no smoking

My current reading list includes The World Without Us by Alan Wiesman. The first section was fantastic and fun- a great mix of science, history, archeology, and imagination. But over the past few days I've found myself bogged down in the chapters on plastics, fertilizers and farming, and the petrochemical industry. I have been profoundly disturbed by the insanely naive and selfish way civilized society is destroying the natural world. I've ended up feeling just sick about the ways we are all complicit in the destruction of other living things and the beauty in th world around us.

Strangely enough I found some odd solice on a recent flight. We we on a fairly new jetliner and as we were settling in I noticed the illuminated signs above the seats were both turning on and off. One of those signs was, as always, allerting us to fasten our seatbelts. But the other one was different. For as long as I can remember the other sign was a no-smoking sign and was always illuminated. But last week on this new plane, it was replaced with a "Turn off your Electronics" sign. And this week I am clinging to that change as a sign that society as a whole can change. Smoking was not limited on airplanes until 1987- and then only on flights of 2 hours or less. Now it is so accepted that smoking on an airplane is forbidden that they no longer need the sign. We were watching the Dick Van Dike Show a few weeks ago and seeing actors smoking cigarettes on screen was jarring. Americans have certainly changed our attitudes towards smoking. Maybe we can change our Earth destroying habits as well- and hopefully as quickly. Maybe using 13 mpg Hummers to drive to church, meat at every meal, chemically processed foods, and our disposable society will also one day be a relic.

Most of our friends appreciate enviornmental science, buy (or grow) organic and local food when they can, use reusable bags, and are at least conscious of our energy usage and think before cranking up the air. So maybe. Maybe Jonathan will grow up in a greener world and find it jarring to think that we used to so actively destroy the earth that sustains us. I can only hope.

Ina May's Guide to Childbirth

Since I've been perusing scads of parenting books online lately, I thought I would share another one that I found to be wonderful to read and super helpful.

Ina May's Guide to Childbirth

Ina May Gaskin

There are a few books that I have read on this whole mommyhood adventure that I would deem indispensable. This is one that a wonderful friend of mine gave me pre-baby. It was by far the best book I read on labor and delivery.

Pre-pregnancy my main source of knowledge about labor and delivery had been sitcoms and horror stories- both of which will scare you to death about how horrible childbirth is. They make it out to be this awful, unnatural, barely-survivable experience. So, once it dawned on me that I being pregnant meant that this was going to be an unavoidable event, I was terrified.

This book was amazing.

It is written by a midwife and so obviously makes the argument for natural childbirth. But it does so in a way that makes you excited about going through labor- not paralyzed with fear about all of the possible complications or the side-effects and dangers of medical interventions. Her take is that giving birth is a completely natural, normal and wonderful thing. Women have been doing it for as long as there have been women. So labor is not a medical ailment that needs to be treated, it is a natural process that our bodies are designed to do! She does talk about the dangers of some of the current medical practices- c-sections, induced labor, epidurals, etc- but doesn't dwell on them in the scary way that some books do. I am not sure I totally believe her chapter on "orgasmic labor", but my experience with natural childbirth was completely wonderful (yes, of course, painful at points, but overall totally doable). I would do it again! (And probably will someday)

Sleep Lady SUCCESS!!!

At the risk of jinxing everything, I am going to report the Sleep Lady Shuffle a success!! Jonathan protested liberally during our first night- but it was bearable because we were right there with him and we knew we had a plan that was going to be better for all of us. The next night (Tuesday) was the best night of sleep Jonathan had ever had he semi-woke a few times and fussed lazily for less than 10 minutes. And every night since then has gotten successively better. Last night he slept for 12 hours straight. Let me type that again 12 HOURS STRAIGHT!!!! I heard him roll over and grunt a bit a few times, but nothing really resembling crying and nothing that got me out of bed. Amazing!!!

This was the best $17 I've ever spent. I only wish I'd bought it earlier. This is one of the most helpful baby books I've read and a must read for all mommies!!! The Sleep Lady is warm and personable, she is reassuring and simply wants to help, AND she knows her stuff from child (and parent) psychology to sleep science.

Nurture Shock

I finally finished this great book! (thanks to Jonathan's 2 hour naps today).

Nurture Shock: New Thinking About Children

by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman

My husband is crazy about this book and thinks everyone on the planet must read it. I think it was great. Bronson and Merryman have collected a ton of recent scientific research about how we develop as people. Taken individually the studies are interesting; as Bronson and Merryman have woven them together they are fascinating and incredibly relevant. The book covers topics from language development in infants to teen rebellion and lying to racism and challenges what our culture has taught us about the "right" parenting decisions with ideas that simply make sense. I will be rereading a lot of these chapters over again in the next few months/years!

Animal Vegetable Miracle

Every time I pick up a good book lately, I am struck lately by how much what we read shapes how we think and act and who we are. With that said, I thought I would share a few of my favorite recent reads that have been banging around in my head. I'll start with my current read:

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

by Barbara Kingsolver

In this book Barbara Kingsolver chronicles her family's decision to eat only what they could grow themselves or purchase locally for an entire year. My garden never does super well, and I don't really have as much space for it as I would like, but the idea of a garden that could sustain a family of 4 for a year fascinates me!! I love reading about food: eating it, growing it, cooking it, whatever. I've been totally inspired by this book both in terms of gardening and eating. Reconnecting the food I eat to some notion of where it came from has been a fascinating journey for me. Maybe someday we will live somewhere I can plant rows and rows of carrots and have some chickens... Until then I'll settle for trying to shop locally and planning to muddle through another season in my garden with some new crops