Living naturally, most of the time.
What a delightful conversation I had last week with Kelley Sanabria, founder of Femworking, LLC and Nicole Dash, author of Tiny Steps Mommy blog and the co-chair with Kelley of the upcoming Blogger and Small Business Conference taking place in Arlington on October 26. They offered a discount for covering the conference for TheDCMoms.com, and…
One step forward, two steps back. After yesterday’s post on my health journey and optimism for the future, I hit something of a wall last night that had me questioning myself and the purpose that had seemed so crystal clear just hours earlier. I tearfully emailed my energy work practitioner at 11:30 p.m. when, wide-eyed…
Birthing and breastfeeding have been on my mind a lot lately for a woman whose days are normally filled with talk of baseball and potty time. My seven-year-old son weaned four years ago, and my daughter, who just turned three, lost her access to my breasts at 22 months when my health was just struggling…
Welcome to the July 2013 Carnival of Natural Parenting: Learning About Diversity This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama. This month our participants have shared how they teach their children to embrace and respect the variety of people and cultures that…
My daughter learned how pigs sound from our trip to Polyface Farms just after she turned two. Since then, every time she’s gleefully snorted, I smile knowing she gleaned that skill right from the source, frolicking right alongside the pasture-raised pigs at Joel Salatin’s farm in Swoope, Virginia. Maybe she’d first picked it up in…
Welcome to the June 2013 Carnival of Natural Parenting: Parenting in Theory vs. in Reality This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Code Name: Mama and Hobo Mama. This month our participants are sharing how their ideas and methods of parenting have changed. *** The surprises…
Welcome to the March 2013 Carnival of Natural Parenting: Tough Conversations This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama. This month our participants have spoken up about how they discuss complex topics with their children. Please read to the end to find…
I can’t stand it. After 27 days of writing poetry, I want to write about nutrition! Aside from the fact that tomatoes are out of season and that I didn’t preserve any local ones, and aside from the fact that I’d once all but banned even gluten-free pasta from our house as a processed food…
This election business poses a challenge for me. Everyone is talking on Facebook about their hopes and fears, but, when I’m standing in my kitchen talking to my 6-year-old, I don’t want to talk too much about politics. My son just doesn’t need too much of the world on his shoulders. I wonder what truly…
A few weeks ago, Robin Shirley, organizer of the amazing Take Back Your Health Conference, pointed out to me that Liz Crenshaw of NBC4’s Consumer Watch needed a group of local moms for a piece. I wrote the producer who told me Liz was doing a story on the cost of diapers. I hoped to…
Welcome to the June 2012 Carnival of Natural Parenting: Embracing Your Birth Experience This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Code Name: Mama and Hobo Mama. This month our participants have written about at least one part of their birth experience that they can hold up and…
Eating close to the source is something I’ve been working toward for several years, ever since I started trying to get my health on track in the face of major digestive issues, infertility, and Graves’ disease (autoimmune hyperthyroidism). I was almost embarrassed to request Barbara Kingsolver’s 2007 Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life…
The instant I read the words, I regretted picking up my BlackBerry that one last time before going to bed. A well-meaning relative of mine had read my recent post about my health and my leaky gut problem and told me: “This is not the time to volunteer for things.” She intended to point out…
Baby girl has been a little under the weather, so we’ve been spending more time together — less babysitter, no outings. There were lots of things I intended to accomplish in the past two days, but many of them had to just go out the window. Or, rather, she sat on my desk in front…
Campbell Elementary School in south Arlington is hoping to remedy a swampy (and sometimes icy) problem in its playground and turn the area into a wetlands learning lab. The school is a county-wide program that utilizes a hands-on curriculum called Expeditionary Learning. The wetlands learning lab will give students lots of opportunities to observe wildlife…
Homebirth, school lunch, small farmers, Wise Traditions conference, Blogalicious, that bee sting I got the other day … there is so much to write about. But when you spend close to two hours trying to get a baby to nap for 30 minutes, well, it’s tough to get it all in. My apologies for all…
Being one of some 1500 traditional food enthusiasts here at the Weston A. Price Foundation Wise Traditions conference is humbling and exhilarating. So many people have regained health or healed their children through real food. The stories at the Gut and Psychology Syndrome (GAPS diet) lecture alone were amazing. It’s easy in mainstream circles to…
One in a series of reports from the Weston A. Price Foundation’s 2011 Wise Traditions conference in Dallas. Busy Crunchy-Chewy mama is processing and writing as fast as she can! See the first day post and Washington Times Communities article. Healthy notes from Day Two: I took a walk in the brisk morning on the…
Hop on over to TheDCMoms.com to see my Green post today on making thoughtful plans as you head into holiday hosting. Let’s see if I can take my own advice this time.
What a great turnout at yesterday’s rally to protest restrictions on the sale of raw milk. Here are some photos from the reporter mom perspective! For full coverage, check out my article at The Washington Times Communities Family Today Also visit Kimberly Hartke’s blog post about the rally. Or check out all this great coverage!…
