One consequence of baby-led weaning is that you could very well end up in an extended breastfeeding relationship.
. . .

. . .

. . .

My youngest and I have such a good relationship.  She and I share control over nursing.  Sometimes I ask her to be careful because I don’t feel good.  Sometimes she asks me to nurse more often because she doesn’t feel good.  I started working outside the home when she was 16 months old and I figured she would wean within a month or so.  But she is now 41 months old and still nursing 2 or 3 times a day.

“River’s wisdom says to follow the path of least resistance.  She flows over rocks and around mountains.  She takes the shape of each new landscape she enters.  But over time she also shapes the land.  As your child changes, you too must adopt new forms of mothering.  If you hold tight to familiar landmarks of childhood, you cannot offer your children the freedom they need.  Attune yourself to the flow of what is.  Hold on to what is most important and liberate everything else.”  ~The Mother’s Wisdom Deck by Niki Dewart and Elizabeth Marglin with illustrations by Jenny Kostecki-Shaw.

The photos were taken in October by Cheyenne Kody Photography.

. . .

. . .

You can make this the night before payday when all you have left is one carrot, one onion, one fourth a head of cauliflower and half a box of raisins.  You have to steam the cauliflower for a few minutes before you put it into the stir-fry.  It is seasoned with a little cumin, garlic powder, black pepper, and soy sauce.

A package arrived and we were excited to open it!

. . .

. . .

. . .

. . .

We were overwhelmed by the fun inside the package!  Bubble wrap!  And lots of candy bars!  And a bag of coffee!

I hope that The Sacred Circle does end up placing an order because the Holiday Minis are the cutest little chocolate bars wrapped in beautiful light blue paper for the milk chocolate and dark blue paper for the dark chocolate.  They are going to make the perfect gift for my children’s teachers!  Since about 20 come in each box I figure I can put 4 or 5 in a little clear cellophane bag and tie each bag with a ribbon.

They are also going to be excellent stocking stuffers, but I need to remember to be careful with how many I allow my children to eat.  The serving size says 9 mini bars, but even when my children were limited to 2 each they still got a noticeable chocolate buzz.

. . .

. . .

I first saw large bars of chocolate with the striking Equal Exchange logo at a Ten Thousand Villages store which has since closed. Then I noticed the logo again when my parents gave me a bag of coffee which also had a Presbyterian Coffee Project sticker on it.  Their church sells the coffee once a month so my parents have been very generous in continuing to give us coffee whenever they buy it at the church.

. . .

. . .

. . .

In 2009 I wrote a post about fairly traded chocolate (link to post) after we went to an event at East to West Gifts which celebrated World Fair Trade Day.  I gave away a bar of chocolate to spread awareness of the option of buying fairly traded chocolate and coffee.

Because of the generous gift that I just received from Equal Exchange, I would like to send a chocolate bar and the bag of coffee to you!  All you have to do to be eligible to win is live within the United States, and comment on this post.  There is only one entry per person.

A winner will be chosen among those who comment before Saturday October 13 at 10 am.  Leave a comment on this post before then if you would like to win.  At that time I will close the comments.  The winner will be chosen at random and will be notified by an update in this blog post and by email.

UPDATE:  I have dropped off a chocolate bar and bag of coffee to Emily of supperforsix as she was the winner this time.

These are some of my own photos from my walk today.

. . .

. . .

. . .

. . .

. . .

. . .

. . .

. . .

. . .

This photo shows the crackers still wrapped in wax paper.  One section has goldfish and the other has honey sticks.

. . .

. . .

This photo is after Logan has taken the crackers out of the wax paper.

. . .

. . .

Charlotte goes with me every Wednesday to eat lunch with Margaret at 10:40 and then with Logan at 11:15.  Sometimes she will sit down at the table and eat, but usually she likes to run around the cafeteria or crawl under the tables and get attention from all the students.

. . .

. . .

I pack the foods like ham and cheese up next to the ice pack and they stay very cold.  The apple turns a little bit brown in the 3 hours that pass between packing the lunch and eating it, but the cool temperature means it is still appetizing for Logan.  The Wednesdays that I have been there to sit with him he has been able to finish everything in the 30 minutes they are given to eat.

. . .

. . .

. . .

I have had to resort to nursing Charlotte while I eat lunch with Logan in order to keep her in my lap because by that time we’ve been in the cafeteria for almost an hour.  It was nice when she fell asleep!

. . .

. . .

Margaret is buying school lunch this year, but her lunch is so early in the day that she has to pack a snack.  She ends up eating lunch two times each day because the “snack” that I pack her is just as big as a packed lunch would be.  In these containers I usually pack a plum, peach, kiwi or grapes for Margaret and an apple cut in two and some strawberries for Logan.  Then for the protein Logan likes cheese cubes.  Margaret also likes cheese and she will eat peanut butter crackers or celery with peanut butter as well.  Then in the other two sections they take banana bread muffins made by my parents and graham sticks, goldfish crackers, and Letter of the Day cookies by Earth’s Best.  Half a sandwich cut in two also fits in one section.

. . .

. . .

This is what the Kinetic Go Green food container looks like when it is being washed.  We don’t have a dishwasher.  It’s not a big deal to wash these two boxes and the eight sections every night. They are very good quality.  Logan doesn’t have any trouble opening the lid and I like the size of the container which helps me get the portions right.  The lid is airtight because of a silicon gasket.

. . .

. . .

These containers are a much better way to pack lunch than the stainless steel boxes with the muffin cup dividers that I was using when Margaret was in preschool and kindergarten.  This way they can carry their lunchboxes by the handles and slide them upright into their narrow cubbies without the different foods mixing.

Well, it’s Wednesday (my day off from work) so I’ve got to get ready to go to the cafeteria and eat!

. . .

. . .

. . .

. . .

. . .

. . .

He starts kindergarten on Monday.  We have his new bookbag packed with his school supplies and some ideas for what he wants in his lunchbox.  I met his teacher on Thursday.  I filled out all the paperwork that he brought back from open house and even had to take him to the doctor on Wednesday for a last minute polio vaccination that had been overlooked.

The varicella vaccination that he got at his 5 year check-up was really scary because the nurse could not get the plunger in the syringe to go down, so she had to stick his leg 3 times.  He tensed up and screamed and had us both in tears.  I promised him that he didn’t need another shot until he was 12 years old, but then the school nurse called me when she noticed that he still needed a polio booster.  Somehow it was overlooked by everyone at the checkup.  So on Wednesday I told him we had to run some errands.  We dropped off books at the library and a prescription at the pharmacy and then I told him that we had to go to the doctor’s office.  He asked who had the appointment and what it was about, but I didn’t tell him.

We got there about 15 minutes before the staff was ready to take him, so we played in the waiting room with the toys.  Then I whispered to him that he needed an “immunization” because he didn’t know that word yet.  I was hoping not to scare him.  He nervously asked if it was a shot, and I said it was.  Then he started screaming and trying to get out of my arms.

I asked for a lot of help holding him down on the table.  I think 4 members of the staff were in the room helping me, apart from the nurse who administered the shot, but I couldn’t see because I was crying.  It was over very quickly of course, and we wiped our tears with tissues and got our suckers and stickers and silly bands and hugs.

We immediately took the updated immunization record to the school nurse and hung out in her office for a few minutes, looking at photos of her grandson and a scorpion encased in a glass paperweight.

I am relieved he still thinks I am deserving of this tiny gift.  I am filled with love for my sweet boy.

. . .

. . .

. . .

Some of you have been reading my blog long enough to remember when I wrote about the book Hijas Americanas.  Rosie and I started reading and commenting on each other’s blogs when a mutual friend from Davidson College told me about that book in 2007.   In May of this year we got the chance to meet in a park in Davidson and talk for a few minutes while our babies played together.  Meeting her was great, and it made me even more enthusiastic about spreading her message.

. . .

. . .

. . .

Rosie Molinary encourages women to live deliberately in her latest book, Beautiful You: a daily guide to Radical Self-Acceptance.  Through journaling, you act as your own coach, but because of the way this book is written, it feels like Rosie is by your side cheering you on.

I like books (well, novels honestly) that I can plow through quickly, and this is not one of those.  This book asks much more of you.  By reading it quickly in order to publish my review by the date that I promised I would, I denied myself the discoveries that daily journaling would have revealed.  I did do the task of Day 69 which was to sort through my clothes.  Then I bought myself a pack of new socks since I saw that I didn’t have any suitable ones in my drawer.

Not all of the 365 chapters will resonate with you.  There will be days that you need to receive a certain kind of advice or read a certain kind of anecdote.  The index makes it possible to find a chapter that speaks to you.  Skimming is another possibility when you are hoping to find just the right chapter for the moment.

Rosie writes in such a loving and friendly tone.  I desperately want to have that tone of voice myself and I know it will take a lot of practice.  Usually my voice is angry and critical.  There are so many ways in which I would love to be like Rosie!  She is an absolute inspiration.  I am going to re-read Beautiful You slowly and keep a journal as she suggests.  I hope you will take a moment to think of someone who could benefit from this book and then buy it from your local bookstore.

I received a copy of this book from the publicist in exchange for writing this review on my blog.