A year ago tonight...

...we were settling in for our first night as the parents of a brand-new baby.

We never could have imagined then all the immeasurable ways that Eden would change our lives for the better, and it's impossible to overstate how much richness and joy she's brought to our lives.

We love you, baby girl.

We're still here (for now)

It's been a long time since I've posted, partially because we've quickly gotten extremely busy, and partly because so many things have been happening and changing so fast that anything I'd planned to post quickly became obsolete before I got the chance.

To make a long and repetitive story short, while I have been able to start getting some GYN clinical hours done and I'm very thankful for that, a clinical site for me to do births has never really materialized in this area. The closest option was doing them at a busy hospital close to two hours away. Both in birth setting and geographic location, this was far from ideal. Going to Clinical Bound strongly reconnected me with why I went to midwifery school in the first place--practicing homebirth. Both from the perspective of providing this option to women and families AND the fact that it nourishes my own soul in a way that I don't think the alternative can. I recently went to the How to Start a Homebirth Practice seminar put on by a local midwifery practice at the annual ACNM conference, and one of the key things they said was that at a certain point, you have to decide whether you want to be a missionary or preach to the choir. Put that way, it makes it sound like there's something noble and romantic about blazing a trail--and maybe there is, but in my own practice, I've found it to be an embittering and futile exercise, full of dead ends. I've concluded that trying to provide natural birth options to women who don't especially want them and in the company of doctors and other hospital personnel who are dead set against them is at best doing no good and at worst, burning me out by spinning my wheels. (Can you smell the burnout yet? It's been lingering in my nostrils for months now.)

So anyway, as we've long admired the Amish and loved taking trips up to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, I was beyond thrilled to find an absolutely amazing homebirth/birth center/ hospital birth practice that agreed to take me on when our lease is up at the end of the summer. Not only is it the holy grail of clinicals, since I get to learn to practice in every possible birth setting, but I'll be doing so from a group of midwives with whom I share at least a majority of philosophies. Not to mention the fact that their clientele (70% old-order Amish or Mennonite)makes *us* look like a bunch of tech-obsessed yuppies in comparison.

Matt and I have actually both found part-time jobs up there as well (farming and birth assisting at homebirths!) and so all that remains is housing. We've actually found that trickier than we thought, but we're trusting that the right thing will come up at the right time. And the plan after I'm done with clinicals (hopefully by mid-December) is to move back to Iowa--back where it all began. Ironically, we left Iowa because I decided to become a lawyer because the political climate there was so hostile to homebirth midwives. Now, we're moving back in part because the laws themselves are actually more permissive than they are in most states (it's a complicated set of circumstances), and I should be set to do what I thought I'd never be able to: help bring little Iowans into the world AT HOME. (Including, I'm sure, a few of our own.) Unlike when we considered moving back a year or so ago (you know, like when I was getting teary just because we were changing apartments), we feel like we're really on the same page about moving and that we're both ready to go. We have some wonderful friends here that we will absolutely miss like crazy (especially you, April!) and that is our one big regret about leaving. Otherwise, though, it's always been our intention for our kids to grow up close to our families (in every sense of the word). Farming on at least a small scale is also still a dream of ours, and seemingly very possible there. And being within a couple of hours of our parents and all of our siblings? Priceless.

Cheesy baked cabbage

This is the answer I came up with to life without macaroni and cheese.

Cheesy baked cabbage

1 head of cabbage, shredded
6 carrots, shredded
1 stick butter
1 block cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup whole milk
2 tsp salt
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp ground red pepper
12 oz sharp cheddar, shredded

Melt the butter over medium-high head in a large saucepan. Add the cabbage and carrots and cook until tender crisp, about 5 minutes. Stir in the cream cheese until melted and vegetables are well coated. Add spices and milk and stir well until creamy. Remove from heat and transfer into a buttered 4-qt or 13x9" pan. Top with shredded cheese. Bake at 450 until cheese is melted and bubbling.

I'm already thinking variations--peanut/coconut curried cabbage, ham-mush-cabbage-casserole...more to come!

As you can see, Eden is a big fan!

Electronic Fetal Monitoring: "An appallingly poor test," says maternal-fetal medicine doctor

Read why in this excellent article from the Philadelphia Inquirer. I'm not only familiar with this research, but I've seen this exact scenario played out hundreds of times during my four years as a labor nurse. Just another reason we chose (and other families are increasingly choosing) homebirth.

Sugar waxing!

As you may have noticed, we don't eat much sugar these days. However, I was able to kill two birds with one stone today, one of which was using up some of that lonely sack of sugar we've had in our cupboard for ages.

The other? My need for cheap, sustainable, and effective hair removal. As most people have probably also noticed, this isn't something I've concerned myself with at all for the past, oh, two years or so. I've been rocking out completely natural for about that long in just about every way possible.

However, sometimes circumstances (such as a sister-in-law's wedding) call for a concession to popular culture in the body-hair-removal department. So, the search was on for an appropriate message to do so.

Matt and I don't really own a razor between the two of us anymore, and I've always hated the stubble much more than just having fuzzy legs (obviously). Plus, these days everything is both expensive and ultra-disposable, and neither of those made shaving a route I wanted to take. Back in my footloose and fancy-free days, before I was a mother, I used to enjoy (OK, wrong word) a good wax--eyebrows, bikini line. The hefty price tag meant I quit that about the time we started saving up for our wedding three years ago. I've dabbled with at-home waxing kits, but they aren't especially cheap either--and I always found them rather messy and skin-irritating, and the wax was hard to get off when I was done.

ENTER SUGARING.

my sugar wax cooling in the fridge

I am really that excited about it.

There are a number of different tutorials on sugaring, but I used this one. The basic recipe is usually the same--sugar, lemon juice, water--but some, like this one, utilize cloth strips, while others require cooking the sugar to the "soft ball stage" and then just pressing on the wax itself and pulling it off. The first method seemed a little more foolproof, so it's what I went with. What I did was:

Combine 1 cup sugar, 2 T lemon juice, and 2 T water in a saucepan
Heat over medium until foamy; hold it there (without boiling over) for about 5 minutes
Pour into a heatproof vessel and refrigerate until warm and sticky (about 15-30 min)
Cut an old piece of muslin or cotton into strips
Apply the sugar wax with a spatula to the area to be waxed
Press the strip down 2-3 times with the hair growth
Holding the area taut with one hand, quickly pull the strip off with the other.

Note: I could have probably made about 1/3-1/2 as much and still had plenty to do my legs, but I'm guessing it will keep awhile in the fridge.

Here's what I love about sugaring:

1) It's incredibly cheap--I used 1 cup of sugar and 2 T of lemon juice, plus an old piece of scrap cloth, for a cost probably under $1. Compare that to the ~$60 and upwards you would pay to get your legs waxed, or the $6-10 you'd pay for a home waxing kit, and you're saving some serious money. Even compared to shaving, the weeks of hair removal I'll get from this single sugaring can't be bought for $1 if you're using conventional razors.

2) It's really effective. While there are still stubborn leftovers that require a quick pass with tweezers, this is also the case for professional waxers, who also utilize the tweezers.

See for yourself:


3) It's long-lasting. I can't say yet how long it's going to last for me, but I'd anticipate at least a few weeks, and summer will probably be over before the regrowth gets serious enough for me to contemplate doing it again. What an investment compared to shaving!

4) It's so easy, and there are absolutely zero chemicals involved.

5) I hesitate to use the word painless, but compared with threading, tweezing, and waxing, it's the least uncomfortable method I've ever used, by far.

6) It's SO EASY to rinse off! Just plain water and that's it! Compared with wax, which you have to painstakingly rub off with oil (which then gets on your clothing), this was a total revelation.

7) Unlike shaving, your hair can (and should) be really long to start with! This might be a possible con for those who like to maintain that sleek appearance, but clearly I don't--so it's perfect for someone like me!

Here are some pointers I learned while doing it:

1) The sugar solution is easier and less uncomfortable to spread on when it's warm and runny, like warmed honey. (I used a rubber kitchen scraper to spread it on, and I poured it from the stove to a Pyrex measuring cup for use.) It also doesn't seem to work as well when it starts to get cooler and stiffer. Pop it in the microwave for 10-15 seconds and it will warm right up.

2) The efficacy really depends nearly entirely on how taut you're able to pull your skin before ripping off the cloth strip. For my calf, this meant smoothing on the strip, then using one hand to grab circumferentially around my leg and pull it as tight as possible, then ripping the strip off with the other hand. With, ah, looser body parts, you're going to want a second pair of hands or likely risk some serious bruising.

3) While your legs (or whatever) will look totally hairless, they may not feel as silky as freshly shaven legs will--since it doesn't scrape the surface, there are tiny hairs that may escape the wax, and it also doesn't provide the same level of skin exfoliation that shaving does. But then again, it also doesn't provide the ensuing bumps and redness, either. I had pretty much zero redness/rash following the sugaring of both legs, which is not something I can say for shaving or waxing.

Happy sugaring!!

The summer of slaws

photo by LaCheryl

I know everybody here is familiar with our (okay, my) fondness for food themes. Hummus, soups, salads, sandwiches, quiche...it seems like not a summer, especially, can go by without one.

I've decided that this summer will be the summer of slaws. I use that term sort of loosely, but basically to encompass the non-lettuce-based, often tangy vegetable medleys we've gotten into as of late. Coleslaw is one; this cooked vegetable hash is another. I found it one day looking for a way to cook brussels sprouts. I didn't expect much, but somehow all the ingredients really came together (especially after letting them rest for about 30min, which isn't called for but made all the difference) and it was just delicious. Here's the recipe:

Brussels Sprout Hash with Caramelized Shallots

• 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) butter, divided
• 1/2 pound shallots, thinly sliced (I used yellow onions)
  
• Coarse kosher salt
• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 4 teaspoons sugar (I used a couple of tablespoons of honey instead)
  
• 1 1/2 pounds brussels sprouts, trimmed
• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 cup water

Melt 3 tablespoons butter in medium skillet over medium heat. Add shallots; sprinkle with coarse kosher salt and pepper. Sauté until soft and golden, about 10 minutes. Add vinegar and sugar. Stir until brown and glazed, about 3 minutes.

Halve brussels sprouts lengthwise. Cut lengthwise into thin (1/8-inch) slices. Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add sprouts; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Sauté until brown at edges, 6 minutes. Add 1 cup water and 3 tablespoons butter. Sauté until most of water evaporates and sprouts are tender but still bright green, 3 minutes. Add shallots; season with salt and pepper.

As I think I've mentioned before, having some kind of cooked or cold vegetable dish makes our main-dish salads feel much more filling, and this one definitely functioned that way. I think you could probably give other cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower) a similar treatment and it would be just delicious.

The funny thing about all this is that I've never liked coleslaw, potato salad, or other vinegary things until recently. I did love things that were tart and/or sour, but unfortunately my tastes ran more toward things like cherry pie or Sour Patch Kids. Now that I've made the effort to reorient my taste buds toward things that aren't pure crap, I've found that the tanginess of vinegar is amazing in egg salad, coleslaw, or the above "hash." Something else that works well in that role? Sauerkraut. We already eat it alongside our scrambled eggs every morning, and last night we whipped up a spur-of-the-moment skillet dinner comprised of onions, mushrooms, sauerkraut, and thinly sliced hotdogs. Might sound kind of crazy, but it was delicious!

Here are some of the types of recipes I'm hoping to try out this spring and summer:

Cabbage and lime salad with roasted peanuts

Broccoli slaw

Blue cheese coleslaw (scroll down)

Asparagus, peas, and radishes with fresh tarragon

And friends of ours introduced us to a wonderful corn, avocado, and shallot salad which is held together by sour cream and a little lime juice, and which never lasts long around here. We plan on making it at least once a week!

We're back!

Our trip to Kentucky was absolutely fantastic. While there was more screaming in the car than we'd like to have had (including an especially gut-wrenching hour and a half at the end of the trip home, following 8 hours of angelic behavior, and occurring prior to getting home and realizing we didn't have our keys, a long story I'll not revisit heere)--on the whole, the trip was wonderful and relaxing. I met up with an old (well, 1.5 years, since Frontier Bound) friend and made a great new one, and laughed more and harder than I have in years. Matt and Eden spent many hours together tromping up and down a mountain and through the woods, and we were able to eat three meals a day together (despite bringing much of our own food, we were actually impressed with the Frontier spread most days--seems as though there are a lot of people not eating gluten these days, so protein and fresh fruit and vegetables abounded) and spend most evenings together, too. It was nice to get away and enjoy such a beautiful setting for awhile. And last but not least, in terms of midwifery, Clinical Bound was, like Frontier Bound, incredibly inspiring. I learned a ton, and came back recharged.

Which is good, because I'll need it. The next few months might be somewhat grueling as I attempt to work and do clinicals and Matt leaves his job and we start providing childcare for a friend's baby. It's going to be a number of enormous changes in routine for all of us, and with that will almost certainly come stress. This is compounded by the fact that we STILL don't have a clear idea of where we're ultimately meant to live, or what exactly we're meant to do. We're trying to hang onto our faith, though, that if we just take it one day at a time, we'll eventually figure it out.