Friday, December 21, 2007

it's an action...adventure...porno

not really. but i love orgazmo.

with the kiddos being sick i missed the monthly meeting for 1919 hemphill. they are looking for a librarian to help with the lending library and i totally wanna be an anarcha...feminist....librarian...doula. im so hungry for activist connection and stuff. im a libra, which means i can be extremely indecisive. im still not sure what i wanna be when i grow up. i could totally see myself going to law school. or being a librarian. next summer im going to start training to be a post-partum doula, eventually a birth doula, but for the next few years, i need steady hours. and after that, i think i will go get my MSW. and ive been really obsessing lately about my previous job as a secretary/paralegal. why cant i do it all!?!?!?!

and in case you are interested, here are boromir's favourite youtubes:

monkey fall out boy
kittycat fall out boy
foo fighters
toadies - i come from the water
dinosaur pearl jam

and this post is going to be all over the place

found an article about breastfeeding research over at hathor. after a whole bunch of hemming and hawing comes this:

Dr. Wendy Slusser, a pediatrician and director of the UCLA Breastfeeding Resource Program, said she didn't understand the need for a 400-page report on breast-feeding and health. "Breast-feeding is better than formula . . . isn't that enough?" she asked. She questioned whether it really mattered that breast-feeding "does prevent this or doesn't prevent that."


you'd think, right?

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

plumbing is for wusses

this weekend. our washing machine started backing up into the kitchen sink. and then the dish washer didnt drain. thankfully we have the front loading kind that doesnt use lots of water, or the kitchen would have been swamped.

so out came rescue roover. thank jebus for our home warranty. i think it has already "paid for itself" with these two repairs.

so now i can do laundry! yeay??

tuck may have asthma. it's still too early to get a real diagnosis but his snoring, the "forgetting to breath," frequent and pretty severe colds could be attributed to it. my mom said i needed breathing treatments when i was younger and outgrew it, so ive got my fingers crossed.

ming ming is being bizarre. he's been asking to take naps. i think the cold he had, that tuck got and is in it's current nasty form, has gotten a second wind. blah!!

and christmas is a week away. im getting really excited. we bought a real tree this year and it smells wonderfully. and it looks oh so pretty with the three ornaments we have! my folks have been having gifts sent here and ming ming keeps wanting to open them, but i have to say santa is dropping them off and if he sees them, he will come back and take them. tuck seems to understand whats going on, too. he's not very happy that ming ming gets to open his lego advent calendar every day, and he gets nothing. im a bad mama. but he's getting awesome presents so i hope i can make up for it.

Monday, December 3, 2007

i must be getting old

we now have heat. and the guys who put it in didnt look a day past 18.

im not religious but there are a few things i love about christmas.

1 - i love the scent of pine trees
2 - i celebrated saint nick day and the epiphany when i was little and we are doing the same for the boys
3 - advent calendars! my mom made some for the boys and lego made an advent calendar. it's so awesome!! i bought it mostly for myself.

ive been wanting to blog a bunch of stuff but never got a chance to so here's a quickie.

- the new kroger i shop at had a whole shopping cart of earth's best sesame street kid snacks on sale for a buck a box. they are usually 3+ dollars. i bought 25 boxes.

Friday, November 23, 2007

heat is for wusses

day two of no furnace. last week i finally got around to calling someone to light the piloy light only to discover the furnace is old and the heat exchanger is cracked and unsafe to run. and because of the holiday weekend, we probably wont get the new one installed until next week. it's a whopping 38 degrees outside. but inside im sure it's no colder than what my parents house is usually set at. honestly i should have my midwestern's card taken from me for thinking a high of 50 is freezing. of all the days to really need to go shopping. we are currently borrowing a space heater from the in-laws.

so instead im making fruit leather. ive been waiting for it to be cold enough to run my stove for 5+ hours. and here it is. and the review actually suggests keep the stove door open!!

fred spent last night and this night with the grandparents so i have my first 24+ hours without him. in the three years he's been born, ive never had a full day without him. so atleast i only have to worry about george in this cold. i was going to spend the day keepng warm by doing some aerobic cleaning but i think id rather spend it in bundled under the blankets in bed reading, knitting or interwebbing.

and i was right. there are cats squatting in our crawlspace. there have been a couple times ive gone out to the back yard and seen them run away - theres a black and white one, a tabby with white markings and a long haired one i havent seen in a while. im pretty sure they are feral. and i would go outside and the board covering the crawl space would be knocked over. our bedroom window is right over it and last night there was one fighting or something. i went to check this afternoon and it appears the only "fight" was with the plywood and metal folding chair used to cover the opening to the crawlspace. they were both knocked over. considering the noise, that cat was PISSSED. it was yhoaling and doing that "MMMRRRGGG" noise cats do when they are really angry. ive freecycled for some live traps or i might just get some. there is a dallas-based feral cat group and one up in denton. i need to call to see if there is something out this way. i think this is going to be my pet (harhar) project. there are way too many animals running around and i dont have a problem with feral cats. i have a problem with feral cat colonies not being managed. and im all for natural birth but i dont want my crawlspace being used as a birth centre.

Saturday, November 17, 2007

childbirth education of a feminist

ive been meaning to post this for about a week now but have been busy. so the day after i post "birth of a feminist" i read this article in mothers movement online e-letter:

What Women Aren't Told About Childbirth

(and here comes the pertinent part - well actually the whole article is damn good - and by good i mean scary - for anyone interested in women's reproductive health and/or women currently or considering becoming pregnant)

Popular media outlets and advertisers would have women believe that labor and delivery happen in only one context: hospitals. When television shows, health magazines and films depict birth as a highly medicalized phenomenon that involves lots of screaming, a command to push and a baby before the next commercial break, it is no wonder that so few women in labor think to ask for more information when they are offered medical interventions. Or that so few are educated about natural childbirth.


back in college i wrote a paper about how crappy the medical establishment was surrounding menstruation. i briefly touched upon pregnancy and birth. i consider myself a relatively smart woman, knew i wanted a natural, hippy, midwive-assisted, keep your patriarchal medical establishment ass away from my vagina, -type birth experience. but still was confused about when my water was supposed to break. you mean i'm not just going to magickally explode and labour will be off and running? and whats this about the baby turning? i didnt really know what that meant but i think it was in a movie and it sounded good.


so much of what we know about pregnancy and birth (and life in general) is what we see in the images bouncing around us. fuck, if every birth played out like they do on ER, the human species would be screwed. childbirth and breastfeeding are a state of mind as much as they are a physical process. when every one around you questions your abilities to birth and feed your children, when movies and tv shows only show worst case "weneedthatbabyoutnoworyouwillbothDIE!!!!!!" scenarios, you get sent formula in the mail the second you pee on a stick, how do we NOT expect women's self-esteem to be affected.


so, yes, we owe it to ourseves to be educated and informed - and inform the hell out of everyone around us. but we also deserve some honesty and respect from the image makers.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

woohoo! im live-bloggin' it

having wifi in the house and a laptop means i can look up recipes from recipezaar without having to print them off or run back and forth from the computer room to the kitchen.

so for your enjoyment, here's my live-blog of southern fried tofu and chicken-fried steak, mash potatos and collard greens.

ok im not exactly sure how one live-blogs (take a drink everytime i say it). so im just making this shit up everytime i put my knife down.

boromir and faramir are so emo. boromir likes the 'fall out boys' songs they play on the radio so i got infinity on high for him. and he loves it - it's hilarious to hear him sing 'thanks for memris.' and the other day faramir was kicking his legs in time to the music when we were listening in the car.

ok. this isnt working. time to extricate children from the dishwasher.

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

the birth of a feminist

it bares repeating several times that mothers can be feminists.

reproductive choice doesnt end in birth control and abortion.

judgement of women's bodies isn't ok because you think breastfeeding is icky.

all too many times pregnancy, birth and mothering issues are simply practices in rhetoric on internet feminists communities or devolve into some pissing contest between childfree and childed posters.

as miriam pérez has written, there is a disconnect between pro-choice activists and birth activists even though the two are closer than one would think. actually, i personally dont think it's that much of a stretch, but some feminists need to unlearn thoughts about pregnancy and birth. mothering isnt rhetoric, it's my life. it's women's lives. birth is a feminist issue.

the same society that says women arent smart enough to determine whether to give birth is the same society that says women arent smart enough to determine when, where, with whom and how to give birth. the same society that preys on women's fears of not being pretty, skinny, etc. enough, is the same society that preys on womens insecurities about their ability to birth and feed their babies. it's not feminist to say "i dont want to be/am not a mother, so mothering isn't a feminist issue." that blatant dismissal would not fly if it were exchanged with race or gender identity, body type. this is not to say women of colour or trans-women have not just as equally and oftenly - dont think thats a word - felt the sting of closemindedness and safespace violation. but just as we learned the first day in feminism 101 - all this shit is interrelated. i hate having to reiterate this in my feminist communities. i hate having to align with people who want to destroy a woman's right to choose whether to give birth because i support a woman's right to give birth the way she wants.

as such, if feminists are going to demand less stereotypes of women, less degrading, more diverse images in media, accurate and empowering images of birth and breastfeeding are also necessary. its about creating a woman-positive culture via that culture's images. and just for shits and giggles, can a woman get an abortion on tv with being a victim of murder or the episode turning into some "the more you know" hallmark after school special?

there is a saying in natural birth/women centred birth circles that "We have a secret in our culture, and it's not that birth is painful. It's that women are strong." birth has the potential to be a very empowering event in women's lives. seeing nothing but medicalised images of birth are just as damaging to women's self-confidence as seeing only white women or skinny women plastered everywhere.

Monday, October 29, 2007

zen and art of household maintainence

i had a fantastic day. made homemade seitan and then used the simmering broth to make creamy chicken and wild rice with leftover roitesserie chicken from the freezer.

tomorow is bread day and im trying english muffins for the first time.

Sunday, October 28, 2007

teeheehee

i have a laptop now. in theory, i should be able to update more - with pictures, too. ive got some musings i have floating in my head ive been wanting to get out so now i should be able to. im so hip now it hurts.

and all the cardboard boxes are gone. we also installed the elfa shelving stuff this weekend in the master bedroom closet. it's finally a house. my hausfrau-fu has been a bit off lately so i havent been mastering too many projects. but i do have some post christmas knitting projects lined up.

until then, i need to weather strip. cant wait until the spring so i can roto-till the backyard and get the garden going. and the in-laws got us some power tools. yeay!

Saturday, October 13, 2007

niftiness catalog choice

saw this on yahoo this morning. catalog choice lets you opt out of recieving catelogs. awesome! im all for not recieve junk mail but also a big part of not spend money isnot being tempted by the shinies that come in the mail. magic cabin is my poison. not only do they send a catelog practically every month, but they also own hearthsongs which has almost the same thing and they add 2 new things to their catelog and send you another. one step ahead is just as bad.

we dont have recycling where i live so anything to simply reduce the amount of trash we make is good by me.

and while you're at it dont forget to stop your other junk mail, too.

product review: smart spin

i have always been a sucker for those "seen on tv" household products. i dont know what it is. i remember seeing them because they were to only things on sunday morning when my mom would braid my hair. i walked into bed, bath and beyond yesterday and they had a whole wall of the stuff so im going to make this a regular segment.

so paterfamilias bought the smart spin while on his last run to get stuff for the house. it's a smart (harhar!) idea seeing as you always seem to lose the lid for the container you have. i believe gladware even redesigned they containers to you might even have the same brand lid and container, but they wont fit. thanks, jerks. and because of copyright/patent/trademark/jebus, every brand has to be slightly different so there are infinate possiblities to be standing there in front of your cabinets wondering where the fuck the lid for this one is.

the one complaint i have so far is the containers are very small and a bit oldly shaped. the smallest is one cup. it's rare i have leftovers in only that amount. and it seems it is exactly one cup, not wiggle room left for air or liquid to slosh around. the largest size (4 cups, i believe) is still not large enought for your average leftover. and it's oldly shaped, to fit the caddy and the "only 1 square foot of space" that it advertises on the box. image storing your leftover southern fried tofu in an iced tea tumbler.

havent had the chance to run them through the dishwasher/microwave though it says they are safe.

so my rating (1-5)

on paper: 5 - whats not to love? universal lids, compact, it's fool-proof
in my house: 4 - weird size means im still going to have to go out and get more containers, though the small size makes it a good option for packing lunch and/or smaller portions for smaller people.

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

on this episode of this old house

*cries oh so many tears* my lovely washing machine is not working. i can only get super hot water. damnit. so maytag is coming friday, which means it's back to gramma and grandpa's to do laundry. and i have to get a whole bunch of odds and ends stuff - like a sponge holder for the kitchen, a step stool. so it's thrift store time.

and here is a list of stuff that i want to do to the house. some is just a pipe dream and may not get done any time soon but, in no particular order:

put in pocket doors between bedrooms
build a shelving unit around the fish take
make/knit curtains for the windows
replace the locks
replace the shower fixture, and redo the bathroom in general.
build my compost bin
have the orginal (1940s) cedar panelling in the living room refinished
replace weather stripping around front and back door
get rid of all the weed trees and trash in the back yard.

and i finally have enough kitchen items unpacked to make a proper dinner. i think moving every now and then is good. in the process of going through the community pantry, i found three bags of lentils, two boxes of orechetti pasta and more tea than we could drink in a year. i need to talk to chef deb at vegsource to see what she can mcguyver out of our current stock

Friday, October 5, 2007

happy hausfrau

squuee!!! i have had wetdreams about getting a front-loader ever since they started getting big on the market a few years ago. and they finally came this morning. actually, i had this great witty post all planned out because i was convinced today was just going to suck major ass, but things worked out quite nicely.

last night i got the call that the washer/dryer was set to arrive between 7-11am. which is early as it is, but seeing as we arent living in the house just yet, and i would have to contend with rush-hour traffic on a notoriously crappy road, i was thinking i was going to have to pack the kids in the car at 5:30am and THEN sit around a house with no food or running water for the next four hours. this on top of the simple fact buddyone has been sleeping like shit and buddytwo is working on teeth, allergies, and an ear infection - if i didnt hate beer so much, id be well on my way to alcoholism this week.

husband stepped in and manned the house the first two hours and i came in later after going to city hall to get the water turned on, but ill get to that later. as im in the car, telling him im coming, the delivery folk call saying they will be at the house in 20-10 mins. somebody alert the media, home service people actually showing up between the hours they allotted you!

and then while im filling out the form to get water, he calls again to tell me it's done and there was a tiny dent in the back of the dryer and we will be getting $75 back on it! yeay, somebody loves me. i head to the house, and not twenty minutes later there's a city worker in my front yard and i can now flush the toilet! well not really, for some reason the tank isnt filling. called my dad but he hasnt called me back about it.

so my washer/dryer is so pretty. i cant wait to do laundry. now i just need to hang my line in the back. and now i can run the hose and get rid of some of the ugly shrubs in my front yard.

Sunday, September 30, 2007

so a first time post. here's where i get to set the tone, i guess.

ill try to keep the cast of characters under george eliot length (or thomas pinchon, if thats more your style).

jillian - me, but i dont think i would ever refer to myself by my name, this is just for clarity's sake.
paterfamilias - spouse, husband, partner, babydaddy, whatever, but i will never refer to him as DH. blech!
the boys - for their own protection and my own, im not giving their names but they will be referred to as buddy one and buddy two, fred and george or whatever the flavour of the day is.
gramma and grampa - jeremy's folks
granny - jeremy's grandmother
ma'maw and poppy - my parents

theres more people, obviously but these are main folks.

soo...what else...ah yes. we get the keys later today, so let the good times roll.