• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Crunchy-Chewy Mama

Living naturally, most of the time.

  • About Jessica Claire Haney
  • Contact
  • Holistic Health
  • D.C. Metro
  • The Arts
  • Healthy Eating
  • Activism & Politics

Featured

What helps me feel un-depressed

June 6, 2014 by Jessica Leave a Comment

Spring has been a rough season around here, with cloudy attitudes despite sunny days. I’ve written a lot complaining about stuff in long, meandering posts like “Failure to thrive in motherhood” and ” I thought it might be more helpful to post the things that do make me feel good … and inspired to do…

Read More »

Filed Under: Featured

Failure to thrive in motherhood

April 30, 2014 by Jessica 5 Comments

The moment I realized I could no longer handle teaching high school, I was sitting in a Teaching for Change-organized class with Enid Lee, one of the authors of Beyond Heroes and Holidays: A Practical Guide to K-12 Anti-Racist, Multicultural Education and Staff Development and a huge force in the area of critical literacy, which was…

Read More »

Filed Under: Featured, Holistic Health, The Arts, Uncategorized Tagged With: adrenal health, Arianna Huffington, balance, breathing, business, career, depression, family, health, Holistic Health, life purpose, Mindful Healthy Life, mindfulness, passion, priorities, tai chi, teaching, Thrive, thyroid, work, working mother, yoga

Anatomy of a spring “break”

April 22, 2014 by Jessica Leave a Comment

When I was a teacher, I considered spring break a reprieve from grading and early morning wake-ups and dealing with adolescent angst in 120 flavors. But now that I am a mom with school-aged children, spring “break” is a misnomer. It is a week when I feel the weight of responsibility of keeping to a…

Read More »

Filed Under: D.C. Metro, Featured, Holistic Health, Uncategorized Tagged With: family, priorities, spring break, vacation

The writing process: always in process

March 17, 2014 by Jessica 1 Comment

As a mother of two young children, my writing process is something that shifts greatly from day to day, week to week, month to month, depending on deadlines, health, and the number of spontaneous snow days that throw a wrinkle into work life and creativity. When Karen of TimeCrafted put out a call to other…

Read More »

Filed Under: Featured, The Arts, Uncategorized Tagged With: fiction, novel, work, working mother, writing, writing mama, writing mother, writing process

Finding space for moving pieces

February 27, 2014 by Jessica 1 Comment

I appreciate that parenting is an amazing opportunity for personal growth, but I kind of feel like my psyche is about to explode. I can’t say that it’s my brain, because that would imply a boast about smartifying, which I’m decidedly not. And I can’t say that it’s my heart exactly, because it’s not the…

Read More »

Filed Under: Featured, Holistic Health, Uncategorized Tagged With: alf, Brain, children, craniosacral therapy, dentistry, family, healing journey, health, holistic dentistry, journey, marriage, orthodontia, osteopathy, play, priorities, puzzles, relationships, time, time management, wellness, Weston A. Price, work, working mother

One person’s happiness is … musings on marriage

January 5, 2014 by Jessica 10 Comments

Hearing about someone else’s marital problems is a guilty pleasure, but only until it becomes cause for envy. In her new book, Happier at Home, Gretchen Rubin shares the little things that bother her about her husband Jamie (who must be a really good sport to put up with this public laundry-airing). I liked hearing…

Read More »

Filed Under: Featured, Holistic Health, The Arts, Uncategorized Tagged With: depression, family, Femworking, From Left to Write, Gretchen Rubin, happiness, husband, marriage, partnership, priorities, relationships, spouse, yoga

The importance of laughter

November 18, 2013 by Jessica 3 Comments

This post is part of the first Humor in Parenting (and Breastfeeding!) Blog Carnival inspired by the anthology Have Milk, Will Travel: Adventures in Breastfeeding, a collection edited by Rachel Epp Buller and published by Demeter Press in August 2013. The anthology looks at the lighter side of nursing. All of its contributors found something…

Read More »

Filed Under: Activism & Politics, Featured, The Arts, Uncategorized Tagged With: breastfeeding, funny breastfeeding, humor, humorcarnival, laughter, parenting, priorities

Food as family medicine: living gluten-free and beyond

November 12, 2013 by Jessica 8 Comments

Welcome to the November 2013 Carnival of Natural Parenting: Feeding Your Family 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 recipes, stories, and advice about food and eating. Please read to the end to find a…

Read More »

Filed Under: Featured, Healthy Eating, Holistic Health, Uncategorized Tagged With: broth, Carnival of Natural Parenting, celiac, celiac disease, food, GAPS diet, gluten, gluten-free, Healthy Eating, nutrition

Early morning hours

November 11, 2013 by Jessica Leave a Comment

The goal this year was to get up by 5:30 a.m. to exercise, do yoga, and get centered for the day before starting on breakfast to get the kids out the door at 7:45. That went great, until I broke my toe, and then my daughter got sick. I rebooted with waking early to write…

Read More »

Filed Under: Featured, The Arts, Uncategorized Tagged With: morning, NaBloPoMo, NaNoWriMo, priorities, yoga

Why didn’t I think of that? Grandma saves 1/72 of the day!

November 10, 2013 by Jessica Leave a Comment

It might be said that I had a perfectly fine day, parenting the children alone from 9 to 5 on a Sunday. Except that I appear to have gained 5 pounds from stress-eating and might have let my children’s eyeballs get singed by TV and computer screens. At least it was from gorging on Mr….

Read More »

Filed Under: Featured, Healthy Eating, The Arts, Uncategorized Tagged With: art, family, lessons, parenting, priorities, relationships, seasons

Day 5: A found poem

November 5, 2013 by Jessica Leave a Comment

I have read the same issue of High Five over and over to my daughter the past few days while she’s been home sick and wanted to spend what has added up to hours sitting on the potty for no apparent reason. My son was never much of a “read it again” kid, so it’s…

Read More »

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: children's books, NaBloPo, poetry

The desire to write: swallow and spit

November 2, 2013 by Jessica Leave a Comment

Some might say if you can’t reflect, then just live instead. I like the concept, but in practice, it drives me crazy. How people live and live and live and manage to be happy only posting about it on Facebook and not writing about it in long form — or to at least have time…

Read More »

Filed Under: Featured, The Arts, Uncategorized Tagged With: childcare, illness, NaNoWriMo, NoBloPoMo, priorities, writing, writing mama, writing mother

The beginning of some kind of writing: starting NaBloPoMo

November 1, 2013 by Jessica Leave a Comment

The heft of a child against your chest The sitting of a raindrop on a leaf The turning of the calendar on the wall The dirtying of dishes at the table The coming of a holiday or any day without consulting your level of preparation   These things are humbling inevitable and all there is…

Read More »

Filed Under: Featured, The Arts, Uncategorized Tagged With: NaBloPoMo, poetry, priorities

How to do only one thing at a time: a work in progress

October 25, 2013 by Jessica Leave a Comment

I’m a lucky woman. I get to do a lot of cool things. This morning, I got to take my kids to their great public school, an Expeditionary Learning school, where children start every day Monday through Thursday with a morning meeting and start every Friday with a community meeting. I love that they see…

Read More »

Filed Under: Featured, Holistic Health, The Arts, Uncategorized Tagged With: art, Femworking, marriage, priorities, relationships

Believing in work (and parenting): Femworking conference interview and reflections

September 30, 2013 by Jessica 4 Comments

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…

Read More »

Filed Under: Activism & Politics, D.C. Metro, Featured, Holistic Health, The Arts Tagged With: blog, blogging, business, Femworking, health, Holistic Health, small business, working mother, writing mama, writing mother

Life purpose manifesto: Why I want to start a business

September 12, 2013 by Jessica Leave a Comment

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…

Read More »

Filed Under: Activism & Politics, D.C. Metro, Featured, Healthy Eating, Holistic Health, The Arts, Uncategorized

Reflections on the healing journey: summer into fall

September 11, 2013 by Jessica Leave a Comment

“You’ve come a long way,” said the Total Body Modification practitioner as I listed my areas of improvement along with my concerns. When I started seeing her in the spring, I was struggling, as noted in “Morning with a High-Maintenance Mama.” I’d come out of a bad winter cold and a digestive crisis but was…

Read More »

Filed Under: Featured, Healthy Eating, Holistic Health, Uncategorized Tagged With: adrenal, blood sugar, Brain, Child Magazine, healing, healing journey, ionic foot soak, sleep, Total Body Modification

Breastfeeding and birth celebrated in book, film, conferences

August 23, 2013 by Jessica 1 Comment

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…

Read More »

Filed Under: Activism & Politics, D.C. Metro, Featured, Holistic Health, The Arts, Uncategorized Tagged With: birth, Birth Story, Birth Without Fear, breastfeeding, Breastfeeding Center for Greater Washington, Breastmilk the movie, Have Milk Will Travel: Adventures in Breastfeeding, HBAC, homebirth, Ina May Gaskin, MommyCon, Nuroo, Sara Lamm, The Business of Being Born, The Leaky Boob

Summer events for the green and healthy family

July 26, 2013 by Jessica Leave a Comment

All the events that are fit for green and healthy families this summer into fall 2013. Share what I’ve missed and I’ll add it! Friday, July 5: Book Release and Signing Party for Beyond Bacon by Paleo Parents bloggers Stacy and Matt, Red Apron Butcher, 8298 Glass Alley, Fairfax, VA, 5:00-7:00 p.m. Wednesday, July 17:…

Read More »

Filed Under: D.C. Metro, Featured, Healthy Eating, Holistic Health Tagged With: calendar, events, Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund, Green Festival, Polyface

BlogHer arrival day

July 26, 2013 by Jessica Leave a Comment

My computer and my body think it’s 12:22 a.m., but Chicago registers pre-midnight. Regardless of the time, I’m not out partying at #BlogHer13 but am instead doing what I so rarely get a chance to do: sit in front of my computer without interruption. This is what some would call bliss. Couple that with the…

Read More »

Filed Under: Featured, The Arts, Uncategorized Tagged With: BlogHer13, Boiron, Dodge, Samsung, Walgreens, Yiva

« Previous Page
Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Welcome to Crunchy-Chewy Mama, where the wilderness meets the sidewalk. Around here, I do my best to live as healthfully as possible. But compromises abound.

I also publish the resource blog Mindful Healthy Life of Metro DC. To learn about my writing and appearances and for details about the writing, editing and consulting services I offer, visit JessicaClaireHaney.com.

Follow Crunchy Chewy Mama

  • Instagram
  • Facebook
  • X

Follow Jessica Claire Haney

  • Facebook

Follow Mindful Healthy Life

  • Instagram
  • Facebook
  • X

Copyright © 2025 · Foodie Pro Theme by Shay Bocks · Built on the Genesis Framework · Powered by WordPress