Around and around we go

This morning my mom mentioned to me that she had seen Jenny McCarthy on TV. Jenny has a son with autism and she is an outspoken advocate for judicious choices regarding vaccinations. While I do applaud her advocacy of delayed and selective vaccinations, my choice is no vaccinations. About a year ago or so my mom saw Jenny McCarthy on Oprah and was amazed to learn that a higher percentage of boys are affected by the MMR vaccine than girls are, and was glad I knew this ahead of time so that I reduced the chances of Il Tonino being harmed.

However, this doesn't mean she doesn't think I shouldn't vaccinate him at all. No. And now that he is over 2 years of age (the magic age for those who are delaying vaccinations), I can tell she's thinking about it more and trying to provoke me a bit more about it. I suppose it doesn't help that I keep using stall tactics instead of telling her outright that Il Tonino is NOT to be vaccinated. I'm just not quite ready to go there, especially since she'd have no qualms about "debating" my decision. Though how do you debate with someone who has not read lots of information on BOTH sides of the issue, but rather mostly just follows mainstream thinking in this area?? Like what Jenny McCarthy says. Argh. In the past I have tried to have discussions with her regarding my views on vaccinations, and she dismisses them all as conspiracy theories and me being cynical about pharmaceutical companies, the CDC, etc. Blah.

And now the Western financial institution is on the verge of collapse with the proposed $700 billion bailout rejected and the stock market down 777 points. It just may happen that the downfall of the financial institition will bring about the downfall of the Western medical institution. This article explains it nicely, but the FDA is tied to the pharmaceutical companies who are tied to the financial institution. It is a whole house of cards. Of course the collapse of the latter may mean I'll be out of a job, but if the whole economy and way of life is shifting, I'll shift with it. So the downfall of the Western medical institution in the USA could mean the end of the vaccines, which would then render my need for a discussion with my mother about this a moot point. Ha ha!

Last Night I Dreamt...

...that I was sitting with a group of very cool women. I don't know what we were doing, but whatever it was, it was cool. The group included my midwives from Jake's pregnancy/birth, Pamela and Lennon, Alice from The L Word, and Angelina Jolie. There were others, but I didn't get to see who they were.

Why did I have to wake up? ;)

My Bedroom

So the other day we rearranged our family bedroom. Now, instead of Il Tonino's bed being against the windows, it is now against the wall with our queen size bed right next to it. So we have one big, long cozy family bed.

The bedroom is not exactly beautiful, as there are toys everywhere, children's and adult books on various surfaces, clothes that need special attention (hand washing! dry cleaner! or 'will be worn again the next day') and just general stuff that makes for a family bedroom.

My mom looked at the bedroom the other day because she wanted to see how it was rearranged. Her face said it all.

She prefers her bedroom to be beautiful and immaculate. That's her right -- she doesn't have small children anymore. Right now I prefer the functionality of our bedroom over the beauty factor. When I am 60, I can have a beautiful bedroom like my mother's. Actually, my parents just remodeled their bedroom. It is gorgeous. It reminds me of the bedroom in a 5-star hotel room. Beautiful yet kind of sterile. Maybe I'm just not used to it. But it is a far cry from my own cozy bedroom!

For now, the most important thing is that Il Tonino is comfortable and happy where he sleeps. And right now that is with his mama and daddy.

This comic says it all...

Ack!

My head is swimming.

I am looking at schools for Il Tonino for fall 2009. So many choices. It is overwhelming.

Soon we will start going to some school open houses and trying to get a feel for what we like.

My mom will help, for which I am grateful. This is one instance in which her many, many years as a teacher and then later as a supervisor of student teachers will really come in handy for me. She'll come and just observe in the classrooms and observe the student-teacher interactions.

I think I'll be figuring a lot of it out based on my intuition.

I'm kind of hoping the school(s) I like the most will be within walking or biking distance. But knowing life, I'll probably like the one that is the farthest away!

Any advice for us when we are looking?

Four

I got tagged by Rebekah!

Four jobs I've had:

• Retail clothes folder at Nordstroms
  
• Grocery store cashier
• Office gopher (filing, stuffing envelopes, making copies, fixing the jams in copy machines)
  
• Clinical Researcher for 4 companies now
  

Four movies I can watch over and over:

• Before Sunrise
  
• Before Sunset
  
• The Matrix
  
• Fifth Element
  

Four places I've lived:

• SE Portland, OR
  
• Middletown, CT
  
• Rochester, NY
  
• SW Portland, OR

Four TV shows I have seen:

• Weeds
• The L Word
  
• Chuck (bag over my head here)
  
• Alias
  

Four places I've vacationed:

• Bahia, Brazil
• Malmo, Sweden
  
• Galapagos Islands, Ecuador
  
• Alaska

Four of my favorite dishes:

• Chocolate Almond Midnight at Millenium, San Francisco
  
• Veggie enchilada with peanut sauce at Chez Jose, Portland
  
• Vegan pizza at Kalga Kafe, Portland
  
• Anything at Real Food Daily, Los Angeles
  

Four sites I visit daily:

• MotheringDotCommune
  
• GoogleReader
• NaturalNews.com
• YouTube.com

Four places I would rather be right now:

• In bed, asleep, alone
  
• That resort in Bahia, Brazil
  
• Millenium, eating Chocolate Almond Midnight
  
• On a hike or white water rafting

Four people I'm tagging:

• Amy
• Lennon
• Korin
• Aimee
  

Mr. Mom?

So last night, which was a Monday night, the Urban Shaman went to his first class for his union apprenticeship. We had anticipated the class being every Monday night from 5:30-9, and thus had set my work schedule to Tuesday through Thursday so I would be home with Il Tonino while he was in class.

During the class they decided that class would be every Tuesday.

F*CK!!!!

Sigh.

Turns out that the class is a lot of (non-captioned) video watching and quizzes. That, combined with no interpreter (the union won't pay for one) makes for a rather dull class. Yesterday they watched a video about OHSA safety, and featured a true story about a family dad who had fallen to his death on the job. Kind of like when you take driver's ed and they show you videos of the most horrible car accidents. Ugh.

Additionally, the union has decided, starting January 1st, that there will now be random drug tests. As opposed to a drug test every 6 months (easy to plan for). Not that this is a problem, but the green herb makes for good medication once in a while. It's sad that they have to interfere with home life when it should be more obvious on the job if you are being a safe worker or not. Besides, it has been proven that the number one hazard to job safety is sleep deprivation. They don't test for that!

So the Urban Shaman came home last night feeling kind of blah about all this, not to mention this has screwed up our carefully planned work/nanny schedule. So we brought up an issue which we've visited before -- if he should be Mr. Mom and I should go back to work full-time (which would mean full-time traveling). My full-time salary would be enough to cover our living expenses. But I would really miss the home life and being with Il Tonino every day. Not to mention I'm the one who really does the cooking. And what would we do when we're ready for a second baby?

For now we're just going to keep things the way they are. Maybe something else will change. Sigh.

From Without, and Within

These last few years I have felt this internal push to change my eating habits for the healthier and to become more environmentally-friendly in my life. I believe that these changes come from my spiritual side, and also strengthen my spiritual life. I didn't decide to do these things for convenience or social status, but more from an innate necessity. At the same time, our world is one of global consciousness... we are all not only connected physically, but also mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Thus all great ideas and changes arise both outside of, and within, ourselves from our global consciousness.

I find the more I clean up my diet, the lighter I become. Health issues which used to plague me have decreased greatly (migraines, acne, allergies). But truthfully, even though better health is enough, in itself, to want to continue this, I find this need to 'make myself lighter' is as much for the greater good as it is for myself.

Similarly, the more I approach living eco-friendly and sustainably, the lighter my environment becomes. I am taking in less resources and trying to reduce, reuse, and recycle the resources I do consume. Thus I get closer to living in harmony with mother nature, rather than separate from it. What I do to or for mother nature, I also do to and for myself.

Today's world is such a mixture of lightness and darkness. In order to not let the darkness take over, I find it so important to 'hold onto the light'. If there is any purpose to my life that my higher self has dictated, it is to hold onto the light. How do I do that?

Important things are to keep a positive state of mind, express gratitude, and be kind. Being positive is not possible 100% of the time because I am human like everyone else. My lower self has to deal with this world and the problems that sometimes crop up. But being positive more often than not is key. And not beating myself up about the times when I am not, but to take it as a learning experience and move on.

Gratitude... I find it easy to be thankful for the things I have in this life. However, remembering to express that gratitude is the hard part, when we get distracted by day-to-day living. So I'm starting to use simple reminders. Whenever I eat, I try to express gratitude for my meal. Sometimes I don't remember until I'm taking the very last bite, but that is okay. Late is better than never. Another way I remember is that I have all these cloth wipes for our family cloth system. One particular cloth wipe is totally different from the others. Whenever I happen to get that one, I must say 3 things I am thankful for. May seem kind of odd, but it works well.

Being kind... just something I strive for in my daily interactions with any living being that I come across, whether human, animal, or plant. So thus, I work at holding onto the light. And in turn, more light comes into my life. In eating healthier, I allow my body to grow toward its full potential. In being sustainable, I am giving my love to the earth, which in turn, gives back to me.

When we trash the earth, we trash ourselves. Similarly, when we trash our bodies with junk food, we ... well, we trash ourselves, too. My mom and I recently had a little tiff about the way I eat. I basically told her that based on what I know, I can't go back to eating in a mainstream way. She replied that the social aspect of eating was far more important to her than the health aspect. That floored me. Maybe it is a generational thing -- people my age are much more likely to have a variety of eating habits and be more flexible about that kind of thing. Could it also be that humans, as a whole are evolving? Each generation is closer to the light than the last. I am so excited when I think of the possibilities for Il Tonino and other children, present and future.

There are 4 pillars of our lives, just like a table has 4 legs. We have our physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual aspects. If any one of them is lacking, we are unbalanced. How we walk, talk, eat, and love in this world affects all of those aspects. Thus the lighter we walk on this earth, the more positive the thoughts and words that come from us, the healthier we eat, and the greater we love, contributes to a more profound life that benefits not only us but all that is around us.

What you do for yourself, you do for others. What you do for others, you do for yourself.

In love and light. Gaia Hippie :)