I was thrilled today to get an email blast from author Monica Murphy LeMoine that her book is now available on Amazon from Catalyst Book Press. Order your copy of Knocked Up, Knocked Down: Postcards of Miscarriage and Other Misadventures from the Brink of Parenthood today!

Never one to hold back or bullshit, Monica is author of the blog Knocked Up, Knocked Down and has written in Hip Mama and elsewhere about her experiences with — and after — stillbirth and miscarriage. I am amazed by her ability to tell stories in such a smart way with honesty and razor sharp humor. (She’s also a damn good editor who did a great job trimming down a piece I had in the online magazine she started, Exhale. If only I could learn to cut to the chase with my own material.)

I knew Monica was due to have a baby in March and so was thrilled to see on her blog that Sean was born on March 26. The whole family looks like they could be in a photo shoot for post-birth bliss. (Well, that was before I read her post on stitches, but still.)

Congratulations to Monica on a baby and a book!

Here are some submission deadlines I want to keep track of:

January 10 – Parenthood anthology – http://cityworkspress.org/submit.html
City Works Press seeks poetry, fiction, prose and art on motherhood and/or fatherhood for our upcoming anthology. Give us your moments of sublime joy as well your dark nights of the soul. Talk about birth, nursing, relationships, adoption, same-sex parenting, high tech conception loss, etc. Tell us what it means NOT to have children. Limit 2,500 words for fiction/prose or 4 poems. Please attach a short bio.

January 22 – Moving Words Poetry Competition – http://www.arlingtonarts.org/cultural-affairs/moving-words/moving-words-poetry-competition.aspx
Poets who live within the DC Metro transit zone* are invited to submit up to 3 poems for the MOVING WORDS Poetry Competition. This year’s competition calls for poems that address the theme “Getting There.” Poems must be 10 lines or less, including stanza breaks (but not including the title).

January 31 – Hot Mammas case study – http://www.hotmommasproject.org/faqs.aspx
The 1000 to 1500-word main body of the case has the following primary sections:
1. Introduction
2. Background with emphasis on “aha” leadership moment
3. Primary professional issue/challenge/learning
4. Primary personal personal/family/life challenge

February 26 – Bethesda Literary Festival Essay Contest – http://www.bethesda.org/specialevents/litfest/EssayFlyer-Interactive.pdf
What is your approach to life? Reveal your personal philosophy. Essays should be limited to 500 words or less.

I’m still climbing out from the mounds of things that piled up this past week when my son missed all three days of preschool. Monday I thought was just a precaution, that going would tire him out. The cough wasn’t that bad.

But apparently it was too much to take him to the Vitamin Shoppe for a homeopathic remedy, to a crowded post office where we left without sending a package because the line was ridiculous and the self-print label machine was broken, and then to Trader Joe’s to get some onions so I could make soup. That night he came down with a fever, and it was lethargy city around here on Tuesday. The rest of the week was just coughing and whining, but enough that we couldn’t do anything or be around anyone.

I’m glad for the Ergo that let me carry all 35+ pounds of him on my back and for the remedies, which I think helped while not fighting his body’s natural work.

He was better enough today to shovel snow (his idea!). Let’s hope that wasn’t too much and that we’re all in decent enough health to get to family for the holidays.

For more on holistic health, see “Let the Fever Go” on my Washington Times Communities column, “Reading Ingredients: Tales from a Health-Conscious Mom.”

When my son was just a baby three years ago, I wore him all over the Green Festival and bought him and a friend copies of the children’s book My Mom Hugs Trees by Robyn Ringgold. I think I might have even met the author and had her sign our copy (the book is upstairs, and the boy is asleep; if I don’t write this now, I never will).

It’s taken a while for the lovely book to make it into circulation because it’s not exactly for babies. It was fun when I rediscovered it, and now my son really likes it. He referenced it the other day upon snuggling our magnolia. I had to smile. So the next time we had a free morning, we did a photo shoot.

Today I could tell I wasn’t going to get the uninterrupted writing time I needed to work on some freelance work. We had to do some family errands, and I decided to put on my “om” necklace that carries a place for a little cotton disc on which you drop a little bit of an essential oil (okay, I don’t know where the disc are, so I used the paper towel that was still in the necklace from last time). I chose Young Living’s Joy oil. It’s a blend that is supposed to create “magnetic energy and bring joy to the heart.”

I don’t know if it was added benefits of the recent run of bodywork I’ve gotten to heal from running into a glass door or the Emotional Freedom Technique work I’ve been doing or if it was, in fact, the Joy oil, but I am happy to say that I was much cheerier today than a typical rainy November day usually finds me.

Smiley face!

Here are the ingredients of the Joy blend: Bergamot (Citrus bergamia), ylang ylang (Cananga odorata), geranium (Pelargonium graveolens), rosewood (Aniba rosaeodora), lemon (Citrus limon), mandarin (Citrus reticulata), jasmine (Jasminum officinale), Roman chamomile (Chamaemelum nobile), palmarosa (Cymbopogon martinii), and rose (Rosa damascena).

I have an alter-ego. Her name is Ms. Moo. She is our son’s bathtime towel, a black and white hooded number I got at Target going on two years ago.

The other day, when my son knew he was being annoying, he asked, “What’s Ms. Moo saying?” It was like he wanted to give me permission to stop him from his negative spiral.

Then he’d ask it if he’d been super cooperative, to nudge me to comment on how pleasant it was that we ate a meal together in peace.

This lasted for only a few days, maybe because we don’t take baths around here all that often. But she came out again last night. I’ll be interested to know if he starts to turn again to her and invite the sort of super-ego commentary he’s not capable of and that part of him doesn’t want to hear from me. I don’t usually want to judge or make pronouncements. But it’s like he’s trying to take positions and reflect on his behavior such that he craves this input from a higher power. With udders

Now let’s not talk about how he’s also regressed to wanting to put his hand up my shirt again.

I have a friend who thought she had an ear infection but instead was told by a D.O. that she has TMJ – jaw pain. I mentioned to her the connection between hips and the jaw but had no resources to share to back me up. I’ve heard it from numerous practitioners from dentists to birth professionals, but I didn’t get the windfall I expected upon Googling. Most of the info is more general about posture & alignment.

Here are some of the links that came up. It’s way too late and I think I’m clenching my jaw and tensing my legs & hips as I type!

Whole Health Dental Center: info on body/alignment and TMJ – the Cranial-Dental Balance: http://www.wholehealthdentalcenter.com/carnail-dental.htm

Fairlington Dental’s TMJ info and treatment overview: http://www.fairlingtondental.com/tmj-treatment.html

Upledger Institute: article giving overview of CranioSacral Therapy in general at http://www.upledger.com/pdf/CS0307E.pdf

Weg Der Mitte (Berlin): Article: “The Symbiotic Partnership of Dentistry And Craniosacral Therapy”
http://www.wegdermitte.de
/index.php?/english/publications/cranio-article1.htm

Delicious Living Magazine: article on TMJ and healing modalities: http://deliciouslivingmag.com/health/conditions/oral-health/dl_article_2361/

In Light Times: article on TMJ and other connections (by a dentist): http://www.inlightimes.com/archives/2005/08/tmj.htm

About.com article from massage therapist on using massage and Reiki (including working on hips) to alleviate jaw pain: http://healing.about.com/cs/uc_directory/a/uc_sadler03.htm

Yoga Forums: A casual Q& A at http://www.yogaforums.com/forums/f16/the-jaw-hip-connection-2211.html

North Bay Chiropractic and Laser Center: Just some info about TMJ and overall health & possible other health connections: http://www.northbaylaserdoc.com/help_tmj.shtml

Ogden Dental: Info on TMJ and other issues like joint problems: http://www.ogdendental.net/gpage7.html

Yorkville Centre for Integrative Health: massage therapist talking about connections with TMJ and the rest of the body: http://www.balancefacilitator.com/Articles/tmj-article.html

I used to love listening to radio on the weekend. Often I’d be cleaning or doing laundry or sorting the schoolwork I had to grade while I listened to Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me, This American Life, Studio 360, sometimes From the Top. Back in my grad school days listening to WNKU (across the river from Cincinnati), I liked the World Cafe for music. Weekdays were for Fresh Air and the news shows.

Since my son was born, radio doesn’t make much of an appearance in our atmosphere at home, and it’s rare that I get to listen to radio while driving. I have not yet joined the 21st century and gotten into Podcasts or really seeking out a whole lot of audio/video media online, either. Mostly it’s just real-time radio for this chick.

But there’s not much time for that, either. If my husband has my son or the boy is with a sitter, I usually want to be writing or doing yoga or something else that doesn’t let me split my brain. But today I had some cleaning and cooking to do, so I got to hear a little of Studio 360 (May 30, 2009). Those folks are so good at painting a picture and making you want to learn more about art — and to make art (visual, literary or whatever) of your own. I particularly liked imagining the photos of Richard Misrach’s new book of beach photos taken over four years from a hotel room, and Miranda July’s short story was pretty cool. The history of Falling Water was interesting, and when I went to http://www.studio360.org/ , I enjoyed hearing the background behind the music of Arlington, VA-based songwriter Thao Ngyuen. My kitchen radio turned on at the tail end of Harlan Ellison’s interview and will have to go back to that one online later.

At any rate, I like feeling like an adult who has some kind of connection to the art world. Didn’t I move to DC in part because of the museums and all the cultural opportunities? Time to get back to the Mall, maybe for a Friday jazz night at the National Gallery.

“I’m using Yahoo Calendar!” I chirped to my husband who’d suggested it when I asked about Outlook. I’ve been a paper calendar girl this whole time — never entering the 21st century. I don’t have a Blackberry and honestly have a hard time even justifying my regular cell phone bill if I didn’t have the kid (but then, I guess I might have a regular job that might require mobile accessibility. I used to teach high school where cell phones aren’t allowed in view. The only time I used my cell phone was when I happened to have it in my coat pocket, and I had my coat on because my classroom was 64 degrees. I used it to call the main office when I was barricading my body against the door so a pissed off student wouldn’t get back in. Those were the days…)

Anyway, I was complaining that I need to update things online since I can never find my planner. It turns out that if you’ve got a Yahoo email address, there is, right there on your mail page, a tab for a Calendar page. Who knew? (I guess I was distracted by the 10086 unread messages in my Inbox. No, I am not kidding.)

So now I can input all my stuff as I get the Evite or see the posting or whatever and then later write it all down on paper (for that global-minded learning style). And since I’m on five pages worth of Yahoo groups, I’ve also got — already magically there! — details for meetings for anything anyone on any group I’m on has put into the group calendar. There sure are a lot of babywearing meetings now that my son is too big to be worn! (Unless of course he’s got a fever and won’t let me leave his side, in which case into the Ergo his almost-three self went a few weeks ago.)

In response to my happy news of thanks, my helpful hubby said, “Really. I had no idea. I just made that up.”

I was AWOL for a while for a decent reason, working on a big project. But then I got stymied by snow (fun, but missed childcare) and now, a child’s fever has put everything on pause. It’s eerie how quiet the house is when your toddler is sleeping the day away or staring glassy-eyed into space on the couch instead of running into the kitchen every five minutes to open the refrigerator door.

We are headed to the doctor within the hour. I hope he’ll be okay, and I sure am glad I’m still nursing.