confessions of a dain bramaged preggo

I admit it. I forgot about this blog. I don’t have any great excuses. I officially stopped working in June so one would think that I magically had a bunch of time to be productive and document our ambitious sustainability endeavors. The truth is that I have no idea what I’ve been doing with my time… other that trying to raise a toddler and growing another human.

Koen turned two recently and mamamia does that kid keep me on my toes. He’s extremely active and mostly fun, but he loves testing his boundaries. My sanity is hanging by a thread some days and I’m pretty sure I’d go nuts if it wasn’t for time outs. We’re still using the Love and Logic methods (sort of) and try to calmly sing “uh-oh” when he acts outs, followed by a few minutes in his crib. It is an extremely unnatural reaction for me in most situations, but somehow seems to work really well. It gives us both some cool down time and singing a song when I’m irritated helps me not raise my voice, yet he still seems to get the point.

For Koen’s b-day, we had another low-key, all family party. He loved all of the attention and is still talking about all of the relatives that he doesn’t get to see often. We’re still holding off on introducing K to refined sugar so we skipped the cake and JT created another watermelon masterpiece. Koen LOVED it!

The pregnancy is going really well. I’m on week 32 and am getting a little freaked out that we’re going to have another kiddo in about 2 months! Time has been flying by. Our midwife appts. have been informative and helpful. Midwife C encouraged me to splurge and address my back pain (low baby + 30 lb. toddler = sore mama). So yesterday, I took her advice and got a prenatal massage AND an adjustment with my chiro. I feel like a new woman! I finished Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth last night. I started reading it with Koen, but only got thru the birth stories since he came a little early. For all of you preggos out there, I highly recommend it!

The garden has been doing really well considering how little time I’ve been spending in it. The initial soil improvements and relocation to our sunny, front yard must have been the key. We’re still harvesting spring crops (chard, kale and beets) thanks to an unseasonably cool summer. Our tomatoes, however, are not enjoying the mild, wet weather. They’re looking pretty rough. I mentioned in a previous post that I wasn’t sure what I’d do with our beets, but now that I’ve started roasting them, I’m a big fan.

 

Picky Pants and the muffin kick

Having heard friends’ horror stories about trying to feed their picky toddlers, I was determined to do everything I could to avoid catering to a picky kid. We’ve delayed refined sugar (he still has not had cookies, candy, ice cream or soda), we don’t eat much processed foods, and we introduced him to loads of different healthy foods as a baby, Alas, Koen is 22 months old and not only am I still making him separate meals, but meals often end with him refusing to eat any of his former safe foods or food fight fits. My sister-in-law preemptively got us Deceptively Delicious for Christmas, but a lot of those recipes involve sneaking purees into sweet foods, which he’s not been introduced to, or use sweet potato purees, which is one of the only veggies he seems to tolerate. Carrots and greens seem to be the worst. At least he still loves fruit, pasta, and whole grain breads. I realize this is a phase and it’s totally normal, but it’s still annoying.

Strawberries are always a hit.

According to a NY Times article, it’s all JT’s fault. He was a picky eater as a child. In fact he only started eating veggies regularly after he met me, in his mid-20s. I’m still optimistic that some of the Miller kid genes (we ate everything… except mayonnaise – gross.) will triumph and he’ll snap out of this soon.

My strategy is to continue to present our food selections at mealtimes, but I’m quickly developing an arsenal of healthy, toddler-proof foods that I can fall back on. The most popular to date come in the form of popsicles and muffins. The popsicles are frozen smoothies, which usually include a ripe banana (for masking the taste of veggies), other fruits (pineapple, blueberries, mango, etc), a veggie (spinach, kale, or carrot), and plain whole milk yogurt. The popsicle molds are in the shape of a star, so if I cut them into pieces, they almost look like candy. He gets so excited that he’ll do his happy dance for them. Muffins are equally beloved. So far myfavorite recipes are Cinnamuffins, Yam, and Morning Glory Muffins. I also like to have Koen help me make the muffins. I’ll have him put the paper liners into the tins and do little things like stir or pour ingredients into the bowls. He loves to help!

Cinnamuffins (from Laurel’s Kitchen)
1/4 cup oil
1/2 cup dark molasses
1 cup applesauce
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. cinnamon
pinch cloves
1/2 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 375°F. Grease a 12 cup muffin tin. Mix the oil molasses, and applesauce. Mix together the dry ingredients. Combine wet and dry ingredients. Stir in the raisins. Drop into muffin cups and bake 18-20 min. Makes about 12 muffins.

Pumpkin Morning Glory Muffins

scant 1 cup sugar
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup white whole wheat flour
2 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp chai spice (use all cinnamon if you wish)
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup shredded, sweetened coconut
3/4 cup raisins
1 large apple, peeled and grated
8 ounces (1 cup) crushed pineapple, drained
2 cups grated carrots
1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans or walnuts
3 large eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup canned (plain) pumpkin
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat to 350°F. In a large bowl, whisk together the first 7 ingredients, then add the coconut, raisins, apple, pineapple, carrots, and nuts. Stir this all together. In a smaller bowl, whisk the eggs, oil, pumpkin, and vanilla. Pour over the dry ingredients and mix to combine.

Grease your muffin tins, or use paper liners. Fill each muffin cup all the way to the top. Bake for 30-35 minutes and do the toothpick test. (should come out clean.) Makes 17 muffins

Yam Spice Muffins From Foods That Fight Pain by Neal D. Barnard, M.D.; recipes by Jennifer Raymond

2 cups whole wheat or whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1-1/2 cups cooked, mashed yams
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup raisins

Preheat the oven to 375°F. In a large bowl mix whole wheat flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

Add yams, the water, and raisins; stir until just mixed.

Lightly coat a muffin pan with vegetable-oil spray. Fill cups to the top. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the top of a muffin bounces back when pressed lightly. Makes 10-12 muffins

 

front lawn feast

 We finally found the sweet spot for our veggie garden. For four years now, we’ve tried again and again to make our shady backyard garden thrive. Alas, the only things that seem to grow well there, aside from spring crops (peas, onions, lettuce), are powdery mildew and vine borers. We’ve finally moved on and thank goodness because our veggies are going nuts in the sun-soaked front yard. I’ve mentioned our front lawn reclamation efforts in previous posts so I’m going to dedicate this post to showing before pics, the process, and how it’s looking in early June. We live in Hyde Park, which is in midtown Kansas City in an older neighborhood. It’s not a snooty area so we have not met much resistance with removing our lawn to grow food. Most of our neighbors are pretty into it… especially when we share our goodies. I’ll start the little photo show with a before picture:

 

Taken late last June. We removed the yews to create some space to grow more food.

We began on a soggy April morning by uprooting the yews, fixing the soil, and sowing spring crops.

Even though we’re in a laid back neighborhood, one of our main concerns was keeping the front yard attractive while we expanded our veggie garden. By mixing herbs, veggies, fruit trees and flowers, we were able (so far) to maintain a nice aesthetic and deter unwanted creatures. In fact, companion planting is one important tool in the organic gardeners arsenal against all kinds of pests. For example, I intentionally planted nasturtium and dutch white clover around our apple trees. The clover is both a green manure, which means it feeds the soil, and it attracts predators of the wooly aphid. Nasturtium, a pretty edible flower, attracts predatory insects and deters harmful bugs.

 

After checking with the city, we tilled the compacted soil between the sidewalk and the street. We planted apple trees with nasturtiums in the root zone and surround them with a green manure, dutch white. clover.

Mid-May we regularly mulched beds with mown grass/clover. Growing chives, chard, lettuce, perennial flowers, in front yard flower bed.

Early June - rainbow chard, spinach, lettuce, nasturtium, kale, leeks, cilantro, chives, peppers, flowers.

I’ll have to continue this when my toddler temporarily runs out of energy… For more pics check my flickr stream.

 

half way there

JT and I celebrated our 5th anniversary last week, and as a little present to ourselves, decided to take a looksie at the 20 week-old bun in the oven. At that point we hadn’t heard the heartbeat nor had my prenatal exams begun. Midwife C is old school and waits until the mothers are feeling major movement and then listens to the heartbeat with a stethascope. Needless to say, I was ready for some sort of action and I got it. We scheduled a sonogram with a local imaging place. When asked about my prenatal care, I made the mistake of mentioning that we were doing a home birth … so it ended up being a weird experience. The sonographer was staunchly pro-medicine and wanted to grill me about our decision. It was pretty awkward being splayed out on her table with a greased belly, trying to catch a first glimpse of our baby with her barrage of offensive questions. At one point she said if the midwife won’t use a fetal doppler, how does she know that my baby is not dead? WTF. Because I can feel it moving? Anyway, the fun part of the day was finding out that Koen’s going to have a little brother. His heartbeat was strong and he was swimming around like a champ (just like him mama).

We’ve been talking to Koen a lot about the baby and he seems interested, but who knows how much he actually understands. I’ve found a couple of books at the library that are pretty good. I have yet to get through the newest one without crying. I’m blaming it on the hormones. It’s really sweet and tells the story of “when you were born”. It’s called Happy Birth Day and has beautiful illustrations.

I had my first official exam with midwife C last night and it went really well. It lasted for 2.5 hours! We talked about the process, expectations, medical history, options… a lot of things I suppose. I’m really fascinated with midwifery and she’s been catching babies for around 30 years so the time seemed to go pretty quickly. A friend of mine is preparing to have her baby at home (this is her second homebirth) and has invited me to attend. I’m so excited! We have a vacation planned for around the same time so hopefully the stars will align just right and I can do both.

 

sprout and seed updates (humans)

Toddlerhood has been a trip so far. Koen’s amazing! He’s saying all kinds of new words, climbing, running, singing songs and doing all of the normal almost two-year old kind of things. Keeping him occupied can get tricky at times. I’ve been wanting to get him a sandbox, but haven’t gotten around to it. One gloomy day we were both feeling extra cooped up and I decided to make him a little “rice box” out of a tupperware container and some expired white rice. I threw in some bath toys and he loves it. Who needs TV when you have rice and a vacuum cleaner?

Countless minutes of fun playing with food.

As a first time mom, it’s so much fun watching Koen’s personality come out. The picky eating, fits, and boundary testing I could do without. Today, I went out for breakfast with a friend and it’s the first time I’ve felt embarrassed by my child. He was a little monster. He didn’t want to sit in the high chair so he was fussing, then I took away the crayons that he was eating, which made him mad. Everything within his reach promptly got thrown on the floor. I let him walk around a little bit thinking that would help and within a minute he walks over to my friend’s drink and pushes it over. Luckily she has a three year old boy and understands… the final straw is when the food came and he took the ceramic plate in front of him (I know, I should have seen it coming) and chucked it on the floor. JT and I are trying to use the Love and Logic principals, which are non-violent and rely on keeping one’s cool, but it can be really challenging, especially when you’re that person and everyone in the restaurant is looking at you. I tried out the L and L method for public fits and gave him “room time” in his high chair facing away from us and it sort of seemed to work. The hardest part was letting him cry/scream in public while I ignored him. Needless to say, our next get together will be women only.

Back to the positive, K’s really into letters lately. He got some alphabet magnets for Christmas and was surprisingly interested in them. One day I noticed he was taking the magnets off of the fridge and matching them with the letters on this talking Leap Frog toy. He knows a lot of the letters now and like to point them out when he sees them around town. Seeing your little baby turn into a real person is so cool, but definitely strange.

Happy boy at 21 months.

Speaking of time flying, I’m almost halfway through this pregnancy. The baby bump is starting to look less like a beer gut lately and I’m finally starting to feel some real movement. I’m starting to waiver on not finding out the gender and actually looked up some ultrasound clinics in the area. I think having such a low tech first half is making me extra impatient to take a looksie and make sure things are going well. I’ll have my first official prenatal exam this week (at 19 weeks).

For Mother’s Day, our little family plus my mom and her husband went to Deanna Rose Children’s Farmstead. Koen got to see all of the animals from his farm books in person. We had a blast. Some highlights were feeding the kids with little bottles (which he tasted), watching chicks, and feeding the goats.

This was our favorite goat at the farmstead. He butted other goats to get to the food.

 

I'm not sure who had more fun - grandma Pam or Koen.

 

baby making old skool.

I apologize for my lack of blogging. I find that when I’m pregnant, I’m understandably moody, tired, hungry, and forgetful, but my ability to articulate thoughts evaporates. JT tells me that I’m starting to sound like Yoda and right is he. It’s annoying, but I suppose that means the lil’ fetus is developing nicely. Last night I dreamt that I gave birth to a kid, a baby goat that is. It really got weird when I tried to nurse it… my brain is starting to frighten me. 

I’m 15 weeks along and met with our new midwife (I’ll call her Midwife C) for the first time last Saturday. Koen was caught by a different midwife in a hospital. It was a fantastic natural birth experience, but this time we’re going for the home birth. Another major difference will be that we’re not finding out the gender. Midwife C opposes sonograms of all kinds (including a fetal doppler) and while we could still get a sonogram, we figure “when in Rome”… That also means that we won’t actually hear the heartbeat until “the baby can give me a good thump”- around 18-20 weeks. By 15 weeks with K, I’d already had two sonograms, a miscarriage scare, heard the heartbeat, and switched from an OB/Gyn to the midwives. Not to mention all of the tests… I kind of like the relaxed pace of the “old-fashioned” way (that was my OB’s response when I asked if they worked with midwives). The irony is that I can’t think of anything more old-fashioned that reproducing. 

The majority of Midwife C’s families choose to birth in the water, which I had hoped to try with Koen. I don’t know if hospital policy would’ve allowed me to push in the water… the little guy was in a hurry so we didn’t have time to find out. This time I think we’ll be borrowing a jimmy-rigged, horse trough to birth in! Yee-haw!

 

new beginnings

Oh spring, how lovely it is to see you. My little sprouts are poking their heads out in our flower beds. I was really surprised to see how pretty my beet seedlings are. They’re a vibrant fuschia color and are particularly striking next to the rich black compost. Pink is in. Now I just have to figure out how to eat beets. They’re not a food that I’m familiar with outside of the pickled version at the salad bar. I’ve been feeling adventurous though.

JT’s been working hard on our front yard reclamation project. He tilled up the front “lawn” between the sidewalk and the curb, planted our three new, heirloom apple trees (two Pippins and a Freedom), and made a couple stone pathways to the street. The apple trees probably won’t produce until 2012. Rather than planting more grass, we selected a cover crop of white dutch clover to feed our soil, provide a green manure, and attract pollinators. Now we’re in the process of ripping out six large yews, which hog too much of our precious sunny space. We bought two Stella Cherry trees, which will fill some of the space and produce this year (JT was feeling impatient and splurged). The plot in front of the porch will be our asparagus patch and home to a slew of other crops. We’ll do our best to make it look pretty by filling in with edible/medicinal flowers and herbs. I’ll post photos to document the progress. 

Three of our beds are partially shady and I’m really close to abandoning them. I’m trying one last time with some crops that supposedly do ok without full sun, but I’m not holding my breath. My lettuce, spinach, peas, and beans did pretty well because they’re cool crops and the trees hadn’t filled in yet. An article I read, claims that potatoes, carrots, alliums, kale, beets, cilantro, and others can also do well in those conditions. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Out of all the new life sprouting within and without our home, most of my energy has been going into being a mama and my second pregnancy. I’m wrapping up my first trimester and feeling like the storm might actually be over. It’s been such a different experience this time around – physically and mentally. Wrangling a toddler, working part-time, and taking care of myself certainly makes the time fly. October is going to be here before we know it.

 

we’ve been had.

I’m in a book club that started out reading Wendell Berry, moved on to Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, and we’re currently devouring The Omnivore’s Dilemma. It’s been an interesting progression with recurring themes of simplifying one’s life, food systems, community, and sustainability.

So JT and I are still relatively new to all of this “buy local”, “go organic”, “fair trade”, “sweatshop-free” stuff. It takes more effort and costs more, but we’re trying to be conscientious and “vote with our money”.  I must admit the more I read/watch/learn the more frustrated and jaded I’ve become. I’m only on the “Big Organic” section of Pollan’s book, but reading how watered down (yet expensive) the organic title has become just deepens my mistrust and cynicism. Walking around Costco, I’ve noticed more and more of my trusted organic brands popping up, which frankly, is a big part of the reason we shop there. They now sell: Naked juice, Muir Glen, Earthbound Farm produce, Boca Burgers, Pacific Natural Foods, etc., but now I realize that this is because said companies have been bought by major corporations (like Pepsi, Kraft/Philip Morris – Altria, and General Mills).

I stumbled upon an article that sums up my frustration and sheds a little light on the marketing ploys that have made me feel like a boob. It’s titled Burt’s Bees, Tom’s of Maine, Naked Juice: Your Favorite Brands? Take Another Look — They May Not Be What They Seem

“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 shouldn’t be surprised by this and I guess I’m not, but I’m definitely disappointed. I mean Ben and freaking Jerry’s sold out?! Where have I been?

For readers that are less likely to click on links, here’s a short list of companies and their owners that may surprise you:
Burt’s Bees (Clorox), Tom’s of Maine (Colgate-Palmolive), Odwalla (Coca-cola), Glaceau, the maker of Vitamin Water, Fruit Water, Smart Water and Vitamin Energy (Coca-Cola), Kashi (Kellogg’s), Seeds of Change (Mars), Body Shop (L’Oreal/Nestle)

For a great, comprehensive list of industrial organic companies and their parent corporations, check out endgame.org. Another interesting site with graphics including the one below, is Phil Howard’s site.

For obvious reasons, few companies identify these ownership ties on product labels.

My question is which of the larger natural/organic companies are legit? Apparently I haven’t been paying attention so do any of you all know? Two companies that seemed to check out were Organic Valley (dairy products) and Seventh Generation (cleaning products, diapers). We’ll be changing our toothpaste (among other things) so if you have a suggestions, lemme know.

 

hi⋅ber⋅na⋅tion

Koen has this book about a bear that we read quite frequently. It’s all about the different seasons, beginning and ending with hibernation. I’ve been identifying with that little bear more than I’d ever imagined. It’s especially noticeable now that I’m documenting our pursuits, or lack thereof…We do have big plans for ‘09, but apparently my body and mind are focusing on other endeavors for now.

One exciting event for those of you in the KC area, is the Annual Farmer’s Expo put on by the Kansas City Food Circle. The focus is on supporting local and organic farmers. We’ve been going for the last few years and always have a lot of fun. It’s free and there’s food and music, but mainly it’s a unique opportunity for farmers and eaters to connect. If you’ve been considering signing-up for a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), this is a great time to interview farmers. They also have workshops, reps from local non-profits, some goods for sale (soap, seedlings, etc), and loads of cool activities for kids. This year there are two dates: March 28th in Shawnee, KS and April 4th in Independence, MO. Details are on the kcfoodcircle site.

 

sprout report

 

my sprouts

Our little boy will officially be 18 months old tomorrow and I’m not sure I’m cut out for this terrible twos business. Most of the time I love this age. He knows several body parts, communicates well, sleeps alright, has some sweet dance moves, and keeps us laughing. Once in a while, I feel like my head might explode. It’s mostly when I’m trying to “be productive” – especially when I’m cleaning, in a hurry, or working from home. He’s really into puzzles, blocks, climbing, pushing buttons (literally), pulling things off of shelves, and emptying and refilling containers.

 

Koen’s personality is really starting to become more apparent lately too. His middle name is “Asher” which means happy, pleasant, blessed – and that seems to fit so far. Generally, he’s extremely sweet, affectionate, curious, adaptable, busy. If he’s playing with something that he’s really into, he can occupy himself for surprisingly long chunks of time. There’s this intensity to him that we kind of expected given his dad’s personality and when he gets mad, watch out (that might be from my side).

Our other sprouts are also doing really well. Little, green shoots of kale, cilantro, lettuce, onion, leeks, and basil have just started popping up. The weather is so unpredictable lately. I’m not going to plant things outside for several weeks, but it sure has been fun seeing some action indoors! Three years of attempted gardening in our shady backyard yielded marginal results so we’re going all out this year. I’ve got several beds pretty well mapped out for our front lawn reclamation project. We currently have several yews that hog all of our good sunshine. We plan to pull those up on a soggy day and in their place we’ll plant some heirloom apple trees, an asparagus patch, tomatoes, dill, parsley, nasturtium, chamomile, and white clover to feed the soil.