me, the crunchy girl??

I just had a laugh in the midst of a crazy hectic day at work when a coworker said to me that I was "crunchy." The context? Well, I overheard a bunch of girls talking about different diets they have tried and I put my two cents in telling them about this revolutionary book that I have been reading called "In Defense of Food." Before I could get a word out, my friend exclaimed, "but you're crunchy Lara, not like us...you don't enjoy burger king like we do." So, for those of you who don't know what "crunchy" means, it is basically a hippy. I laughed and told her that I am not that "crunchy." Well at least not compared to some of my friends. Later, someone asked if I had eaten lunch yet (we nurses have to hold each other accountable to finding time to eat). I told them I ate my salad while I pumped. I could tell that some of them were surprised I was still pumping. Finally they asked how long I want to breastfeed and why? I asked them "Why not? Which is better for India to drink? Milk from a cow that has been pasteurized and homogenized, robbing it of its vitamins and then vitamins are added back in, OR is it better for her to just have what is natural and better and the REAL THING!!" "OOOOOHHHHHHH" some of them said. "That really does make sense." But then my friend exclaimed, "like I said, she's crunchy! And I bet you wear hemp too??" I responded, "yep, but I don't smoke it." And she responded, "yeah, because if you did, you would be coming to Burger King with us."
But in all seriousness, I love this book by Michael Pollan. Highly suggest it. It has rocked my way of thinking about food and destroyed some of my ideas on healthy ways of eating. Not only that, it has opened my eyes to how the government and corporations control how we think about food! Definitely a worth your time read!!

Me, the artist??

I have always explained myself as "artistic thinking" without "artistic abilities." I try to be artistic with my cooking, house decorating, and sometimes my photography. Usually I just get frustrated with the photography though because I rarely get a picture that comes out as I pictured it to be. Then sometimes I am surprised. I was really surprised that our good friend Joel put my picture of the clothes pin on his "art in community among the poor" blog. Joel lives and works in Romania with his lovely wife Monica who I posted a link to on my previous posting. They have 2 beautiful boys. Joel is simultaneously the most humble and talented person I know. I was pretty surprised that he liked my photo enough to put on his blog. But I wanted to share that on my blog as a way of saying that even those of us who think we have no talent have hope. Actually I believe we all were made to be creative. It is just harder for some of us to find a means to express it. Thanks Joel for seeing creativity in me.

Another World is Possible

This issue of healthcare keeps coming up in conversations around me. I have wanted to post my thoughts on it for some time but lack the articulate abilities of some of my friends. Check out my friends blog and all the many comments. Interesting stuff.
This past weekend was our yearly Simple Way family reunion/gathering. The purpose of our meeting is to gather folks from different communities around the country and globe that are seeking a different kind of world. We discussed issues of race, gender and power this year. We also contiue discussions on issues like healthcare, equal rights for housing, peace, intentional community life and many other issues. A great woman and friend of mine who now lives in England shared the experience she's had living there and how people there can not understand our way of doing things here. She gave us a message of hope, reminding us that truly another world is possible.

following in her sisters footsteps

I really thought India would be walking a couple of months ago. She has been standing on her own since she was 10 months, but lost interest after that. At Christmas, we all thought she would walk, but nope. Now that she will be 13 months in just a few days, she is finally walking! Her sisters both walked at 13 months, so I think she just had to follow their lead:) She is also not a performer. I have always said that about her. She never says words for people when I ask her to so I rarely bother. It is the same with walking. I kept getting the video camera out to film her walking yesterday and she would just flop on the floor and crawl to me. So yesterday I was standing her up and just stayed behind her. Well she walked straight to her highchair!! Chris is out of town too so he missed it:( She still is learning balance for sure and I am certain she will fall way more than she walks over the next month, but she is walking now. She loves to walk to me and fall in to my arms. I am reliving that joy that I had with Alexa and Moriah. It is so fun. Did I mention how much she is talking!! The cutest is when she says Oskar (our dog). She says it in her cute little voice, "aahhh gu" so of coarse Oskar won't answer to her since he is used to us yelling his name.

What is my toddler up to??

She is quite the toddler now. India is growing up so fast that I hate even leaving her for one day to go to work. She walks holding one of our hands now and has taken an individual step here and there. She's slowly gaining confidence with that. But she has too much confidence with the stairs. We finally put the gate up because that is all she wants to do is climb. In her sisters room, she even climbs their bunk bed ladder!! I am excited to see her learning new things, but of coarse it is bitter sweet. She also blows kisses now and plays peek a boo really well. She has almost 9 teeth (her first molar is coming). She faces forward in the car so we can blow her kisses in the mirror.
Her language skills are out of control though!!! She says a new word every day. I am teaching her to sign too, but she doesn't need to much (it is more for the fun of it). So here is a little list, though I am sure it is incomplete:
Mama
Dada
aleya (Alexa)
doggy
duck
maaaaa (more)
beek a boo (peek a boo)
ut........ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
ba (bear)
baba (baby)
ah ah ah ah (mokey sound)
ah ah ah ah (dog barking)
nana (banana)
raaaa (roar)
ugh da (all done)

Language is amazing. I had forgotten how much fun it is to watch a baby learn and the excitement in their eyes as they realize they just accomplished something new. I went to my first play group today. India was totally loving it. She was socializing with all the babies there. She loves it when her sisters play with her, though Moriah can be a bit overwhelming at times. She loves to read books. She especially loves animal books and learning what they say and do. We taught her to stick her tongue out like a lizard, roar like a lion and make monkey sounds. She laughs when I try to get her to moo like a cow or oink like a pig and she just gives me a face like she thinks that I am crazy when I make my loud elephant noise.
India loves to eat everything I put in front of her. She loves to chew on raw carrots and bananas are her favorite food. I had to teach her how to say it since she would scream every time she saw one. She is also becoming less and less interested in nursing which is natural but sad for me. She just loves to eat what we eat.

On another note, I have an interview for a labor and delivery position that would be nights. It would be two 12 hour shifts and one 8. I want the job so much but am torn about what it will do to me as a mom. We'll see what happens. I would need someone who could come spend the night with the kids when chris is out of town and right now I don't know who would be willing to do that. I would hopefully switch to less hours eventually and could work around Chris' schedule but the first few months would be tough. Oh, I guess there is no reason to stress since I haven't had the interview yet.

A Fun Filled Weekend

It has been a couple of years since Alexa and Moriah have stayed in a hotel. They were very excited when we asked them if they would want to come along for one of Chris' speaking engagements in Rochester New York. We basically got a free vacation out of it and are going to be paid a little on top of that. Thank you Rochester churches for coming together and wanting to hear about social justice!!









First of all, we rented a van for the whole weekend. The kids were psyched about that! Then we stayed in a super nice hotel that had a pool and work out room. We were all psyched about that! Then we got to experience some upstate NY weather. Whew! And we went to this awesome kids museum that we could have spent a whole week at and still not seen everything. My favorite part was the butterfly room. (check out side bar flickr for more photos).
Chris connected with some really great people and we went up to see niagra falls in CANADA!!! Yep, no id for the kids or anything. They made us open the van so they could talk to the girls and ask their names and how they were related to us and they let us go on. So, we all visited another country and saw the falls in one night. Whew!! We ate some awesome Italian food across the border in the US and headed back to the hotel. The whole experience was so crazy but fun. I am so glad we did it. The girls loved having the time with us, staying up late, swimming, eating out, and seeing new things. India had a hard time adjusting to the sleeping in a strange place but by the third night, she was doing great. She even helped Chris get some work done on his laptop.
We are so blessed to have a family that travels well!!
On another funny note, we stayed just minutes away from an old boyfriend of mine that I met my senior year in high school. He was the one who told me about Eastern College, which is why I went there and if I hadn't of gone there, I wouldn't have met Chris. So, it was the second time for me being in Rochester, but this time was much more memorable:)