Buy Fresh Buy Local

Recently, I’ve become involved with the South Eastern Massachusetts Agricultural Partnership (SEMAP). I’ve joined the organization and am helping with a few upcoming events and programs.

SEMAP is dedicated to preserving and expanding access to local food and sustainable farming in southeasternMassachusetts through research and education. SEMAP is a 501(c)(3), tax exempt, private, non-profit organization. SEMAP received its 501(c)(3) designation effective December 9, 2009. SEMAP was established in 1998. As of 2010, SEMAP shifted its mission from economic viability of farm businesses to education of the agricultural community and the community at large. We feel that this shift will allow SEMAP to raise the visibility of the local food movement and expand the number of individuals, organizations, towns, and cities that are involved in and supportive of agriculture in Southeastern Massachusetts. SEMAP has also expanded its mission to include research on the local food system specific toSoutheastern Massachusetts. SEMAP’s region includes Bristol, Plymouth, Barnstable, and Norfolk Counties.



The Buy Fresh, Buy Local program is a big part of SEMAP and helps to connect the communities of Bristol, Plymouth,Barnstable and Norfolk counties with local farms and local foods. SEMAP provides resources for where to buy local foods, sponsors local food events and education on the importance of buying local food. The Buy Fresh, Buy Local programs are an amazing resource for the community. As a farmer, I’m naturally an advocate for buying locally produced foods and it is wonderful to see an organization helping to promote such an important initiative.



SEMAP illustrates the importance of buying locally produced foods that ranges from health to sustainability.

Buying local foods has many benefits including:

Is fresher and more nutritious

Helps you choose safe foods from farmers you trust

Is cost effective – local food travels less!

Local farmers offer crop varieties for taste not for shelf life

Local farms help to maintain sustainable farming practices through crop rotation and integrated pest management (IPM)

Getting to know your local farmers helps to build stronger communities

Purchasing food locally helping to sustain your local economy

SEMAP's Buy Fresh, Buy Local coordinator, Sarah Cogswell, hosts "Local Food 101" presentations upon request. "Local Food 101" educates the community on the why, where and how of local food and includes discussion around sustainable farming practices.

Another great resource I've come across is the On-line Farm Guide where you can plug-in your zip code and start discovering all that their community and Southeastern Massachusetts has to offer. I was amazed at what was available within five miles of my house!

To receive monthly newsletters sign up for the Vine and you can learn all about what is going on with local food in southeastern MA.

Whether you live in southeastern Massachusetts, Chicago or New York City learn more about the locally produced food programs in your community. Get to know your local farmers and enjoy year round locally produced farm fresh foods.

Natural home cleaning products

Natural Cleaners

Recently, I’ve been searching for some great natural cleaners. With a small child in the house and a new baby on the way in July, I’d love to use less toxic cleaning products. I actually really enjoy cleaning my house. I love the smell and look of a polished, clean house and I am happy to put some elbow grease into the work.

I’ve recently come across the magazine Natural Home and after giving it as part of Revel’s birthday gift; I went out a bought the latest subscription! I had a few minutes today to start reading while Charlotte napped and came across the best article about the essential natural cleaners for any home.

Here is to spring cleaning!

Floors and Walls (including wood surfaces) – I have hard wood throughout my old house so this one is great. I tried it today (minus the lemon oil because we didn’t have any in the house) and it worked great!
1 c. white vinegar
1 gallon hot water
1 tbsp. liquid soap
1-2 tbsp pine or lemon oil

Toilet Bowl
Scrub with ½ c. Borax
Baking Soda – use daily

Grout Cleaner to kill the yucky mildew!
Baking soda and white wine vinegar

Here are some other great products for the spring clean
Olive oil to polish woods
Salt for scrubbing
Tooth paste to polish metals

Home beauty remedies

The New York Spring Fashion show was last week. I couldn’t help but follow the fashion show news and pour over the Style section of the New York Times. Having spent a couple of years in the beauty industry working in marketing for L’Oreal, I have a love for both fashion and beauty products. For a marketer, making it into the beauty industry was a dream. I loved the photo shoots for the latest hair care product and all the free samples of L’Oreal makeup! The winter weather continues here in MA as in other parts of the country and what better way to make you feel better than a little pampering. Here are a few beauty home remedies that will make you look fantastic but will not hurt your wallet!

Hair Care
(taken from http://www.beautyfool.net/natural-home-remedies-for-hair/)
Dry hair
Apply a mixture of egg yolk and water into damp hair. Leave it in for 10-15 minutes and then rinse

Oily hair
Boil 2tbs of mint and 1 1/5 c. water for 20 minutes. Strain the mixture and mix with your regular shampoo on alternative days to absorb excess oil.

Frizzy
Rub coconut oil in your hand and apply sparingly into your hair

Build up
Massage small amount of oil olive into your hair before shampooing

Need some shine
Apply lemon juice to hair and rinse (not recommended for color-treated hair)

Skin Care



Soothing honey bath
Mix 2 tbsp honey with hot water to dissolve. Add essential oil if desired. Add to warm bath

Dry hand
Mix one ounce of ground almonds, 1 tsp clear honey, 2 tsp or sunflower oil, 1 tsp lemon juice. Rub paste onto hands and let sit for 2 minutes and rinse

Peach face mask
1 large peach skinned
3 tbsp. honey
2 tsp. yogurt
blend/smash peach and honey together. Add yogurt. Apply to face for 10 minutes then rinse.

Sources
http://www.mybeautyremedies.com/
http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/beauty/skin/homemade-beauty-recipes
Photo credit

Baby Bump 17 weeks

This Wednesday, I’ll be 17 weeks pregnant with a due date of July 6th! The pregnancy of Baby Carr 2 has gone somewhat normal (so far). I’ve had the usual morning sickness from week 2 to week 11, the sluggish feeling all day and a few pimples (which I have to say I only get when I’m pregnant – yes I’m lucky in that regard!) I feel like the baby bump is tracking about two weeks ahead of my last pregnancy.

Last Tuesday, however, I jarring appointment. I went in for a routine monthly visit and met with one of the midwives at my practice. This visit was the first time meeting with this particular midwife and I have to say when I met her she was pleasant enough. I was on the table answering a few routine questions she asked about how the pregnancy was coming along. She pulled out the Doppler to listen for the baby’s heartbeat; a typical part of the second trimester visits. She applied the cold gel and moved the Doppler around my small bump, waiting to hear the heartbeat.

Nothing

After another few minutes (about five in total), still nothing. She backed away, put down the device and told me that this was very unusual for a woman in her second trimester. We should be able to hear the heartbeat clearly at this point in the pregnancy. “Do you have time to stay for an ultra sound to check for the heartbeat” she asked. “Of course,” I said. After sitting up and starting to get myself together, I asked the obvious question, “Should I be worried”

She was hesitant not answering yes or no directly. She said that we should be able to hear a heartbeat although there is a chance that everything is “ok” and the baby might be in a position making it hard to hear the heartbeat. She then proceeded to tell me that if there isn’t a heartbeat I should meet with her to discuss terminating the pregnancy and what that all means

Terminating the pregnancy – What? Then she left. No reassurance that everything would be ok, no follow up. Nothing. I went back into the waiting room where I was told that the ultrasound technician would arrive in an hour. So I waited.

I called my mom and revel and told them what happened. As I was telling Revel about the end of pregnancy comment I could feel the tears well up in my eyes and the lip start to tremble. Mom and Revel both said exactly what the midwife should have said- I’m sure everything is fine. Don’t worry. I waited, used my iPhone to google everything about 16 weeks and not hearing a heartbeat. Still, I couldn’t help but hear the midwife’s voice replaying in my head the words -terminate the pregnancy. Did I do something wrong? Maybe I shouldn’t have exercised last week? Maybe I shouldn’t have picked up Charlotte so often? Maybe I shouldn’t have shoveled my steps?

The technician finally arrived after an hour and a half. I walked into the room with my heart beating faster than I could imagine. I said a quick prayer to God asking him to give me strength. She applied the gel turned on the ultrasound machine and started. I closed my eyes for a minute not sure if I could look. “There is the heartbeat” she said. I opened my eyes and saw the baby with heart beating a strong 149 beats/minutes. I was overjoyed!

My hands were still trembling when I drove home. I walked inside my house and Charlotte ran into my arms “I shared my trains with Nani,” she said. I smiled and gave her a very tight squeeze burying my face in her small neck.

While I appreciate to some extent honesty of the midwife at my current practice, I don’t appreciate her approach to what was a very harmless situation. I’ve been through a difficult birth and know the anxiety and stress it brings. Even in my most difficult moments with Charlotte’s birth, what I remember and appreciated was the calming and reassuring words of the doctors, nurses and NICU staff. We all knew that the outcome could have been dire, but in the moment of labor with Charlotte that information didn’t need to be said. In the same way, this midwife could and should have been reassuring to me because we both knew what the outcome would be if the baby didn’t have a heartbeat and that didn’t need to be said. Having said all this, I find strength from mom and Revel who have both encouraged me to look into other practices and that is just what I’ve done. I had my first visit with a new group of midwives and OBs last week and it went great!

Burberry and Breastfeeding

I know what you might be thinking how can you put breastfeeding and Burberry in the same sentence. Well, I came across my nursing journal today from the early days when of nursing Charlotte. The journal was my way of remembering the important early days of nursing and this particular entry made me chuckle.

It was a cold and blustery day in February of 2009. Charlotte had been home from the hospital for a few weeks and we were just starting to nurse exclusively. Although I was nursing her at each feeding, I was also pumping at each feeding. I produced enough milk for two babies! I pumped for a month while Charlotte was learning to eat on her own and then learning to nurse and my supply was completely out of whack with her demand. In the first few weeks of February, my beautiful baby girl wanted to nurse she would get a gush of milk thrust in her mouth causing her to choke and cough most of the time. She would scream and her face would turn bright red and I would feel hopeless. One that cold, blustery Saturday in early February, Abbie and Mom came over to take me shopping. It was my first outing without Charlotte and I was excited to get out of the house and not think about nursing for a little bit. I had pumped two bottles full of milk enough for several feedings and left them with John while I enjoyed some girl time.

We lived in the South End at the time and it was a nice walk over to Back Bay where we decided to shop. The cold wind felt great against my face, as it seemed like forever since I had been outside. We strolled up and down Newbury St. admiring the window dressings, popping in and out of shops enjoying the afternoon. I treated myself to a few new shirts as my every expanding chest had seemed to take on a life of its own in the past few months. I was pleased to fit back into my beloved Seven jeans and was surprised when most of my pre-pregnancy tops seemed a little too tight. As we made our way to the Boston Commons we passed by Burberry – a Gilmore Girls favorite. All three of us agreed that we needed to stop in and at least admire the cute baby clothes. I hadn’t been in Burberry since I lived in New York City the year before. I only own a scarf from the store, but I seriously love the clothes. As we walked in from the cold, the aroma and warmth from the store was intoxicating! We walked over to the section for women and perused the racks and shelves. The coats, the dresses the shirts the pants all seemed to call out of me, but my wallet kept me from seriously looking!

After about 20 minutes in the store, I felt this tingle in my chest followed by a burst of wet, warm milk. “Oh dear,” I thought as I my boobs pulled me back to reality. I checked my watch, we had been shopping for almost three hours so yes, it was time to either pump or nurse. I felt like Cinderella at the ball, the clock had struck midnight and her coach was turning back into a pumpkin. My chest was turning back into its new role, feeding my child. As I was walking past a mirror I noticed a wet spot on my chest. Could I have leaked through my clothes – impossible.

I grabbed the nearest coat and headed straight for the dressing room. Inside I pulled off my top and noticed I wasn’t wearing a nursing pad and I had leaked all over my shirt. Of all the day and all the stores! How could I have forgotten a nursing pad! I dove into my purse looking for something to help as I watched my boobs continue to drip milk. I found a bunch of tissues and decided this would be enough to triage the situation. I pumped off some excess milk into a few of the tissues hoping that would buy me a half of hour time before I made it home. I used the remaining tissues as nursing pads, wearing my shirt backwards. I threw on my black goose down jacket and exited the dressing room.
“The jacket is lovely,” I told the sales associate, “ but I won’t be taking it today”

I walked over to mom and Abbie and quietly alerted them of the situation. They smiled and nodded and we exited the store.

Happy 21 Months

Dear Charlotte,

You are running around the yard of our new house, talking in complete sentences and saying things that just melt my heart. I still can't believe that you are 21 months old! It really just seems like yesterday you were born and we were making our daily visits to the NICU. As I'm in the throws of practicing for Expressing Motherhood, I'm constantly reminded of your birth. As I say in my performance - Although my birth didn't go as planned, I spent six extra weeks with you. It is something I remind myself of often.
I love the way that you and still snuggle during naps and at bedtime. Although now you are older you ask to snuggle - mommy's big bed and snuggle mommy you say often - how can I resist. I love watching you sing along to some of our favorite songs like "this little light of mine" and "wheels on the bus" and am amazed that you know most of the words. I'm totally impressed that for naps and bedtime you know exactly which books you want me to read and are very decisive about them - "Mommy All in a Day" or "Mommy Down at the Docks" you often say. I wish I could be as decisive as you are : ) Our days are filled with laughing, smiles and letting you constantly know how much I love you. I am SO lucky to have such a beautiful, wonderful, sweet daughter. I love you with all my heart Charlotte.

Love,
Mommy

Labor Day weekend

This weekend was the first time that John and I had two nights alone without our wonderful daughter Charlotte! We spent the time with friends in both New York City and Philadelphia. On tap for the weekend was a baby shower for Rebecca, wine bar with Amy and Douglas, drinks with Bob, and Ellyn's wedding. It was the first time John and I had in New York City alone since I was pregnant and we spent the time reliving our 20s by staying out until 3am!!!! Sunday morning started with a run in Central Park, followed by brunch at our favorite place - Grey Dog's Coffee and then back into the car for a drive to Philly where we danced the night away with dear friends.

It was lovely to see my Cornell girls that I've known for over 10 years. When we are together it seems like no time has passed - a sign of a true friendship. Happy Wedding to Ellyn and Luke! And a big thanks to my parents and sister for taking Charlotte overnight.

Happy Labor Day!

Happy 20 Months

Dear Charlotte,

You are a beautiful toddler. I love watching you sing your favorite songs in the house and car - ba ba black sheep, farmer and the dell and row row row your boat are some of my favorites. You simply amaze me with your command of language. You have already started to form solid sentence structures and are picking up new words daily. Seeing you go from walking to running over the course of the month has been amazing you have this adorable run/skip that is so beautiful to watch. I still enjoy watching you sleep and check on you every night before I go to bed. Watching you explore the world and enjoy the simple joys of life - bubbles specifically lights up my day.

Recently, the past two night, you slept in my bed while we still adjust to being in our new house. And I have flash backs to when you were a newborn and snuggled right next to me.


You are my angel and I love you so much. You give my life purpose and explainable joy.

I love you Charlotte

Charlotte's 18 month check up

Here are the stats you have all been waiting for...

weight - 35th percentile
height - 38th percentile

development - moving along perfectly!!

We have come a long way since the NICU ; )

Expressing Motherhood Piece

I was chosen to be a part of the Boston Expressing Motherhood performance this fall. Here is a draft of my piece.


ONE WOMEN’S JOURNEY INTO MOTHERHOOD


On December 10th John and I packed up our bags and moved from Manhattan to Boston. With my due date of January 31st, though, we thought we had plenty of time. At 4:30 a.m. on December 23rd I woke up to use the bathroom, a typical routine for a women in her third trimester of pregnancy. I suddenly felt a gush of water run down my legs – my water broke. Not just a trickle of water (like I had read in my maternity books) but what felt like a quart of water pouring on the floor. This isn’t supposed to be happening I kept thinking over and over again. What did I do wrong? Scampering around my apartment using a bath towel as a maxi pad, we threw together a hospital bag, then blitzed off to have a baby! We moved through check in, triage and into the labor room where I meet my doctor for the second time, ever. At this point I was a mess, crying in between visits from the nursing staff, all of whom were assuring me that there was nothing I could do to prevent this pre-term labor.

I had a plan for how I wanted the delivery to go. Up until now nothing was going how I had envisioned. I wanted a “birth center” type birth; I wanted to move around the room and hallways, bounce on a birthing ball and spend time soaking in the shower. Instead I was hooked up to an IV, administered Petocin, confined to 3 feet from my bed, given an internal fetal monitor, required to use an oxygen mask during delivery and definitely not allowed to use water in the birth! On top of that, I had a team of dedicated doctors in my room: 1 nurse, 1 doctor and 4 NICU doctors who waited for two hours while I delivered Charlotte. My modesty and birth plan was thrown out the window as a circus of doctors swarmed around my room.

She arrives…

At 4:10 p.m., Charlotte Atwood Carr arrived! The doctor quickly handed her to the NICU team. They administer her APGAR, swaddle her, and finally, after 10 minutes, I held my daughter for all of 60 seconds. After a quick photo, the NICU team whisked her away. Ten minutes later, John rushed down stairs to tell my family that Charlotte was born, the doctor finished the post-delivery, the nurses left… and suddenly, I was all alone. No baby, no family, no doctors, no nurses, no NICU team, nobody.

Sitting in the hospital bed alone for 20 minutes felt like eternity. All I wanted to do was rush to the NICU and snatch my daughter from the doctors, but all I could do was wait. A friend once said “Patience is waiting. Not passively waiting. That is laziness. But to keep going when the going is hard and slow - that is patience.” At that moment, on that day patience was forced upon me.

Later that evening after about 4 hours, I finally got to see Charlotte. We spent an entire hour with her. It felt like seconds. I believe I’m an eternal optimist, but on that day I couldn’t see any silver lining in the situation. I felt helpless, powerless and empty inside. All I craved was to have my daughter beside me, to hold her, nurse her, touch her soft skin, and watch her chest rise and fall as she slept. Instead she was alone in an incubator bed with a feeding tube in her nose, heart and oxygen probes on her chest and feet and IVs in her tiny hand. Rather than intimate moments between mother and daughter, for two weeks my moments were filled with shiny metal beds, flashing lights, programmed visits and limited skin to skin contact.

The next day I woke up early to the sound of a baby crying in the room next to ours and couldn’t help but feel jealous. Most of the moms on my floor had delivered full term babies and were enjoying the first few days with their first newborns – something I would never get to experience. Later that week, during one of our daily visits, Charlotte’s neighbor, a 2lb baby boy born at 27 weeks passed away. I couldn’t help but feel an overwhelming sense of relief that my 5lb 2oz baby just needed to spend a few weeks in the NICU to grow and I needed to have patience to let her do so.

A year and a half later as I recount my journey into motherhood, I still choke up when I think back to that day. Even now I wish Charlotte’s birth could have gone differently. It has taken me a year to come to terms with everything and finally, I can see a silver lining – I had 6 extra weeks with my daughter. Although it wasn’t on my terms or how I would have liked it to be, nonetheless I did get 6 extra weeks with her and I learned the true meaning of patience along the way.

Out of blossom counts

Last week I worked on the farm and did out of blossom counts (OFB) with Cass. Out of Blossom counts determine timing for the application of first cranberry fruit worm sprays. The application can be applied a certain number of days (depending on the cranberry variety) when a bog is determined to be 50% out of bloom/blossom. Here are some pics of the bogs from last week:

Summertime Fun at Aunt Revel's

 

 

 

 

Small Seurat

Charlotte and I enjoyed some creative exploration today with crayons, paint and stickers. Her favorite tool was the "Do a Dot" paint. Charlotte loves to draw circles and this paint wand lets kids make circles easily. Charlotte was learning the art of Pointillism - A techique of painting in which small circles/dots are applied to form an image - associated with the painter Seurat. I would consider her form of Pointillism somewhat abstract!

When John and I traveled to France almost 10 years ago we saw some of Seurat's paintings, which are amazing!

 

 

 

 

Happy 18 Months Charlotte

Dear Charlotte,

Happy 18 months! What a beautiful, energetic, fun, talkative and smiley little toddler. in my mind this month marks a change from your baby ways into pure toddler-hood! With all your words, sentences and language skills you amaze me daily; asking for things, completing sentences

"Mommy wake up" is one of the favorite ways your greet me each morning. "Daddy sit down" is also another favorite. This past month you have been able to tell everyone how much you love them with your "I love (pronounced woved) mommy" It is one of the best parts of having a toddler - hearing your voice constantly as you continue to explore the world around you. I still love holding you at night when you wake up scared and rocking with you in the afternoon as you gently fall asleep for a mid-day nap. Playgrounds, parks, beaches and libraries hold wondrous amazement for us both. You are my doll, my love, my absolutely amazing daughter. I love you so very very much.

Love,
Mommy

Mini Monet

Charlotte painting at Art Class today! We take creative explorations with Laura. She is a wonderful teacher. Great with toddlers and wonderful at teaching them (and the parents) art techniques!

Check out her blog at: http://creativeroots.squarespace.com

Great Find...

I somehow stumbled across this amazing website this week

http://www.mamabargains.com/

Check it out if you love bargins as much as I do! Everyday the site has a new item on sale.

Happy 17 Months

Dear Charlotte,

A few weeks ago you reached another milestone - you turned 17 months and I still can't believe it!!! My little NICU, premie baby has turned 17 months. You are saying more words than ever and making sentences out of your words. My favorite sentence is
"I wove (love) momma" I makes my heart melt especially since you say it when I least expect it. I love when you put your head on my shoulder and tuck your arm under your little hand in between your chest and mine. Putting you to bed every night is such a wonderful experience. I love reading our stories, rocking and singing our bedtime song while you take your little feet and rub them back and forth as you drift off to sleep something you have done since you were only a few months old. I still check on you every night before I go to bed and sometime I still get choked up watching you sleep thinking back to those first few days when you were all alone in the incubator bed growing strong so you could come home. I rest my hand on your chest feeling the rhythmic rise and fall of your chest as your sleep soundly. Everyday you are teaching me new things about being a mom and I'm growing with you everyday.

I love you so much my little bug!

Love always,
Mom

Memorial Day weekend highlights

Check out LLBean Signature

LLbean signature is a new upscale line for LLBean. I'm an LLbean fanatic and was so pleased to check out the new line

http://www.llbean.com/llbeansignature

Easter 2010

Some highlights from our Easter celebration.