Extreme Babywearing

Just in case you ever doubted the dedication, ingenuity, and adaptability women have to care for their children and still accomplish daily tasks:

From the book "Blood, Bread, and Roses: How Menstruation Created the World“ by Judy Grahn:

"Women mold their bodies for practical purposes. African women often wanted long breasts, long enough to feed babies carried on their backs during long walks; and so beginning at puberty they used "bands and ropes to compress the base of the breast and elongate it."

I saw a thread about this on TBW and wanted to share it with some interested friends without them having to dig for the information ;)

Last week's projects

I've been busy crafting, seems it goes in spurts so I'm trying to take advantage of the urge :)

Last week I made felt fortune cookies for Avery's class valentines (hate, hate, hate the store-bought cardboard made in China crap) . I used this tutorial and they turned out pretty cute! Found these teeny, tiny Valentine takeout boxes for them at Joanns. Avery got to help me and is thrilled with them, can't wait for her school party!



































Then, my mom picked out some lucious Noro Silk Garden at a local yarn store in Michigan called The Needlesmith (I dragged her over there because they sell Madelinetosh IN THE STORE!!!) Anyway, she loved this yarn and wanted a cowl, so here is the finished product. Pattern is Eternity Scarf stitched on size 9 needles. I hope she loves it, if not I'll give it a good home ;)










I can't wait to show you what I've been working on this week, going to wait until I'm done to post details. My sewing calluses are returning!!!

Kombucha

Here is the recipe from the Kombucha class yesterday:

Ingredients per gallon of kombucha
~ water about 3 quarts (preferably filtered/no chlorine, fluoride, etc.)
~ tea about 8 regular size tea bags ~ 4 black, 4 green (preferably organic)
~ sugar ~ about one cup (preferably raw organic cane sugar)
~ Mushroom (SCOBY)
~ starter from previous batch ~ about one cup

Place tea bags in boiling water and allow to cool to room temperature
Add sugar and mix thoroughly
Add mushroom and starter
Cover with towel and put in a dark place
Let stand undisturbed for approximately 1 week preferably at about 73 degrees F
A new mushroom will gradually form over the next few days. Don't move the jar. Each time it is moved it has to form a new mushroom.
When the kombucha is done it will:
~ taste like kombucha
~ have a pH of 3.0 to 3.5

When the kombucha is done, remove both the old and new mushrooms, save some of the kombucha for your next batch and enjoy the rest.

The finished kombucha can be:
~ consumed as is (refrigerate until it is time to drink it)
~ double fermented:
~ bottle with 1 ounce of juice and 3 raisins
~ seal tightly (leave space at the top, at least 1/4 inch) and let sit in a dark area (not refrigerated) for 1 to 4 days
~ refrigerate and enjoy

Continuous ferment
Use a fermenting container that has a spigot ~ sun tea jar
After the kombucha is ready, remove 10% to 20% daily to consume adn add an equal amount of sweetened tea to replace what was taken out.

Some notes I have from the class:

NEVER use soap on anything, vessel, pots, utensils, hands, etc. or the mushroom will feed off the soap residue and not the sugar. This is bad. Cleanse everything with the hottest water you can and vinegar.

A 2-week ferment results in a tangy, fizzy kombucha brew which is desirable.

Start off drinking 1-2 oz per day and gradually work up to 6-8 oz per day.

Will feel like crap when you start, flu-like symptoms, as your body releases toxins/cleanses.

I'll edit and add more as my poor, no-sleep mama brain thinks of them ;)

What to do with green tomatoes?

I went out to pull my tomato plants from my garden yesterday and was left with 25 (!!!!) pounds of unripe green tomatoes! After looking online for inspiration I decided to use this very highly reviewed green tomato chutney recipe. It looked to have more complex flavors than the other recipes I had looked at. It was a good thing I had a postal scale that converted grams to ounces, I needed it!





























I must admit that part of the draw to this recipe was the instructions to "Take the green tomatoes, shallots, and apples and bung them in a food processor." I've never bunged anything in my food processor before ;)

So, here are my ingredients. (I used my father-in-laws spicy pepper mix instead of red peppers.)















And after the bunging and mixing.








































This ended up simmering for almost 4 hours!!! I guess that's what happens when you make a quadruple batch!

And the end result with a glimpse into my pantry. (Yes, that's cream o' crap, I can't help it, I'm from the midwest and love my casseroles!) 4 batches made 18 jars of chutney. And I still have 12.5 pounds of tomatoes left!!! I'm giving them away rather than making another 18 jars ;)
















Now we have the crazy-long 4-week curing wait to test it out!

Tolerance begins with a foreskin?

I, like many of my other mom friends, am horrified about the recent suicide death of a gay teen after internet bullying. Here is more about it if you don't know what I'm referencing.

I am not eloquent, nor do I often get my thoughts out the way I want them to be heard.

Granted, unnecessary circumcision has been on my mind a lot lately, but it has occurred to me in the last couple of days that several of my less-granola friends are preaching tolerance, yet they genitally mutilated their sons for the sake of looking like their father or not being teased in the locker room.

If you will go so far as to perform cosmetic surgery on your precious newborn to make them "look normal," what kind of message is that sending our sons? That ridiculing each other for the appearance of their genitals is okay? No? Hmmmm... but we should circumcise anyway because it will happen anyway? What are you telling your sons about the intact boys? We didn't want you to be teased so we cut you, but don't tease the guys that are intact... their mamas didn't know any better.... sigh.

It is NOT okay to bully, tease, torture each other about ANYTHING. Not about our sexuality, not about the way any part of our body looks.

It is my hope and dream that the unnecessary genital mutilation of our infants will end, that we can love and accept each other just the way we are. That tolerance will be the norm. That tolerance will begin with the lesson of an intact foreskin.

Happy World Breastfeeding Week!

Inspired by all my delicious breastfeeding friends I'm taking a deep breath and going to be brave.


Kim Dusek took some nursing photos of Campbell and myself when he was about 9 months old. You can see his sleep/comfort posturing here with his hand held backwards against my chest.



Breastfeeding is a normal and beautiful part of mothering. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity and blessing of being able to nourish and nurture my three children in this way!

Brother PE-700II

Never, ever did I think I would stray from the trusty Bernina brand and buy a Brother, but it turns out I couldn't afford a Bernina embroidery machine, especially when I wasn't sure if I would use it very often. Based on reviews on several sites I decided on a Brother PE-700II and I LOVE it!!!

To be honest, I was concerned about the lack of customer support by buying a machine online, but the sewing forums out there have offered more support than I could have dreamed of and provide unlimited ideas on new ways to use this machine!

This is the first project I've made to give as a gift:


Quinny modeling a chef hat and apron embroidered with a design from Urban Threads. She chose the blanks and design especially for her friend Etta! I'm going to have to do another set for her, it is such a fun addition to a play kitchen.