Facebook's Battle Against the Breastfeeding Breast (not to be confused with all other breasts)

Lately, there seems to be an uproar on facebook every time a mother posts a picture of herself while breastfeeding. Facebook has deemed these pictures inappropriate and is constantly deleting them from profiles. So the question comes to mind, what is so bad about seeing a woman breastfeed her child?

My first assumption would be that it was the visual of an exposed breast. However, as you can see from these pictures (gathered from random people's profile pics), facebook does not seem to have an issue with exposure!

So, I am led to believe that breastfeeding pictures have some other indecent feature to them. Perhaps it has more to do with the belief that breastfeeding is gross, shameful,or maybe just something that should be hidden from public view? What do you think, does this seem shameful to you?

If breastfeeding is viewed as gross or offensive, it is based on that individual's own hang ups and should not be deemed worthy of deletion any more than a person that doesn't like seeing obesity should cause facebook to start deleting all obese people's profile pictures.

In fact, if less people treated breastfeeding as such a big thing, maybe we wouldn't be having the same problems trying to increase the rate and duration of breastfeeding, which would ultimately lead to healthier children and less obesity and childhood diabetes (among other things). Does anything sound bad about that?

So please join me in the fight against facebook and join this group to show your support for allowing breastfeeding pictures on facebook. In addition, the next time you see a mother feeding her child the best food on earth, let her know that you commend her for a job well done! Maybe with a little support and encouragement, we can lead our society into a healthier and happier future!

Podcasts Gallore

So, I've recently gone a little podcast crazy. I always get into phases were I listen to more or less podcasts, depending on my like or dislike of my music library. But this time I've been going a little over the top. I think that this is mainly do to my newest attempt to cutback on internet time (trade one habit for another).

Needless to say, I thought that I would share with you some of my favorites. They are all free on ITunes so check them out!

-Democracy Now
-60 Minutes
-Mommy's Milk and More
-VerbaLearn.com's GRE Vocabulary
-Shrink Rap Radio Psychology Interviews
-The Princeton Review's Vocab Minute (This one is just hilarious!)

Mother's Day

On Mother's Day, my husband took me to the Oklahoma City Museum of Art to see an amazing exhibit on costume design. It had a little bit of everything, dresses from Gone with the Wind, Charlie Chaplin's famous hat, and the notorious dress Sharon Stone wears in Basic Instinct. It was the perfect thing to do on Mother's Day.

We also caught a movie at the museum and it was terrific. I would suggest that all of you try to check it out!

I hope all of you mothers had a wonderful Mother's Day! And I would love to hear how you spent it, so leave me a comment!

Middle Eastern Monday

After weeks of lagging behind on cooking and a weekend which included way too much meat, I finally got to make a delicious meal that I must share with all of my viewers!

 Hummus Recipe

16 oz. chickpeas (cooked or from can, drained)
4 T tahini paste (I make my own out of 2 T olive oil and 4 T toasted sesame seeds)
2 T lemon juice
1 t cumin
1/2 t garlic
1 t coriander
1/4 t cayenne pepper
1/4 t pepper
1/4 t seasoned salt

-Combine all ingredients in food processor and blend till smooth


Couscous Recipe

2 c. uncooked couscous
2 c.vegetable broth
1/2 c diced fresh parsley
1/2 c diced bell peppers (or other veggies)
1/4 c diced onion
2 T butter
2 T lemon juice
1/4 t salt
cumin & coriander to taste

-Boil vegetable broth, salt, and butter. Add couscous & veggies stirring quickly. Remove from heat and cover. Let sit for 5 minutes and add seasonings.

Falafel Recipe (found here and altered)

16oz. chickpeas, drained
1 diced onion
1/2 c fresh parsley
1 T garlic
1 egg
2 t cumin
1 t coriander
1 t salt
1 t lemon juice
1 t baking powder
1 T olive oil
1 c bread crumbs
seasoned salt and pepper to taste

-Preheat oven to 400.
-Heat chickpeas in microwave 1 min. or until slightly softened. Mash chickpeas with a fork.
-Combine onion, parsley, and garlic in food processor and blend until smooth. Add to mashed chickpeas.
-In separate bowl, combine all other ingredients. Add to chickpea mixture.
- Make mixture into balls and put onto greased cookie sheet. Cook 10 min. Flip. Cook another 10 min. Then broil each side for 2-3 min.

Cucumber Sauce Recipe (found here)

1/2 large cucumber, seeded
6 oz. plain yogurt
1 T mayonaise
1 t dill weed

-Combine ingredients and refrigerate at least 30 min.

A New Obsession

Lately, my daughter has started grabbing at whatever she can put her hands on while she is eating. Unless, I have a toy ready, I am being slapped, pulled on, and having my clothes and worst of all necklaces yanked every which way.

Well, I recently stumbled onto what I think is a brilliant solution to this sometimes irritating event. They are called nursing necklaces and they are basically brilliant. They are supposed to be durable enough for a child to pull on without being broken and they are also I nice accessory for moms, most of whom have probably stopped wearing jewelry if they are going through anything like what I have been experiencing.

Now I must attest to the fact that I am yet to be in possession of one of these awesome necklaces and therefore cannot fully review their functionality. However, I would like to give you a few websites that seem to be the neatest at the most reasonable prices so that you can try them out for yourself. I would love to here from anyone that has a nursing necklace so feel free to leave me a comment!

Mommy Necklaces

Stones of Healing

Some of My Favorite Money Savers

1.www.surfthechannel.com  or www.sidereel.com 
 These two websites are my favorite way to watch some of my shows. As a mom, I can't always sit down to watch my shows and without these two websites, I would rarely get to enjoy my shows. Also, I like to watch shows that I can't get without cable and I hate to wait until things are out on video so for those of you that wait for the next season of Weeds, Big Love, or The Tudors, you can stream them each week at one of these websites! Oh, and if you can't afford to rent a movie, most new releases will be available at these addresses as well!

2. Meatless Meals
 You would be amazed at how much people spend on meat. I constantly hear my parents and my brother mention what a deal they got on this, that, or the other that is still astronomical and would most definitely blow my budget out of the water. So if you are wanting to live a long, healthy life and/or you have a small food budget, cut out the meat!

3. Breastfeeding
 Nothing is better for your child or your budget than breastfeeding. The only cost that people always try to bring up for breastfeeding is the extra food that you must consume to do it. However, most of us that have recently had a child are not very interested in keeping on weight so adding calories is not as common as some people think. I prefer to burn the 300-500 calories a day while eating as much as I did pre-pregnancy.
  Breastfeeding is also linked to less cost in the future. Children that are breastfed are less likely to have medical issues of all kinds. They have also been shown to have less chance of obesity throughout life which saves your food budget even after they eat solids!

4. Cloth Diapering
 By using cloth diapers, I don't have to spend hundreds of dollars a month on diapers. I have a one time expense of a few hundred dollars that I can use on all of my subsequent children. In addition, I use cloth wipes and a water-filled spray bottle to clean my daughter; therefore, avoiding any routine costs while diapering. (Another option which we use part-time is Elimination Communication)

5. Child Friendly Cleaners
 Before our daughter was born, my husband and I decided to get rid of all the chemicals in the house.  I looked into buying all sorts of safe cleaning products and then decided that the best thing to do was stick with baking soda and vinegar. Baking soda is my basic scrubing product for any built up nastiness and vinegar covers everything else. The only thing I still buy is dish soap(which I also use to mop tile floors and get rid of fleas) and Murphy's oil soap (which is98% natural). However, in the future I would like to switch those too!

Well, I hope that I've thrown out some ideas that some of my viewers haven't thought of and if anyone would like to give more suggestions, please leave me a comment. Also, if any of you have purchased supersized boxes of baking soda, I'd like to know where!

Environmental Party Decorating

Recently, I watched the new movie, Motherhood, starring Uma Thurman. Now I know that it probably isn't something that most of you have seen since it got such horrible reviews but it definitely hit the spot for stay-at-home-moms.

It also got me thinking about party decorations. In the movie, there is a scene were Uma's character debates doing goody bags for what reason, I'm not positive but my hypothesis is that it had to do with being environmentally unfriendly.

I told my husband that I had never really thought about the waste that is caused by always sending people home with junk that they will never use again and now I was torn between wanting to throw the best parties ever and wanting to protect the environment as much as possible.

My conflicting views were then put to the test when I began to plan my sister-in-law's baby shower. How was I going to make centerpieces and goody bags without buying a bunch of stuff that I would never use again?

Well, it turns out that I was up for the challenge! Although not completely successful(due to a small budget and the need to supply tablecloths and other misc. decorating items), I did manage to create fun centerpieces that would be used over and over again!

The basic idea of these was to use baby pictures of both parents-to-be and add baby items that could be used after the shower. Also, the buckets that I used were dumped of sand and sent home with all of the attendees that had children!

I then decided that the goody bags would contain only edible goodies which went over really well. Each bag contained cookies and an assortment of candy.

Not only were the decorations and goodies reusable, they were also purchased on a shoestring budget! All the tablecloths, candy, picture frames, and buckets were found at Dollar Tree; and all of the baby items were purchased at a consignment sale. I did however purchase sand (pretty cheap)which I could have avoided with a little more time and ingenuity.

All in all, I'd say that it was a pretty big success without being a giant failure for the environment! Now if only I could make sure that my brother and his wife start cloth diapering!