Prepared... or not?

Welcome to the May 2013 Carnival of Natural Parenting: Emergency Preparedness

This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama. This month our participants have shared their plans to keep their families safe. Please read to the end to find a list of links to the other carnival participants.

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We live in Oklahoma; Tornado Alley. We've had floods (including flash floods), tornadoes, earthquakes and snow / ice storms. We get some advanced warning (or "watch") for some of these. We know when a storm is coming that is likely to bring on tornadoes. We know when a nasty snow storm is coming. And people GO. NUTS. If you go to the store, you will find them sold out of water, bread, canned goods... you get the idea. "Its the apocalypse!"

Us... not so much. We are very fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants kind of people. We even hesitate to commit to social gatherings. And so cometh the weather.

The red truck is us. You see the car next to us? Completely covered in snow drift!

See the car in front of the truck (above)?

It was propped up like this for several days, blocking us from leaving.

We walked to the nearest convenience store, the only thing close-by at all. We were terribly lucky that they were even open! Maybe I'm just lucky? I never buy canned goods or water in advance to prepare for anything! I suppose I set a really bad example here, but we just don't plan ahead like that.

I do want to buy a storm radio, since we don't have television service. Do you prepare for bad weather?

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Visit Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama to find out how you can participate in the next Carnival of Natural Parenting!

Please take time to read the submissions by the other carnival participants:

• Be Prepared for Emergencies — Becky at Crafty Garden Mama is reviewing Angela England's new ebook, The Untrained Housewife's Guide to Getting Prepared. See what measures she is learning to adopt in her family.
• Prepare to Expect a Safe and Beautiful Natural Birth — What do you need to have prepared so that you can have a nice and relaxing birth at home? Lisa at The Squishable Baby shares her list in a guest post at Natural Parents Network.
• Fire Boxes for Emergency Preparedness — Jana of Jananas tells why she bought a fire box to store important documents and what is stored in the box.
• Firefighter Training Homeschool Curriculum — Kellie at Our Mindful Life helped her homeschooled kids prepare for emergencies through a Firefighter Training unit.
• 3 Secrets to a Royal Emergency — Jaye Anne at Wide Awake, Half Asleep tells the secret to living like kings during a storm-induced power outage.
• Is Your Family Prepared for an Emergency? — Chrystal at Happy Mothering shares an overview of what her family has done to become more prepared for emergencies.
• What to Do in an Earthquake — Julia at A Little Bit of All of It gives instructions for staying safe in the event of an earthquake as well as tips for teaching your children to keep safe and where to find information online after an earthquake.
• Spring Cleaning & Preparing, Part 2 — Justine at The Lone Home Ranger organizes and replenishes her emergency supply every spring and is learning to add to the food stockpile by preserving year-round.
• 15 Must-Haves For The Natural Minded Family When Disaster or Emergency Strikes — Jennifer at Hybrid Rasta Mama shares how she prepares for disaster or an emergency as a natural minded mama. Learn what 15 natural items you should consider having on hand!

• Emergency Preparedness: Cosleeping, Cheezits, Chocolate — Kristine at All the Things in the World was happy to have cosleeping in her emergency tool kit during Hurricane Sandy.
• Being Prepared For Personal Disasters — Luschka at Diary of a First Child draws on her own recent experiences and considers five things every parent should have in place to ease the burden when sudden disaster strikes.
• The Natural Emergency Kit That I Always Carry in My Diaper Bag — Charise at I Thought I Knew Mama shares the four green and natural items in her emergency kit that she can't do without when she's out and about with her little ones.
• Prepared... or not? — Is it dangerous to not prepare? Jorje of Momma Jorje shares whether her family prepares…or not.
• Pack a car safety kit: 25 must-have items for emergencies — Whether you're out for a leisurely drive or fleeing a disaster, Lauren at Hobo Mama offers tips on stocking your car with emergency supplies that will tide you over if you're stranded.
• Teaching My Children About Tornados — Destany at They Are All of Me writes about preparing her children for tornado season.
• Preparing our children for emergencies — Preparing for emergencies means preparing your children, and Robbie at Going Green Mama shares ways on how to empower kids when it comes to emergencies.
• Emergency Preparedness in Sub-Saharan Africa — After living in Sub-Saharan Africa for 7 years, emergency preparedness is not just a concept any more to Laura from Authentic Parenting.
• Five Ideas to Keep Babies and Toddlers Safe from Choking — Do you have a baby or toddler who likes to put everything (and I mean *everything*) in her mouth? Dionna at Code Name: Mama does, and today she's sharing a story and some tips on how to keep your little ones safe from choking.

May Taboo Carnival Call for Submissions

Jorje from Momma Jorje and Jennifer from Hybrid Rasta Mama are pleased to announce The Taboo Carnival. This Carnival will be held four times yearly (February, May, August, and November). The topics will be wide and varied but focused on subjects that are typically not discussed in the natural parenting/mindful living world of bloggers.

The May Taboo Carnival topic is: “I Miss My Life”

Any parent will tell you that life after children is much, much different than life before children. As well it should be. After all, you are entrusted with the life of another human being and are no longer making decisions based on your own personal whims and desires. There are millions of little details to take into account for even the simplest of tasks…like going grocery shopping. And gone are the days of dropping everything, packing an overnight bag, and taking a girl’s trip to the City!

This month’s Carnival was created to liberate you and to allow you to openly discuss your true feelings about how motherhood has flipped your world upside down. While this topic might seem rather broad, we would like to offer some suggestions for post topics:

• What do you miss most about your life before having children? Anything in particular or is it broader than one or two things?
• Do you regret not doing something in particular before having children?
• Do you ever get jealous of your single, childless friends? Why? What makes their life so much more attractive to you?
• How do you FEEL about missing parts of your life pre-children? Do you feel guilt over it? Do you embrace it as normal? How do you cope with your feelings around this?
• Have you ever admitted that you miss your pre-child life or that you are jealous of your non-mama friends? What reaction did you receive?

Remember, these are just our thoughts and idea to get your creative juices flowing. You are welcome to write about anything related to not always liking your child.

We understand that some of these topics might be sensitive or too personal to share on your own blog. Therefore, we will have a “post swap” option where another blogger will host your post anonymously and you in turn will host another blogger’s post. We will handle all of the details of the post trade once we receive your submission. The host blogger will never know who wrote the post.

Submissions Deadline: Thursday, May 23, 2013.

Fill out the webform (at the bottom of this post) and email your submission to jorje {at} mommajorje{dot}com AND jennifer {at} hybridrastamama {dot}com by 11:59 p.m. Pacific time.

Carnival date: Tuesday, May 28, 2012.

Before you post, we will send you an email with a little blurb in html to paste into your submission that will introduce the carnival. You will publish your post on May 28th before 8am PST and email us the link if you haven’t done so already. Once everyone’s posts are published, we will send out a finalized list of all the participants’ links to generate lots of link love for your site. We’ll include full instructions in the email we send before the posting date.

A few housekeeping items:

• Please write a new, previously unpublished post for the carnival.
• We will email you with specific instructions on posting before carnival day.
• Please do not post your article until the carnival date.
• We reserve the right to accept submissions based on relevance to the topic and quality of writing.
• Please refrain from using profanity, poor spelling and grammar, and vicious personal attacks.
• We will NOT be editing your post so please proofread and run a spelling and grammar check.

If you have any questions, you are welcome to contact us via email!


Copy the Taboo Carnival badge and add it to your sidebar:

<br /> <a href="http://www.mommajorje.com/p/carnival.html"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp7lBNTbWNv6rRg8re1n3l34Wo-o3KAJ3h5wDT1sL3aPNFIez90dokpFQ4Ix6tuowocDcKboCDeQMbe1IhQnmAMYvkV5xb1nJO9VfjaINbNwjJz7Vb9UxKLl-N-0JPTR1wrfYeS3L4gO4/s400/taboo-carnival.jpg" width="125" alt="The Taboo Carnival" /></a><br />

To stay connected:

• Subscribe to Momma Jorje via RSS feed
• Subscribe to Hybrid Rasta Mama via RSS and/or email
• Like Momma Jorje and Hybrid Rasta Mama on Facebook

We are so looking forward to reading all the contributions for the Carnival!

~ Jorje and Jennifer

Giveaway: Organic Boba Carrier 3G – $160 ARV {5.25; US}

This is a joint giveaway with Momma Jorje and Natural Parents Network. You may enter at one site only. Please find the section marked "Win it!" for the mandatory entry and optional bonus entries.

This is a giveaway from Boba, a baby carrier company which is offering our readers a giveaway of an Organic Boba Carrier 3G, a value of $160.

The Boba Carrier may be converted to a newborn carrier without an infant insert or any additional items and used well into toddlerhood. This carrier can be used for children ranging in size from 7-45 pounds!



My Organic Boba Carrier 3G arrived, neatly folded in a pretty box with a full color instruction manual including step-by-step photographs (also available online). This photo does not do the colors justice.

It is a beautiful carrier.

The carrier has several different adjustments you can make, but it wasn't overwhelming. It only took a few minutes to have it on and ready to load with a child. You'll want help the first few times you load a baby on your back, but with practice I mastered loading a back carry alone.

Spencer was cozy back there. He could get his hands up and out to play with my hair, have them go through the straps or just tuck them in close to his body. The carrier totally supports his body. His legs were higher than his bum (it is not a "crotch dangler.")

Spencer is about 20 pounds and is fairly easy to load onto my back. Sasha gets a bit jealous of him, though. On this day, she was sad and needing some reconnect time with me. She is 3½ years old and about 30 pounds, but I managed to load her on my back by myself after having practiced with Spencer. As you can see, she was thrilled to be on my back. She gets to sit on the counter and cook with me, but this was miles better!


This photo from the Boba site shows the colors better as well as a front carry. According to their manual, this carry is fine from 15-30 pounds. You see how these two are face-to-face? I found that even carrying Spencer (20 pounds, remember), he was too tall. I had to look around his head and would also hit my chin on him.

The back carry is for children from 20-45 pounds. I love that there is overlap there, so you can use it with whichever carry is right for you.

The Boba will also work as a Newborn Carrier (7-15 pounds) by snapping the bottom (no attachments or inserts necessary). It works great as a newborn carrier, but I don't like the snap placement when I carry Spencer because he winds up with these little circle indentations on his legs. This may not be an issue if you keep your baby clothed, but I tend to give him lots of naked time. (Wearing a naked baby is a great way to hone your Elimination Communication skills.)

I've used hiking backpacks, ring slings, mei tais and other carriers. This is absolutely my favorite carrier. I loved my wrap for Spencer when he was a newborn, but the Boba 3G is so versatile, holding babies from 7-45 pounds!

Boba Inc. is a group of dedicated people all working together to support babywearing, family travel, alternative learning, natural parenting, and other practices of secure bonding and attachment so that every parent can deepen their conscious understanding and appreciation of their relationship with their children. We recognize that there is no single formula to meet each particular child’s individual challenges and respect a mother’s innate ability to trust and know what is right for her own.

If that doesn't sound like a very "Natural Parents Network" kind of company, I don't know what does! The company supports a lot of organizations that support natural parenting ideals (including Attachment Parenting International, among others).

BUY IT!

You can purchase your own Organic Boba Carrier 3G at Boba for $160. There are 3 different organic fabric combinations or you can choose from adorable prints if you don't choose organic. Boba's other soft structured carriers range in price from $120 to $125, and they have wraps from $38 to $60. You can also find Boba carriers on Amazon.

WIN IT!

For your own chance to win an Organic Boba Carrier 3G, enter by leaving a comment and using our Rafflecopter system below.

The winner will receive an Organic Boba Carrier 3G. Contest is open to residents of the US only.

MANDATORY ENTRY: Visit Boba and tell us one thing you have learned about the company! You must enter your name and email address in the Rafflecopter entry system for your entry to count, after leaving a comment on this blog post.

Leave a valid email address so we can contact you if you win. Email addresses in Rafflecopter are not made publicly visible. Please leave the same valid email address in your mandatory comment so we can verify entries.

This is a joint giveaway with Momma Jorje and Natural Parents Network. You may enter at one site only, and we'll be recording IP addresses to ensure that there are no duplicate entries. That said, please do visit and enjoy both sites!

BONUS ENTRIES:
See the Rafflecopter entry system for bonus entries to increase your chance of winning after completing the mandatory entry. All bonus entries are entered directly into Rafflecopter. Give it a try, and email or leave a comment if you have any questions!

Monster Smoothie

Welcome to the Festival of Food Carnival. This month, we celebrate foods with kid-appeal!  Hosted by Diary of a First Child and Hybrid Rasta Mama, you're welcome to join us next time, or if you have a previously published recipe you'd like to share, add it to the linky below.

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This is my variation on a recipe my mother originally found in the local paper. I think children can help with most recipes if we just let them. I often have a hard time with the patience for it, but it is so worth the effort! This one is easy because its just a matter of throwing ingredients into the bowl (or blender pitcher) and the amounts are really flexible.

2-3 Cups of spinach
I don't know about you, but I have no idea how much to cram spinach into a cup to measure it. So... I just use a LOT of spinach!

Mamatography 2013 - Week 18

Day 118 - April 28

My baby brother, basically sleep eating birthday cake while
holding his sleepy daughter and his lovely baby mama in his lap.

Visitation Rights

Every once in a while, I share photos of my husband's daughter. The reason it is rare: we don't have very many photos of her. Elmo gets to visit her for maybe 2 hours once per week, in a grocery store. This is all the time that Sasha gets to spend with her sister, too. They're very close in age, so they usually get along quite well. His daughter has seen Spencer... once? twice? ever. We joke about loading up the entire family to go to Walmart Visitation.

Thursdays are visitation days. Sasha is quite smitten with her half-sister and misses her between visits. (Yes, they are in a Walmart.)

Anyway, "Baby Mama" seems to think this is fair. Meanwhile, he is kept in the dark about a lot of things... things that, by law, he has a right to know. He once got a text message that his daughter was in the ER, but then he couldn't get an answer about which one or why.

I could go on and on, truly I could. But let me try to get to my point. We had plans to use a large chunk ($1,500) of this year's tax return to retain a lawyer. Then the state took $5,000 of his tax return and gave it to her (eventually... I think she is still waiting due to an audit). We've had a couple weeks of visitation cancellations, but he actually got to take Sasha to see her sister yesterday. Elmo is a good daddy and deserves more time with his daughter. He deserves to get that time without being chaperoned by an ex-girlfriend and without the aid of a shopping cart.

Visitation Day & Sasha got to go!

We've been pushed and pushed and pushed and I hate to see him have to wait until next tax season. I created a Fundly Campaign to get Elmo his Visitation Rights. I'm sorry that some of the info there is recap from here, but I'm hoping we can raise enough money to retain the attorney in time for Father's Day. How wonderful would that be? What better gift? I did ask his permission before setting up the campaign. Six months ago, he didn't even want an attorney. He didn't want to confront her or rock the boat, he just wants to be a part of his daughter's life. Then she backed out of bringing his daughter over for Christmas. That was the last straw for him.

Sasha & sister Samantha bonding. Again.
Back then they only saw each other at Giftmas.

Elmo's legal rights in our state are not being met. He is going to need a court order to get them. If you can spare even a few dollars toward this goal, it would mean a great deal to him and our entire family. Please click over to see more of the story (and photos of him with his girls).

What would you do if your Visitation Rights weren't being met?

Mamatography 2013 - Week 17

Day 111 - April 21

I can not recall what these are called, but basically its composting planting pots! I've put leaves (instructions said sticks) topped with kitchen scraps and then added my mix of potting soil, top soil and humus. These 4 pots are for flowers on the front porch.

EDIT: They're called Hugelpots, short for Hugelkultur.