While Tangerine Dreams

Seven Days of Nourishment: Day 5

It was that time of year again. The day that marks the beginning of spring in this town. A day that celebrates the abundance and sacredness that is our water. The May Day parade starts the day off after a couple of hours of face-painting and dressing up and then we hit the road in procession to samba music to the river and back to downtown Winlove. Party afterwards that we were able to hear going on from our bedroom well past mid-night.

Things that nourish me: community. You won't believe how many pregnant mamas are here in this town right now. My friend says to me at the May Day festivities how it must feel so good to know that there is a baby growing in my tummy that will be raised in such a conscious community. This is totally the sentiment I felt with Edie in my tum.

I love, love, love this town. The list of why just keeps on growing. Edie's still a little bit part Cling-on of course, but this year she was cruising around the festivities on a tricycle, weaving in and out of various legs. Such a joy to know that everyone's watching out for everyone else's kids, familiar faces everywhere, such good hearts all around. Love this day, this day of gratitude. We're truly blessed.

Hmmm.... what doesn't nourish Mama these days? Excess noise. We had the final day of our Parenting as a Spiritual Practice yesterday. I loved that course. See what Nourishes Me No. 5 for main reason why. We had an excercise to make a commitment to our partner on what we want to change, in terms of modeling, for the benefit of our children. It was funny we had to make one but we were going on and on back and forth with each other and even when we were told to stop I kept thinking of things whispering them to him. But the main one was to make a more peaceful home in terms of noise pollution. I'm a radio junkie; always have CBC on for background noise. I suppose that might come from growing up in a house that always seemed to have to a tv on. But it feels good already to have some quiet around here and try to break that one pattern.

Seven Days of Nourishment: Day 4

Some seedlings. A week of color spearheaded by Curious Bird. Today's Yesterday  Monday was suppose to be green. Today's Yesterday's color was yellow and I was going to catch some skunk cabbage but can't find the camera. How frustrating. How about something that use to be green? Like these...

That were then milled down to these?

The morning after I found out I was pregnant I approached Craig in his office downstairs and informed him that his office will need to vacate the premises. He will have to build himself an out building sooner than later. Right now our bedroom's in the loft and we'll be needing to use our present office spaces as bedrooms. Baby  Drippy needs a room that can be made dark and quiet. Plus, it doesn't hurt that Mama could use a creative space that can be made big and bright.

So down falls a few fir trees and now we have ourselves a mini lumber yard that will build us an out building for Craig to work in (would be so much better for him to leave the house for work - like for his psyche; then he'll have his man den and get building his own shelter out of his system). I think he's still thinking of attaching a green house to it so it'll also be an atrium space he could do his reading and chilling in and then the office will have a loft for guests to crash in.

Speaking of sleep; things that nourish me: Sleep. Can I just gush right now as to how much sleep I'm getting these days? I borrowed some books from our Mother Goose get-togethers a while back on getting toddlers to sleep. I just browsed quickly through them but what they both mentioned was that it takes approximately a month of fussing to get your child to sleep gently and peacefully. Totally that's what happened. Craig gets to her sleep just as, if not more, easily as me now and her sleeps still are getting longer and longer without stirring. AND, my dreamboat of a husband has insisted that I stay in bed when she does stir and tends to her. I can't believe what a difference this has made in my overall sense of well being these days. Plus, I suppose that peace of mind knowing that I will be possible to manage parenting more than one child at night time and that co-sleeping with her has in fact instilled a healthy sleep attitude (which I was kind of worried about there for a while!).

Things that don't nourish me: keeping things bottled up. I don't have a tendency to that anyway but three episodes occurred in the last week that demonstrated how much better I feel getting my true feelings out about some awkward situations and they all turned out really positive. Amazing with being pregnant all these heightened senses; like the bionic smell, bionic irritability but also cool is the bionic relief from letting go of heavy baggage.

Seven Days of Nourishment: Day 3

Wow, that's been a long three days. I was so turned off of the computer the last couple of weeks but I'm starting to get back into it. This has been pretty much my favorite mode of travel these days. Horizontal.

Things that nourish me: sewing. I've been turned off of a lot of things including favorite all time obsessions like spinning and knitting but I've been living to find time to whip myself up a cozy jammies and bathrobe set just so I have an official slothing about uniform. That and setting myself in my sewing room (see? I'm even calling it my sewing room now!), feels akin to comfort food. Perhaps because I grew up with a distinct memory of being Edie's age playing along side my mom busy either cooking or sewing and listening to Simon and Garfunkel.

Geez, ask your life partner to take a picture of you wearing your freshly made jammies and he rips your head off (in the picture anyway). I can't touch the spinning wheel these days. My friend, Velma, suggested it's the whirling round and round that triggers the whooze. Totally that's part of it. Also, the sitting still part bugs me, ironically. If I'm going to still still I'm going to be sitting still horizontal. With my eyes closed.

And to match my sloth suit, I made a nib hat and entered it in a Pluckyfluff contest. The contest was I dream of Beanie. Spin a yarn, turned it into a beanie that represents you; your Power Beanie. What this one represented was my cocoa nib obsession which represents my cravings which represents my body's infinite wisdom and miracle making. You can read the whole blah blah at the contest site. Congrats to Eva of Atomheart for winning!

What doesn't nourish me: Hmmm, this one always a stumper. Right now it's over extending our commitments. Especially when it comes to Edie. It's getting more challenging, not easier as expected to get the little critter anywhere before 10:30/11:00. Most classes, going-ons begin at 10:00 around here so that makes it somewhat impossible and totally stressful to catch any of them. (PS when my Mom mocks me she says 'totally' every three words. Totally funny especially with her little big accent.) Thankfully, her beloved ballet classes don't start until 2:45. So, we've cut down on her daycare gig from two to once, sometimes to no times a week. Instead her Manny comes over and hangs with her here. Which is awesome because I'm already nostalgic about her not being my one and only loin fruit for long so it's nice to hear her giggles and imaginative play just in another room rather than a big kurfuful of getting her out of the house and mincing a backpack full of un-choke-able snacks to graze on for five hours at the ungodly hour of 10 am. Plus, she loooooooves her Manny. He's so good with her,  AND he's in our Parenting as a Spiritual Practice class with his partner. Problem is, again, me and my huge mouth blabbing how awesome he is. Now people are scooping him up. So, yes, staying low is nourishing me these days. And not talking so much.

Seven Days of Nourishment: Day 2

What nourishes me; succumbing to my cravings. I was feeling nauseous, nauseous and finally I remembered to dial into my deepest darkest current hankerings and make it my utmost priority to appease in the most orgainic, 100 mile diet-way possible. Here is a list of what's been tapped this week. (This list is fresh from a loooong conversation yesterday on the phone with a dear, pregnant like me girlfriend, Cheechum). Items with an asterix have not been conquered. Yet.

• lemonade. The sweet and sour thing with lots of ice hits the mama spot long enough to forget about the constant car sickness I'm experiencing.
• *corn on the cob. This one was huge with my Edie pregnancy too. Unfortunately I have to wait until late August to cross this one of my list unless...
• my mom's arroz con pollo. I downed this earlier in the week; it's a Peruvian rice and chicken dish with a whole bunch of cilantro and a bottle of beer. The leftovers didn't last nearly long enough. I'll share the recipe sometime if I ever have a plate of it in front of me that will last a photo shoot. Anything my mom makes, actually. My mom's the BEST cook. I'm so glad she's almost home from Arizona. I want her to make me everything I use to love, or even hate, from my childhood next time I see her.
• asian fusion. Unfortunately we're very limited in our ethnic food selection out here. Talking with Cheechum I was pretty jealous that her living in the big city she was able to maow down on Ethopian and Vietnamese whenever the fancy striked her. I didn't even let my psyche go back to Nam until she mentioned it. Thank god for Leya's Udon Soup recipe. (Happy Birthday by the way, Sweetie!) That really hit the spot.
• quality french baguette and Manchega cheese. I'm so happy this one doesn't have a little star beside it. There's a very Franch bakery in "town" that even has authentic Franch people working in it. Do you think organic liverwurst exists? Oh, I do hope so!
• cold sugary cereal. I bought some organic Mesa Sunrise cereal. Organic cane sugar. Lots of corn (Craig's really hyper-aware of corn in ingredients after reading The Omnivore's Delimma and kind of gave me grief for getting something so processed). But it's quick, hit my spot and Edie's not a cold cereal virgin anymore.
• oranges. And toast with peanut butter and apple sprinkled with sugar pictured above. See a trend here?
• noodles. Oodles and oodles of noodles (Edie loves it when I say that with googley eyes).
• popcorn with butter sauteed with garlic and then infused with chili, cayenne, honey and salt. That was good (from Rebar cookbook that my girl Josee lent me and that also had a recipe for Pad Thai that was able to squelch a little bit of my Asian Fusion jonesin').
• ***LOBSTER!!!
• *sno-cone. Though I could probably rush out right now and scoop some straight from the sky and just sprinkle more sugar into my system. Snowing fat flakes right now.

See? View from my window right now. I'm surprised the internet's still working, the flakes are so fat. So, this list could seriously go on an on. I'm having my morning latte so it's hard for me to come up with more items that have little stars right now but I'm sure in a couple of hours I can come up with twelve. Best not go there right now.

Things that do not nourish me; nursing Edie. The midwife gave me a good talking to about this one in that miracle making session (the accupuncture treatment alleviated so much stuff it was amazing). I think the magic words that were uttered to me were "how does an uninterrupted night of sleep sound to you?". About as good as an all you could eat corn on the cob buffet! So, I had a talk with Edie as soon as I got home and said, you know what the doctor said? No more booby. And then too during her first dentist visit the next day, in front of the dentist, you know what the dentist is saying? No more booby. And now Craig's been putting her to bed, sans neeples, and it's been pretty smooth for the most part and I've been feeling much better rested and nourished.

Seven Days of Nourishment: Day 1

I love midwives. I highly recommend working with them when the opportunity presents itself. My first experience with my Edie pregnancy was wonderful and now that I'm going through the visits again I remember why I was saying how we were gawking at the price tag at first (was $3000 at the time, my girlfriends in Calgary are telling me the price has gone up to $4000) in the end we were both saying how we would have been happy to pay twice the amount seeing how attentive and one on one the care was and how truly specialized their area of expertise is; like they're from another world floating down to be your assigned pregnancy and birthing angel.

Luckily in BC where we live now, midwives costs are covered. At first I thought that this could be too good to be true and there must be a catch to this somehow but already my visits with them have proved that, unbelievably, this is not the case.

I think I remember with Edie I went a bit coo-coo at first with wrapping my mind and body around the prospect of building a new human being from a couple of cells. I called my midwife freaking out one day (I'm much better now) she talked me down over the phone for an hour and then had me come in to talk with her partner midwife who's also an acupuncturist. Those who know me in IRL (in real life) know I love me some acupuncture and the session totally nailed the needle on the chi spot. Amazing how much more like my normal self I feel today (though I have been feeling much better than my initial freak out few weeks ago. I think it's just a Kathy way to purge out some crazy to make room for baby).

I got a  beautiful pep talk and advice from her too during the treatment on paying attention to what it is that nourishes me and what doesn't. I blabbed three things right away; my morning latte, comfort food from my childhood (I went in to our local organic grocery store here yesterday asking for the closest thing they have to Wonderbread and apparently that was the first time anyone's ever asked that question there) and, I admitted kind of sheepishly, posting on my blog. Midwife/acupuncture said good, for a week write on your blog about what nourishes you and what doesn't. So that's what I'm doing. It'll be good for me. Please indulge me here:

拉花 Latte Art
Originally uploaded by Eat-My-Heart-Out 你吃,我看.

I borrowed this picture from flickr because I don't quite have the knack for latte art yet plus I'm still suffering some serious lazies when it comes to picture taking for some reason. I won't leave home without the camera for this assignment from now on. So the latte factor is just starting from the beginning. I tried to cut it out for a few days after the pee stick came out positive and I felt like serious crap. I made that Easter dinner and cleaned the whole house on a latte day, then the next three days I was super stuck on the couch. On the fourth day, I ordered a latte from the restaurant, my famous friend Elly (taught that serger class, makes incredible recycled wool clothing) made it, and it was night and day. I don't recommend caffeine withdrawal in the first trimester. My morning latte nourishes me.

What totally doesn't nourish me:

Conspiracy/dooms day talks/movies. Not positive. Especially now. Keep it away, keep it away. Instead, we've been attending (when we can get a sitter) a local study group for Oprah and Eckhart Tolle's Online New Earth course. Much more positive; and you can't get any cuter than Eckhart or any more influential on a global level than Oprah (11 million people signed up!). These two are really funny and exciting together. Check it out.

Must Have Been Something I Et

This is how whacked I was the last time I felt this bloated.

I went and saw a bloat specialist yesterday and estimated time of debloat is November 16. Two days after the anniversary of the last debloat episode.

Just as a footnote; we live about a ten minute walk from this swimming hole now. It's just like the Blue Lagoon. My favourite place to live out my Christopher Atkins fantasy.

Shop Opening!

Rahr! My lips are going to eat you! So... guess what I've been up to? I opened up A New Etsy Shop. I'll be selling various felted items such as those neck warmers I've been sporting lately, hand painted fibres, eventually spinning attempts along with vintage finds I dig up from around these parts. It's been a lot of work setting up and it's kind of scant right now but throughout the next couple of weeks I'll be dropping things in one at a time. If you see something you like but want a variation of it, let me know for I'm open to custom orders.

So, check me out, tell your friends and you'll all come back now, you hear?

Good Morning

This rocky shore's around the bend from the Happy House. I bet your awoke this morning thinking I need to know more about this complex, mysterious character they call Kathy. Ten more things about me:

21. I'm a morning person for sure. Especially since Edie. Especially since it's pretty much the only time I can do whateva I want; namely drink coffee, online time, diddle daddle, create. So quiet, peaceful, full of light and promise.

22. I started life out with brown eyes then thought it was pretty cool how David Brenner's eyes turned green when he got mad and wished I had me some of that (the eyes and David Brenner) and now my eyes are greeny/hazel.

23. People often ask me if that's a Scottish accent I sport.

24. When I as three my older brother's friend had a birthmark on his leg I thought was pretty cool and I wished I had me some of that so I smeared Fudgescle tm   on my leg and threw a bandaid tm on top of that and now I have me some of that. This was all because he said it was his baby when I asked him whaz that?

25.  I've probably been employed by over thirty companies throughout my career. My career starting off at the tender age of fifteen at MacDonalds, then Burger King, Wendy's, A&W, Arby's, BullWinkles, Swiss Chalet, Cheesecake Cafe, Mongolie Grill, Videoholics and a bakery in Ottawa, several Calgary area restuarants, then oil companies, then temp agencies, advertising companies and finally self-employment as yoga teacher/hempress/spiritual home tasker. Can you hear Craig's eyes roll from where you're at?

26. My elbow can rotate my lower arm in a 360 degree rotation. Kind of like how Mr Roper's can (or was it Furly?) in Three's Company.

27. I don't wear jewellry. Can't even spell it. Haven't worn earrings forever except on my wedding day. Though I am getting big gorgeous necklace wantings seeing some around my friends' necks here that are to live for.

28. I say wicked alot but am working on that. My friend brought to my attention that it's mildly evil energy even though I'm saying it with a smile in my voice.

29. I like to say things with a smile in my voice (a Scottish smile apparantly) and hear things with smiles in there. Ask Craig.

30. My ears are sensitive and I like my ear lobes. Perhaps that's why I don't wear earrings.

Every day is Mother's Day...

... is what my mama says. We had to say goodbye to her visit yesterday. It was so awesome to have her stay with us and get reaquainted with Edie. The days went whizzing by (oh yeah, Edie's pretty much potty trained right now). It was a blissful ten days. My mom loves her coffee like me so she understands the importance of downing one before anything else can happen at least without the same fun levels, she loves Edie so she played with her pretty much constantly allowing to get vast amounts scratched off of my to-do list and she loves sewing so was able to give me a tutorial on making the Olivia dress.

Gawd, it turned out so cute and Edie loves it. She always refers to her "petitcoat". "Can I take my petitcoat off?" she says. So dang, darn-it cute. Makes me kick myself for quiting the talking with an English accent around her plan because that would have been just too precious; "Mummy, may I relinquish my knickers, frock and petticoat, please?" with a little bit of a Von Trapp child's accent sprinkled in.

The dress making was kind of a tag team effort. "Kind of" because it started out with my mom cuts this while I sew that, then I cut this then she sews that. But it turned more into I put this down to nap and you finish that. But though I was MIA for the last bit of construction my mom was good at filling me in on short cuts and tips and tricks that her decades of seamstressing has taught her. Of course, above all it was nice to just hang with her all day long over coffee, beer and Edie and laugh lots and open myself to her motherly advice and unconditional love.

Excuses, excuses

The Blog Goddesses (Blodesses?) have not been smiling down on me lately. My computer's been sick. It's actually been hating life since we've moved out here, actually. Truth be told, if only my laptop would cooperate my entries would be much, much more good. And grammatically correct, too.

My laptop conks out at random intervals. It's very anxiety provoking so I always have to write quickly - not to mention one ear's always bigger waiting to hear a cutie beckon. To deal with the issue, I would wait till it (the laptop, not the cutie) made this specific, high pitch whir sound then I would quickly turn on the power bar then when I hear the sound again (and cross my fingers at the same time) I quickly  turn it off again or everything goes black. Or sometimes no sound signals the oncoming doom and it just quietly says adieu with an unflattering reflection of my peturbed face staring back at me.

So, we took it to the doctor's and they call back the next day - fixed! they say. It's worked all day long for us no problem. Lies. I didn't think it would such a simple fix and sure enough first twenty minutes of playing, it dies. It's going back on Monday. Perhaps it's my plug in? This is very stressful!

And on top of that, my camera's memory card is full. I don't want to empty it until I have enough juice on my computer to backup what's on here now. Of course, I suppose I could be doing that now but I'd rather vent here, right now, to you. Thanks for listening. The above photo was the last one on my camera before my computer's been really hating life. It's from our dining area window. It's much more springy-er now.