had our 36 week check-up. All is...

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 21:32:01 -0400

My creation: On Thursday, we had our 36 week check-up. All is well with the babe but she is currently presenting breech. The hospital where I am giving birth has a policy of doing C-Sections with breech babies, so I am on a clock. The babe has three weeks to turn around before the section, which was scheduled rather swiftly, too swiftly for our comfort. Since then, I’ve been feeling an enormous onslaught of emotion. My fears towards the C-Section stem from anxiety about having surgery (which I’ve never had before, ever! I’ve never even broken a bone!), feelings of inadequacy, concerns about how this affects our insurance (stupid, I know!), and so on. I’ve been doing research online not just about C-Sections but about turning around a breech baby, in an attempt to gain some control and ownership over this. I’ve had a relatively easy pregnancy, no complications, no stress, not even any swelling in my ankles (heh). And now… it’s all catching up to me. One of the things I read online was that barring any other condition, a breech presentation can be caused by the baby feeling the need to comfort the mother by getting close to her heart, picking up on the mother’s anxiety and fear. This makes sense to me. While I haven’t felt stressed out these 9 months, I do tend to internalize my stress and pretend it isn’t there, or manifest the stress in other ways. In this case, I’ve had plenty of external, non-baby things to stress out about, like our kitchen renovation and our financial security (I quit my job in January). Taking a cue from Birthing From Within, I decided to do some journaling and visualization exercises to try and purge these feelings from my system— not just my feelings about having a C-Section but my feelings about being a mother. After journaling, I copied all the negative words onto pieces of paper, and Henry and I burned them in the bathroom sink, an exorcism, if you will. Now, I can begin to focus on using positive imagery to try and get the baby to turn, and barring that, take back control over the situation by having as much input as possible into the C-Section. Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.