I'm an Auntie again!

Well, I just had to share some exciting news.
I'm an Auntie again. My older sister had a baby boy yesterday morning. My twin sister is out there getting to hold and cuddle him, and actually got to see his birth.
I'm a tiny bit jealous....

but mostly HAPPY and EXCITED and PROUD.

I'd post a picture here that my twin emailed me, but I must get permission from my older sis first.

Just had to say something!
He is SO cute.
Erica

High Fructose Corn Syrup

So, I've been hearing a bit about High Fructose corn syrup over the last few years...but sort of turned a deaf ear to much of it as I had enough ingredients to worry about, like msg, aspartame etc.
But, enough is enough--it is time for me to learn more about this food additive /sugar like substance.
I've done some searching on the net and have quite a few sites that give more information.

Here are two links for your reading pleasure:
http://www.accidentalhedonist.com/index.php/2005/06/09/foods_and_products_containing_high_fruct

This one I found to be useful for each reader's note on their personal experience with high fructose syrup and fructose intolerance, in particular with gas and bloating problems and or gi tract and ibs symptoms. Having just suffered from a strange episode after a weekend away and with lots of junk food eaten on the road, I began searching about high fructose syrup.
A friend from church who was my traveling companion inspired me to get better about eliminating high fructose corn syrup, so I thank her for the start to this new journey to health....

http://highfructosemakesyoufat.com/
This second one gives some links to some articles about high fructose corn syrup,and commentary from Doctors and scientists etc....some who are independent and share the dangers of high fructose syrup and the obesity problem, and some who are tied to the corn industry, and say that it is not so bad.
I think we are all pretty familiar with this scenario by now. It is interesting to gather all information possible though.

I apologize if the name of the site I link to seems a bit offensive, but it is certainly a reality that us Americans need to confront....today, so that we don't continue to become obese at alarming rates. In particular, we need to do better for our children.

Just how "crunchy" am I?

Just how crunchy am I? You be the  judge.  Some of you may have to look up what the term crunchy means. :-) 

There have been a few events I've been meaning to blog about lately, but haven't gotten to yet.

A couple of weeks ago a friend and I drove up to DC for a rally, with littlest ones in tow.  What made us drive more than 3 and a half hours? in the middle of the night? in thunderstorms?

It was this GREEN OUR VACCINES rally.

I first learned what was in vaccines when my older son was about 2. I had been doing research on some of his allergic reactions and stumbled upon some info that made me pause. MSG in his shots? huh? Could that be why he now gets a rash from ingesting it? And that was to be the least of the concerns to come up.   I had a blind trust in doctors. (Perhaps the same blind trust that led me to believe my doctors would never give me drugs in my iv against my wishes and without even my knowledge just two years earlier during labor. )So, that blind trust that led me to believe that they would not administrate harmful substances to children.  Or maybe it just didn't even occur to me that I needed to question what was in the vaccinations. After all, why would there be toxic substances in shots that are mandated by the government and given to newborn babies, infants and children on a regular basis?  I still don't know the answer to that, but I do know that there ARE in fact toxic substances like aluminum, and mercury etc. (take a look at the flu shots, even today in 2008) Amounts of toxic substances injected directly into the bloodstream.

It's hard to believe, but that doesn't mean it isn't true.

Please, educate before you vaccinate.  Read every bit of the vaccine inserts. visit the cdc website and see the ingredients for yourself. With so many allergies today, do we need to be injecting egg derived vaccines, MSG, preservatives etc into our babies (or ourselves for that matter!) Vaccinating or not vaccinating is certainly your choice, but be aware. Does the risk outweigh the benefit?  Start by looking at the Hepatitis B shot given to newborns and go from there. It is a shot that is given across the board to all infants for a disease that is of no risk to MOST infants. It is just easier for them to give it to all babies and catch the few that might be at risk, rather than identifying the babies who are at risk.  If you have Hep B or a family member does, baby might be at risk. the other risks are drug related and related to sexual transmission. Last time I checked those were not issues with infants, yet they are still vaccinated at birth.

 

You've probably read how the autism/vaccine myth has been debunked. Ah, we'll leave that discussion for another day. But regardless of whether mercury itself was to blame the fact remains that a huge number of children are now suffering with this affliction, and the common tie is vaccinations. This article is worth a read, as it points out that a certain group of children may be sucsceptible to harm by vaccination while others do fine with it.  

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/05/12/cbsnews_investigates/main4086809.shtml

Do you want to find out which group your child belongs in? More research needs to be done on this topic, but so far the only research being done is by the drug companies, and it is very incomplete. This is why when you read the package inserts, you will note that the drug companies usually can't tell you whether it has been tested for carcinogenity, or amongst infants, or amongst pregnant women, or the immunocompromised etc.

www.909shot.com


If the links don't work, you may need to cut and paste...

One very important link to add here, on the ingredients of vaccines. Straight from the CDC website. It is a little hard to wade through all the documents there and find what you are looking for, so here is the direct link. Many people incorrectly believe that thimerosal has been removed from all vaccines. That is incorrect and the CDC website shows that.

Also, flu shots which are now recommended for babies, children etc contain plenty of it.

What may become even more important in the future is that these vaccines have aluminum in them. I don't know if anyone has been following studies in the last decade about aluminum and Alzheimers, but it is definitely something to keep your eye on.

http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vac-gen/additives.htm

Visit from the tooth fairy

The tooth fairy visited last night. She left some money for Scott in a very unusual place (the sink) due to the loss of his lost tooth. He couldn't find it...we don't know if he ate it (GULP!) or if it went down the drain but at some point during a breakfast of oatmeal his tooth was gone.

 

We already can't remember the first visit of the tooth fairy, (due to my lack of scrapbooking lately I'm not sure if I recorded it anywhere..., I may have a pic in my photo archives.) If we noted that momentous event to you, do us a favor and remind us when our kid lost his first tooth so we don't feel like such bad parents... 

Saturday was gorgeous--the neighborhood kids ran around playing in 80 degree weather, and enjoyed getting in the water when Bill washed the cars. Joseph did NOT like getting sprayed! But he liked getting his feet wet. He also loves his baths, and loved the ocean the weekend before with Aunt Carol and Uncle Ray, but maybe he doesn't love the sound of the sprayer or the force of the water on the sprayer.

It was a nice day, and so was this afternoon.  At church, we had an enjoyable sermon on spiritual gifts. In the afternoon we went to the Virginia Living Musuem to play and discover. I didn't bring my camera, and I don't think I did the previous time we visited either. But we just had lots of fun. One of these visits I'll take some pics so you can enjoy their joy as well.

God's Creation

Yesterday morning after dropping Scott off at school, Joseph and I stopped to look at the dandelions in our front yard.  When I got down closer to them, I realized the tiny drops of dew and frost. Such a silly little thing, a dandelion...but I was in awe. I took several photos with the macro setting on my digital camera. Here's one of my favorites. Isn't it amazing the upclose detail of one of God's creations?

Welcome Spring!

That was the title of Scott's performance this evening at the PTA meeting. (Clever way of boosting attendance at these PTA meetings, by the way, --have the kids perform, watch the parents line up with cameras)

They were instructed to wear a pastel shirt and black pants.  I thought it would be fun to dress up little bro like this too. He slept through the whole performance, having only napped a tiny bit today. Scott looked like he was asleep too, he yawned many times during his performance, stopped to play with a rubber band and put it in his pocket, and mostly looked bored and tired.

But occasionally he would get  a burst of energy and surprise us with some hand motions or singing along with his friends. When they joined hands we thought he was going to take the whole line down with his exuberant swaying.

time to start blogging...

Well, it looks like I'm finally joining the blogging world.  Mostly to share pictures with my family who all live on the opposite coast from me, but also to just share a little bit of the boring, weird, strange, and totally normal things that make me me.

So here I am, the homebirth hippie. By the way, I don't consider myself a hippie at all, but I guess it just depends on who you ask.  I jokingly refer to myself this way after the looks I've gotten from well meaning individuals who learn that I birthed my younger son at home, I cloth diaper him, and I try to avoid MSG and food additives/chemicals etc.  

 Anyway, to those who know me, there's a lot more to me than my homebirth hippie side (I'll explain all that later though, for anyone who wants to have their baby at home.) I'm a mom to two little ones, one who is already in school, and one who toddles around in (cloth) diapers :-) still.  I like to rubberstamp, scrapbook, sew (not very much, and not very well,YET ) knit (haven't done it since before my one year old was born) and do lots of other things that I don't have time for but wish I did.   I'm passionate about informing folks of the dangers of eating MSG and aspartame (diet sodas, fat-free, sugar-free products) as my family will attest to.   

Once upon a time, I used to like running, and being outdoors, hiking, camping and traveling, and I do plan on doing those things again....soon! 

I think that's enough for now. Now, I'll figure out how to upload some pictures...which is what motivated me to get started with blogging in the first place.