I plan to live to be 100!

While contemplating my goals in life, and how that relates with weather or not to do some permanent birth control, I was really torn about it, wanting to both enjoy my time as a mother and also perusing and making really good use of a medical degree (nutritional neurology, here I come!)

So tonight, Ian was asking me about retirement. And I answered that I never plan on retiring, that I want to live to be 100 and use every precious day of it to the advantage of my fellow human beings. I realized that gave me 65 more years!

Wow- I have accomplished a lot in my 35 years, what am I going to accomplish in my next 65?

Here are my absolute plans:

1. Raise beautiful and inquisitive children that question everything and reach out and drag the answers out of the universe.
2. Learn, learn, learn, learn
3. Act, Act , Act, Act
4. Teach, Share and help others question everything and act.
5. Spend years serving the Lord, become one of those Mold people (Mormon + old) that have the energy to run around serving in Temples and and substitute teaching and serve everywhere they can. You know it's a Mold when you see a big smile under a crown of white curly hair (only mine might be white braided hair) who always know just the right thing to say to uplift those around them and whispers words of confidence when you need them most.
6.  Then be changed in a twinkling of an eye and continue my work.

Now my tenative plans:

1. Go to med school, study under nutritional and neurological professionals.
2. Work with special needs children (ie... everyone) and their families and uncover their problems, hopefully using a nutritional approach the vast majority of time.
3. Work for many, many years, gathering research and experience.
4. Share this research and experience.
5. "Retire" (at about age 90) into Mold-dom and then spend the last years of my mortality running around just to serve the Lord.

So, now I need to act as these are my goals. ... nutrition, exercise and learning and living :)

still pregnant

I'm still pregnant, but just want to be left alone to die in peace.
I probably wouldn't feel that way if I was actually dying, but right now, I feel miserable and really just want my own quiet space to be left alone in.

Perhaps I am still trying to make room in my life for this baby and it's not coming easily.

And of course I am ridiculously hormonal and very easy to make cry.

I feel sorry for everyone who has to be around me.

What to eat when you are starving, but have no room for anything

I have read a lot of different opinions on what to eat when you are expecting, only the authors always seem to forget the last few weeks of pregnancy.

An article on that should be entitled "What to eat when you are starving, but have no room for anything."

I feel like that this morning. Baby is sitting in my ribs (but hasn't vacated my abdomen either). She is getting bigger and wanting to lay down the last layers of fat on her before she is born. However, I have been luckily to eat more then 1 peach at a time.

This also means that I can't bend over or take in enough oxygen to completely satisfy my system.

I have been convinced that babies neither know or care what discomforts they make you endure. A parents only satisfaction in that is hoping they become a grandparent someday and their kids learn first hand what troubles they caused just by being a baby.

Of course, I am not saying it's not worth the effort. The greatest joys in life (and the greatest sorrows) come from watching the antics of your little ones as you raise them and see them grow into real men and women. And then you are so proud of them. And when you stop to think about it, you are often proud of yourself, that you somehow managed to let them/ help them survive long enough to make it to adult hood.

I am the mother of 7. The things that made my scream and rant when my first couple were 2 year olds now make me giggle with my 6th being 2. Baby and toddler-hood gets a lot easier with experience. The oldest, braving new worlds of high school- freedom-experience- driving and other things are the ones that still cause stress. It is new territory for us. We have never parented through those phases before.

Anyways, back to the topic at hand... feeding yourself and baby when there is no room to eat. I just opened the fridge, looked at the fruit, veggies, hummus and meats. It all sounds nauseating, even though I am hungry. Maybe I will try some ice cream (vegan).

Neuton's 3rd Law in action.

Part of the problem in living life is that every action we take has an equal and opposite reaction. Some are obvious other are hidden for weeks, months or years. We often base our actions on the obvious ones, and teach our kids to do the same. "You do your chore, you get computer time." But sometimes it is not that easy.

For example; when we moved into this house several years ago my daughter, who was a very light sleeper, had the bedroom next to the bathroom. I soon learned that if I aspired to a good night's rest then I better not do anything to disturb her while she slept. The meant that I couldn't flush the toilet while she was sleeping without the risk of waking her. I soon realized that it made the most sense to let it mellow if its yellow, but if its brown, flush it down.

Well, my other children all thought that if Mommy didn't have to flush the toilet at night, then they needn't flush the toilet, ever. So almost every time I walk into any bathroom in the house, it needs a good flushing. When its 85 degrees, then sometimes I even notice they need a good flushing from several rooms away.

We have discussed this in family meetings. The dogs have patiently waited for the toilets to get flushed, just so the could drink from it.

Is it seriously that hard to flush a toilet? Or will I always regret the year of trying not to share my bed with my toddler?

Impending 7th birth

I haven't blogged much about the impending birth of my 7th child. It is hard to add further information to what I have already blogged on the topic of grandmultiparas.

All I know is that I am tired and ornery and already dilating ( a whole 1 cm!)...but slowly. Baby isn't scheduled for another month, but when it is 89 degrees outside you stop caring too much and tell your little one she can come as long as she is developed enough to breathe and have her liver kick in. And I also know that every time I move, walk, change laundry, try to sit up.... it feels like a decent contraction, but it is hard to be sure with the baby big enough that all you feel is baby bones every time you touch your overwhelmingly large belly.

I have finally started nesting, cleaning things and sewing curtains and table clothes and the like. I have also already washed the stuff I need immediately for baby- bedding and clothing and lots of well loved receiving blankets. Some are the same ones that I used for my first baby (and all since). And I made sure to put the emergency birth kits in the cars.

It is amazing how much peace of mind it gives me know that no matter where baby decides to come that all I have to do is have someone run out to the car and I will have the necessary supplies to birth without fear (and hopefully make it safely home with baby with no medical interventions!)

We had to take Reuben's toddler bed out of his room today. I found him this morning standing on it , leaning out his upstairs window, in which he had already knocked out his screen. Yeah.... He's not strong enough to move his new big boy bed. It was a good thing we had warm sunshine this morning, or else the mosquito horde would have stolen my son away, or left him as a withered husk.

Vegan Rhubarb Pumpkin Bars

ok- Here is an Idea my pregnant tastebuds wanted that actually turned out really well. 10 minutes out of the oven and it is gone. Not bad considering when I mentioned the idea to my family they all looked at me as if I was crazy. (which I am, but that's another post).

VEGAN RHUBARB PUMPKIN BARS

Mix:
2 cups whole wheat flour (fresh ground is best)
cinnamon (to taste)
nutmeg (to taste)
ginger (to taste)
cloves (to taste)
Baking soda 1 tsp
Baking powder 2 tsp
dash of salt

Then add:
1/2 c ground flax
3/4 cup water
1 can (15 oz) pumpkin
1 cup natural applesauce
2 mushed ripe bananas

Now add:
2 cups sliced rhubarb
1/4 cup maple syrup

Mix and pour into greased pan. Sprinkle with pecans. Bake at 350 until done _ about 30 minutes.

Awesome with dairy free cream cheese style frosting.

Dress well, thy part.

So let me ask a few questions. Does one go to a business meeting in a bathrobe or swim suit? What would happen if you did? You would turn a few heads, be snickered at, perhaps asked to go home and change, or maybe even get fired?

Does one get married in their grubbies? Or go to the fancy restaurant in the same clothes you use for scrubbing a toilet?

How many hours does the average lady spend in front of a mirror everyday to look the way she thinks is her?

Does not every stage costumer purposely construct the look of the character down to the smallest details to tell you what you need to know about them before they even open their mouth?

Do we not dress for the parts we play everyday?

And if so, then it is only reasonable to assume that if we dress like we are seeking male sexual attention that we would then get male sexual attentions? (ie, if you dress like a slut, you are must likely going to be treated like a slut.)

But wait- You don’t want this attention? Then just maybe you should consider dressing for the kind of attention you wish to receive.

I just finished reading an article that complained about the school asking the girls to refrain from wearing tight pants and belly showing shirts to school because they “distracts the boys.” They writer of the article claims that it teaches girls that they are to blame for how the boys treat them, and this creates the “rape culture.”

Seriously, we are now blaming men for the fact that they are hard wired to look at girls?

Yes, ideally, real men will look and never touch, and treat you like a respected equal no matter what you are wearing. But let’s face it, it is hard for the best of us to do that, (not to mention 12 year old boys) we try, but we still judge others on how they present themselves, and quiet often we treat them according to how they dress and behave.

So either you can agree with the writer and believe dress codes blame girls for being raped. Or you can accept the fact humans are humans and subject to biological follies, and use that to your advantage.

And one more word: if you drink to much and walk down dark alleys alone at night, it is not the “rape culture” that will get you. It is your own stupidity. Years ago there were a lot of concrete rules to prevent women from behaving in those ways that were most likely to compromise them.  Dark alleys and drunk girls are putting themselves in compromised situations, no matter what the decade or century is. Yes, the raper is guilty, 100%, but you most likely could have prevented it had you first thought about the possible consequences.