Spring Babies

My Babaco is getting ready to have babies!

...and so is my feijoa (these flowers are edible by the way).

I'm very excited :)

I'm still here!

Just a little caught up in life with 3 bright blessings. :-) I've decided to change the direction of this blog slightly to incorporate all aspects of my life. I'm not saying this to blow my own horn but the truth is I've got numerous qualifications and a number of passions which funnily enough interweave to form one glorious wholistic life. I was reflecting on this the other day....I admire people who have one passion and give it there all and make a life work of that one thing..I felt sad because i have many, possibly too many ...Birth, nutrition, permaculture, unschooling...what should be my focus? should i just focus on one thing?? How can i be a Birthkeeper as well as a permaculturist as well as raw lifestyle coach? The truth is, I don't think i can ever be just one thing because life isn't just about one aspect...so what if i can teach a childbirth ed group or a bellydance for birth class as well as encouraging someone else in their raw food journey while also designing their edible garden? Will people think less of me because i'm 'over-qualified with my fingers in too many pies'?
I'm really just thinking out loud here. This is the walk that i walk and the talk that i talk so if people can find inspiration from any aspect then i'm happy to have helped.

So having rambled on about that, from now on you can expect to find posts on birth, wholistic nutrition, permaculture, and our wonderful unschooling journey in more depth. So please excuse the mess ;)

xo

Metamorphoses........

Oh Wow! I recieved my first blog award from the lovely Sue at http://sue-charlieandme.blogspot.com/

It is an award for bloggers who distinguish themselves for showing cultural values, ethics, great and fun writing skills, as well as individual values, through their creative writing. Aw shucks Sue..thankyou so much xoxo

Here are the award rules: To accept and show the distinct image. Show the link to the blog from which you were given the awardChoose 15 blogs to give the award to. So i'm definately giving an award to http://www.ilithyiainspired.com/,

Happy Mother's Day to all mums out there..in whatever form that takes. I hope you have been suitably acknowledged and pampered. Motherhood is such an amazing time of transformation no matter how many children you nurture. Motherhood demands your all at all and any given time of the day. Most often it is a thankless role, but for me, watching my children grow and laugh and play and care for one another is reward enough. But it is nice to have actual acknowledgement for the endless work that we do.

Today my family took me to a few local nurseries to buy some fruit trees. I am eager to start gestating my next love child - a food forest. i have a number of fruit trees in already (they are yet to mature though..except for the citrus which is producing prolifically) but you can never have too many so I brought home a Honey Murcot Mandarin, 2 pear trees (a packham and a williams), and a passionfruit vine. We're all very excited because our little blueberry bush has produced it's first berry which has successfully ripened without being eaten prematurely..and our naval oranges are almost ready to harvest...........mmmmm golden orbs of liquid sunshine.

Foodwise for me has been going really well. I'm enjoying lots of watermelon, grapes, rockmelon, mandarins, BANANAS, kiwi fruit, etc throughout the day and then rounding the day off with a large green salad and the non-sweet fruits like tomatoes, capsicums, cucumber etc. Niamh is also thriving on my milk that is flowing with fruity bliss. :)

cutey pie :)

As much as a ludite i want to be i have fallen in love with my new iPhone. i have found an App for a food and fitness diary. it's a great tool to help me stay on track in these early days of 811.

I also recently joined Roger Haeske's newsletter subscription list and he sent out a newsletter that had some really great transition tips in it...so just thought i would share for anyone new to the raw lifestyle......

Step 1:

Here is a simple technique to help you add more raw fruits to your diet. Luckily fruits digest very quickly. Wateryfruits like grapes digest in 10 minutes or less and sweeter and heavier fruits like bananas take about 20 to 30 minutesto digest. Eat as much fruit as you like before your meals.Then wait 10 to 30 minutes depending on the kind of fruit you ate before the rest of your meal. Always have a large salad for dinner after eating the fruit. Then eat what you would normally eat. With this technique you will end up eating less of your regular cooked foods and you'll start to learn to enjoy eating more fruits and vegetables.

Don't be afraid to eat plenty of fruit. Remember they are the best source of fuel. They're handled much better by yourbody than grains and other starchy foods. I don't know anyone who got fat from eating just fruit. On the contrary,you will lose fat and maintain muscle. I've yet to see anobese 100% raw foodist. You do have to be careful not to eat too much raw fat though. Too much fat can make somesensitive people gain weight but there are many othernegative consequences to a high fat diet. Raw fats arebetter but we still have to watch them in our diet. Fruits serve at least three main purposes: they provide ourbodies with the best and quickest fuel source, they are verygood internal cleansers and supply us with all the vitamins we need for super health. Our bodies can only utilize simplesugars. When we eat starchy carbohydrates like bread and pasta the body needs to first breakdown the complex carbohydrates into simple carbohydrates like those that arefound naturally in fruits. So why waist all your energydigesting foods when you can eat foods that your body can turn into energy right away. Plus raw foods still have theirenzymes intact making them much easier to digest than cooked foods. The key is to eat enough fruits to replace the amountof calories you would normally eat with starchy foods. That means eating way more fruit per day than you ever imagined.Fruits are also very high in vitamins. Per calorie, raw fruits and vegetables are much higher invirtually every nutrient than cooked meats, fats andstarches. You can get a full day's supply of the USRDA'scomplete protein requirement by simply eating your normalamount of calories in fruit instead of cooked food.

(Please take your time with all these steps. You can takeanywhere from 3 months to 3 years to get to step 6 of theprocess. It all depends on how toxic a lifestyle you wereliving in the past and your determination to achieveparadise health. The key is to eventually get to at leaststep 5. If you do it in these steps your body will have hada chance to cleanse and detoxify and relearn how to use rawfoods as a fuel source. So take your time and read lots ofraw food books so that you can fully educate yourself on theway mankind was designed to eat. You'll also learn from these books that there is nothing to fear by eating a Raw Vegetarian Diet. By the way I don't recommend raw milk evenif you could get it. Milk is designed for a cow's baby, thecalf. Have you ever seen a rabbit or deer suckling from acow to get milk? The only animal that should be drinking cow's milk is the calf.)

Step 2:

After getting used to having fruit before every meal you can try to take the next step in the gradual transition process to a high percentage raw food diet. Next what you will do is replace a normal cooked food breakfast by eating only raw fruit. Eat as much fruit as you need until you feel satiated. Remember to continue eating fruit before each of your other meals. Do this for a couple of months or until you feel ready to take the next step.

Step 3:

Now you should replace your lunch with a mostly fruit meal.A great fruit to give you lots of calories is banana. If youare a very active person like an athlete you might need toeat 10 to 15 bananas until you are satisfied. An average banana is about 105 calories and has one gram of completeprotein. You could have some other fruit before the bananas.It is ideal to eat one fruit at a time which is called amono meal. That makes it much easier to digest. Another good food to have with fruit is celery. Celery will supply you with the necessary natural sodium, lots ofminerals and protein. It also cuts the sweetness of eating fruit. You can also combine cucumber with fruit. Both celery and cucumber combine well with just about anything. They arealso very alkaline foods and will help to build up your alkaline reserves. One of the main reasons the raw food diet is successful is because it will shift you back to an alkaline blood pH. Make sure to eat plenty of dark greenleafy vegetables as well in this regard. By the time you get to Step 3 you are probably doing prettywell health wise. You will start to notice many improvements in your health. Make sure to have a raw salad with most ofyour evening meals. Dark leafy greens are very important and provide lots of minerals and proteins. You get much more nutrients in raw fruits and vegetables than you get incooked meats and starches.

Step 4:

Pick one day of the week where you will only eat raw foods.See what it is like to have a day of purely uncooked foods.You will feel amazing after doing this. You'll have lots ofenergy; feel happier and be more in tune spiritually. Rawfoods still have the living spiritual force inside of them.That life force is contained in the enzymes of raw foods.When you cook foods above 105 degrees, you destroy most ofthe nutrients in foods including the enzymes.

Step 5:

Reduce your cooked meals to only 3 times per week. If you do this your health will be quite wonderful. You won't get all the benefits of a complete raw food diet but you will be much healthier than the average person. This way you canstill go out and eat your favorite cooked foods on occasion.I had been on this step for at least two years. Do all thesesteps at a comfortable rate for you. You can go right to step 5 or even 6 if you want to, but it may be very difficult at first. The older and more overweight you are,the more you will probably have to detox. Also if you havetaken many illegal and prescribed drugs it will make yourdetox period take longer. These drugs are stored in yourbody and will start being eliminated when you eat only rawfoods. These steps are designed to help you detoxify slowlyand to get you mentally adjusted to the experience of eating100% raw foods.

Step 6:

Now you are ready to go 100% raw. Now your evening meal can start with fruits as usual. Then add a large salad or raw vegetable dish. You can add some raw nuts or seeds as well to this meal. If you feel you need to eat a dessert after dinner that means you did not eat enough fruit or you atetoo much fat. Raw fats are good but should only be about 10to 15% of your total caloric intake. Don't worry if you backslide in your progress to becoming 100% raw. I have backslided many times, but each time was a learning experience. If you follow my six-step technique itwill make it much easier for you eventually go 100%. I have been at step 6 several times. Now I am at the point where I understand how to do it correctly and can maintain my healthand feel nutritionally satisfied. Step 6 is like an Olympic level. It is meant for those who want ultimate health,happiness and youthfulness. To get all the benefits of theraw food diet you have to eventually go to step 6.

Anyhoo that's all for now...it's time for boobyjuice :-)

Peace xo

Simplicity

Well it's been a while since I posted anything about my raw food journey so now that we've settled into the chaos of having 3 kids and have resumed some form of normal life (whatever that means)..it's time for an update.......

Epiphany #2..

Turn back the clock before I got pregnant and I had begun to gravitate to a more simplistic way of eating..craving more fruits and the simplicity of peeling a banana rather than the complicated process of soaking, sprouting, dehydrating..waiting waiting waiting 2 days for a flax cracker, soaking nuts to make gourmet 'cakes', and spending oodles on 'superfoods' (which we all know from my pregnancy journey became a bit of an obsession)......

well it's funny what happens after one has had the baby..I'm CRAVING simplicity again..perhaps due to the pressure of trying to fit an attached baby into a daily schedule of trying to think of and prepare meals for the slightly-healthier than SAD eaters in the house.

There is a saying that goes something like; "when the student is ready, the master appears"...Superman's birthday arrived 3 days after Niamh was born and I was hardpressed with what to buy him..he is really into sports and fitness (but a bit stuck in the '80's when it comes to sport and nutrition...when he did his fitness instructor training)..I had come across Dr Doug Grahams work before on different forums etc but had not read his stuff. I knew though when it comes to sports nutrition and enhancing athletic performance he is at the top of his game..so it was logical that because i love Superman very much and want to live a long and vibrant life with him I should get him some of Dr D's books for his birthday.

Hmmmmm ..it seems that i was the one who was meant to read them at this stage of our journey. Total resonation with my craving for Simplicity. The ultimate healthy eating plan grounded in Natural Hygiene (the natural science based on the principle of the body being able to heal itself) is a raw vegan diet based on 80% calories coming from carbohydrates (fruit), 10% from fat, and 10% from protein. This is such a simple way of eating that isn't based on spending oodles of money on superfoods, supplements, and it doesn't require a lot of preparation time. It's just about eating whole, fresh, ripe, raw, organic fruits and vegetables..which is really what the raw vegan diet is about. A lifestyle that requires extra 'superfoods', and supplements isn't really natural and in the long term isn't encouraging the body to create it's own health and vitality. Of course it isn't just about diet...it's also adequate sleep, fresh air, sunshine, and lots of movement. It's an ironic observation that even the most unathletic of us (like me) feels the need to move our bodies a lot when we are eating this life-giving food.

So..this is what I'm eating now..I'll use the last 2 days as an example...

Wednesday 23/04/09

movement:

walking, yogalates, breastfeeding (yes this is a type of calorie-burning exercise)

eats:

1 large rockmelon

500g grapes

1 litre green smoothie (1/2 head cos lettuce, 3 bananas, cucumber, 1/4 pineapple, 1 orange)

1/2 watermelon

Big Green Salad (cos lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, capsicum)

6 kiwi fruit

(2138 cal. carb:protein:fat = 89:7:4)

Thursday 24/04/09

movement:

walking, bellydance, breastfeeding

eats:

1/2 watermelon

Green Juice (5 apples, 1 cucumber, celery, head cos lettuce)

500g Kiwi fruit (6), 500g mandarins tossed togther ot make a salad

banana smoothie (8 oz coconut water, 3 bananas, 5 dates)

Big green salad (mixed lettuces, tomatoes, basil, celery, capsicum)

(2448 cal. 89:7:4)

Feeling very very good. Not waking up hungry. no bloating, no gas, no mucus build up, waking up feeling refreshed rather than foggy and sleep deprived (despite waking 2x/night to roll over and feed Niamh and put her on the potty) AND my milk is flowing in ABUNDANCE.

I don't know why humans like to make things sooooooooooooooo difficult..I suspect it has much to do with making a profit somewhere but i also suspect it has a lot to do with a societal-induced need to be recognised (due to cruel birth/early parenting practices). It's a shame because so much joy comes from being simple. :)

many blissful blessingsssssssssssssss

xoxoxoxox

The birth story.....

This is Niamh's birth story. The birth itself, as i've recorded here, is actually just the final epoch in a healing journey that began 31 years ago. That whole story will be published in issue 35 of The Mother Magazine and takes up 5 A4 size pages...so it's probably a little long too post here in its entirety. .......


My ‘official’ due date covered the 17th/18th/19th March (depending on which pregnancy calculator I used). Mum arrived the Sunday before. In hindsight this may not have been a good idea although at the time I thought I would birth either on or around these dates as both the boys had been pretty spot on. Well, the due dates came and went, and the first week of being ‘overdue’ went by. I began to absorb the impatience of others as the text messages etc started to come flooding in, every day....’is anything happening yet?’. I became housebound, choosing not to go anywhere just in case. I was getting very strong Braxton-hicks borderline early labour waves consistently every day. In short, I was starting to go crazy as I felt that if I just pushed the babe would fall out.


As the pressure and the guilt all began to get too much I sank to my knees and prayed the prayer of thousands. During the prayer however, something changed and I began to express my most heartfelt gratitude for the blessing of this pregnancy, the privilege of the birth I was about to give, the joy of having my babe all to myself. A deep sense of peace came over me and I knew that all would be well no matter what.


At 4:20am on the 28th March, ten days after my due date, my waters broke. Nice, clear liquor. How exciting. It begins. I had prepared myself for another 24 hour labour so I went back to bed to get some sleep. Sleep became difficult as the waves began to roll in. I listened to some music on my iPod as I drifted in and out of a semi-sleep. At some point around 7 I got up and made myself a cup of nettle and rose petal tea. Mum was awake so I let her know. Needless to say she was very happy.

The waves continued throughout the day gradually gaining in intensity. I am enjoying the feeling that my babe will be coming soon. I snack on watermelon and frozen blueberries, drink often, I make a few dolls for the boys, do some bellydancing and then suddenly around lunchtime an overwhelming wave of fatigue comes over me. I decide to go and lie down for a while; Shaun takes the boys for a walk. He is gone for about an hour or so and while I manage to rest and fall back into a doze the waves are gradually intensifying. Shaun returns and somewhere around 2 or 3 the waves become really intense, there is much burning pain in my sacrum. I become fearful, of what I’m not sure. In hindsight I am standing at the edge of that familiar abyss that marks Transition. I begin to cry. Shaun asks me why I’m crying ‘I don’t know’ I reply. He reassures me that everything is fine and I’m doing well. He says that this is about the time Myra came last time. I think to myself ‘I don’t remember it getting stronger than this’. But it does. I decide to get into the pool. Instant relief. The waves slow down. I begin to regain focus. A sense of calm. Suddenly they intensify incredibly. I lose my focus as stories of my birth, ariels birth, and Joshua’s birth swirl around my head. My inner doula steps in intermingling with the swirling stories, ‘you can do this, I can do this, you are doing this’. I lose myself in that primal call. At some point Joshua hops in the pool. This doesn’t bother me. I’m too in between worlds to care. Intense waves, burning in my sacrum. I wonder if babe is posterior...how much longer can i do this for? I can’t do this much longer I don’t remember it getting any stronger than this. I grab onto Shaun who stares into my eyes, willing me with his own inner strength to keep going. I cry out, ‘I just need the head!’ I reach down and feel the familiar bulge in my perineum. I need to push. A big push the head is out, I reach down, and she is facing the right way. Restitution. Another big push, ‘she’s coming out the back I say. I’m on my hands and knees. As her body emerges, mum gently reaches into the water and pushes her back through my legs. 6:56pm. I scoop her up to my breast. She looks at me, wide eyed but content. I look up and Ariel is about to get into the pool. I tell the boys I love them, and all is well. We all erupt in a flood of joyous emotion as I discover that babe is our long awaited girl. She looks around at the familiar voices, content, happy, peaceful. Such a contrast to the inner turmoil dizzying my senses moments before. She seems to instantly know who the boys are. We name her Niamh Eliza and she latches on perfectly for her first suckle 15 minutes after her birth. I birth the placenta 25 minutes later as Myra arrives. I had decided that I would like Myra to come after the placenta had arrived to share in our joy and offer post-natal care if needed. Niamh and I are both fine, the placenta is beautiful, no care is needed but it is always good to debrief.

So Niamh is born, and I am reborn surrounded by my family holding a space of love for this lotus to blossom. We snuggle up in our big family bed, and the karmic record is set right.
Lotus born, she lets go of her travelling companion on the 2nd April around lunchtime.

They say that every woman either relives her own birth in some form during the birth of her own children or in the lead up to it if the limbic imprint hasn’t been consciously cleared. It is interesting that there are so many similarities between my birth and Niamh’s birth. We were both ‘overdue’, we both experienced the same sort of labour, our pregnancy cravings and aversions were the same. There are so many elements to Niamh’s birth that make it magical. When I look back on my birthing ‘career’ I see the hand of the Divine guiding a deeply healing process. Even down to her birth on the Sabbath as if to say ‘My covenant with you is sealed’. (I have reflected this in Niamh’s middle name) Although I had intended to have an orgasmic blissful birth with Niamh (and in the beginning it was enjoyable), her birth was by far, my toughest challenge. Each birth before hers was a step, a gaining of confidence and strength to face my ultimate fear and although it may sound strange, she could only be a girl for me to do that. A cycle has been broken and a great healing has taken place and now we begin another journey into the continuum of conscious parenting.


peace xoxo

Freeborn!

Most of you probably already know but for the sake of being a good blogger.....

Niamh Eliza waterbirthed gently into Mama's arms on Saturday 28th March 2009 at 6:56pm. Holding a space of love for her arrival were her daddy, 2 big brothers, and her Nanna.

She is currently still holding on to her travelling companion so will be back with the birth story when she is Lotus born :)

May you be as blessed as we,

xoxoxo

When are you due?

or 'Michelle would like the world to leave her alone now'.



Technically, according to my LMP i am now what the medical monopoly would classify as being overdue by 2 days but still 'overdue'.
This pisses me off. Even though I have opted out of the med system and even the midwife- assisted homebirth choice I apparently am still not immune from societies opinion on when my baby should have been born. How insiduous is this fear-based system that it can get in and tangle our collective mind like some intrusive yet deceptively quiet willow root seeking an underground aquifer..usually a household waterpipe. Many a pregnant woman can empathise...throughout this pregnancy i have had numerous people telling me when they think the baby will be born (and let's not even go into what sex they think it is), as well as people relaying their dreams about when it will happen, or well-meaning friends and family constantly ringing/txting/etc ad infitum enquiring as to my well-being and if anything is happening yet...like we had suddenly forgot to tell everything we had the baby a month ago or something.

This is all well and good and nice that people are concerned but to be honest, with so many people doing this over time and particularly before I'm even meant to be 'due'..it can get a little annoying and very much like living in a pressure-cooker. Do I need to feel guilty that my babe hasn't arrived earthside yet? NO, but I do. So i've had very strong braxton-hicks for the last 10 weeks and they have continued getting stronger..does this mean anything is happening now? I don't know..but does one not think that i might say something if it felt like i was in full-blown labour or ready to push?? Asking me if anything is happening everytime i go to the toilet or have a twinge of some sort DOESN'T HELP.

I'm sorry but modern obstetrics (or modern midwifery for that matter in most cases) has done nothing to assure women that BABIES ARE BORN WHEN BABIES ARE READY. Up until about 30 years ago the collective un/conscious knew this and then suddenly the myth of placental insufficiency and aging after 40 weeks was perpetuated by a few inconclusive studies that seemed bias toward the convenience of induction when an obstetrician had to take his annual leave. Most of these studies are contradictory and support implantation/blood flow issues due to smoking and other lifestyle factors rather than the placenta getting too old and deciding to give up the ghost willy nilly.
Before these bullsh*t embellished furfies came along, people were quite happy to wait. In fact we have been quite happy to wait since the first human female gave birth. Now we even have some religious nuts (who really should know better) quoting a 40-week gestation as being God's perfect plan for a gestational timeline. As i have studied the particular topic of analogous use of childbirth throughout the Bible in great depth, this falls short on 2 accounts at least...1.) taking the gestational age from the LMP (last menstrual period) the standard 40-week period actually drops to a 38 week gestation, leaving an actual gestational period of 40 weeks to be taken up to 42 weeks (the age that most hospital and even some homebirth medwives take as the absolute cut-off must need an induction date)...and 2.) childbirth throughout the Bible is given as analogous to the plan of God's salvation of mankind..ultimately climaxing with the return of the Messiah and the millenial 'honey/babymoon' period following. We are specifically told "But of that day and hour no-one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father...take heed, watch and pray, for you do not know when the time is". (Mark 13:32-33 NKJV)...
We are also asked in rhetoric; " Shall I bring to the time of birth, and not cause delivery?..Shall I who cause delivery shut up the womb??" (Isaiah 66:9 NKJV)

I realise that to many of you reading this post, the above rambling of biblical Divine presence in childbirth is irrelevent but for some it is relevent, so deal with it, skip over it and just realise that due dates are arbitrary, they are a nice general guideline but they are not the be all and end all, in fact in our rapidly pervasive western culture they have done more harm than good. (Ever wondered why everyhting seems to be speeding up so much now, why people can't wait, and young peoploe need everythign to happen now? Think about it in relation to how many babies are being induced before they are ready)

Please just allow women to enjoy the last secret stages of their pregnancy without the pressure. A whole generation is counting on you to let them enter the world in their own time, at their own pace. God knows we need to learn patience for a peaceful future, so let's start where it counts.

And don't worry, you will all be informed when the blessed event occurs :)

Peace. xo