The Vitamin K debate...

When I found out we were having a girl I felt a sense of relief that we did not have to have the circumcision debate. In my naivety, I failed to miss there were other things that would occur at the hospital that I would have to make a decision about. These included eye ointment, PKU testing, cutting the umbilical cord, Heb B shot and the Vitamin K shot. Now, I could spend entire blog posts discussing each of those individually, but instead I'm just going to focus on the Vitamin K shot, because that was the one we struggled with the most. It was easy for me to say no to the eye ointment, to delay the PKU test, to wait to clamp the umbilical cord after it stops pulsing and to postpone vaccinations, but the Vitamin K really had me wrapped up.

It is said that newborns are born with lower levels of Vitamin K. It can take up to a week for their Vitamin K levels to increase. It is my understanding that this is part of the reason the people of Jewish heritage wait a week to circumcise. The reason Vitamin K is important is because it helps the baby's blood clot. Some babies have traumatic experiences at birth, heck the entire birthing process is traumatic, but some have even more trauma added when medical interventions such as vacuums, forceps or even just bumps and bruises occur doing delivery. When a baby has these things happen, it is important that their Vitamin K levels are solid in order to help their blood clot. If a baby's blood does not clot, then they risk death from hemorrhaging. Although it is believed that only 10% of babies born actually have to worry about undetected internal bleeding, I still did not want to take my chances by forgoing the Vitamin K shot. You're probably thinking, "OK, so what's the big deal, just give her the shot." Well, the big deal started at first with the idea that I did not want any type of vaccine and/or shot given to my baby in the hospital. I want her to not be poked and prodded after having just experienced a very scary process of leaving a dark warm womb and entering a bright, cold strange world.  I started researching Vitamin K injections and realized that it can be done orally. I mentioned this to my midwife, who had not heard of this request before and said she needed to find out more information. When she got back to me at the next appointment, she said that they could administer the Vitamin K orally as opposed to IM. You would think this would solve all of my concerns, except it didn't. See, I'm naturally a researcher. I research everything. I was the kid in school that loved research papers and still do today. I actually miss writing research papers and if it weren't for the whole cheating thing, I would start a business in writing research papers for students. That being said, between the appointment where I first mentioned oral vitamin K to my midwife and the next appointment when she said it could be offered orally, I started to learn some things about the hospital's version of Vitamin K. First of all, it used to be linked to childhood leukemia. Fortunately, there have been many studies that do not support that link and therefore this was not a concern for me. It is however, linked to higher cases of jaundice, which may or may not be a concern for most people. The second issue with hospital Vitamin K is that it is synthetic. It is not real Vitamin K, but rather a chemical mixture meant to replicate Vitamin K and provide the same benefits that Vitamin K would provide. This became my problem. I'm not opposed to medicine, even though it probably sounds like I am. I believe that we are fortunate to live in a country that can provide medicines to help people feel better, but if something doesn't have to be synthetic, then I don't believe it should. I found out in Europe that most people administer real Vitamin K to their babies without the synthetic version even being offered. As I began to research this, I really felt inclined to do this as well. I believe that if we can offer our little girl real Vitamin K, then why do we need to give her the fake stuff? I went back to the midwife to ask her about the hospital Vitamin K to ensure that it was synthetic and that I wasn't getting false information from the Internet. She said she believed it was real Vitamin K, but would get back to me and let me know. When she got back to me she assured me that I was correct and that the hospital version of Vitamin K was in fact synthetic. She encouraged me to purchase my own Vitamin K, which is very difficult to find. I found a midwife website that sells it and decided this was the route for us to take even if it meant more time, money and responsibility. See, with real Vitamin K it's not just a one time deal. You have to administer it after birth, a week after birth and then a month after that. Because of my aversion to using the synthetic version, but still wanting to protect my child, my husband and I agreed this is the route we would take. We ordered the Vitamin K and it came just in time for my next midwife appointment. A part of me felt that my midwife would be upset we were taking this route, but when I got to my appointment she was very encouraging

The point of this blog post is not to encourage everyone to bypass the Vitamin K shot. Eye ointment, Vitamin K, PKU testing, Vaccinations, those are all personal decisions that people have to make for their family as they see fit. The only thing I would say is to not be afraid to research your options and to not be afraid to ask questions. This was a big deal for me and I was glad that I did do my research and did ask the right questions and in the end our baby is still going to get her Vitamin K, but she's going to get it the way that we feel will best suit her and our family.

Happy Researching!

I'm finally writing again...for now.

It's been a long time since I've blogged. I always have these great ideas to start a blog and stick with it and then I get so busy that I forgot it's been weeks, months even years since I've written. That being said, my life has changed considerably since I last wrote and I have wanted to talk about all of my new discoveries and have lacked the time to write. So, here is my latest updated:

1. We are pregnant and almost due. Our baby is due in June, so we are only 30 days out! This pregnancy has led me to a journey of self-discovery as well as a way to truly evaluate what are the best decisions (eco-friendly) for myself and my family.

2. What started as a journey about food has turned into a natural lifestyle journey. We have explored alternatives to medicines as well as cloth diapers and other eco-friendly/natural living choices. In fact, our birthing class was even a naturally inspired birth class, which incorporated homeopathic alternatives to medicines and pain relief.

3. I have realized how passionate I am about these choices and have been freely sharing this information with anyone who will listen. This is why I really should stay on top of writing this blog. As I learn more, I want to share with everyone, as I feel that majority of people are ill informed about topics that directly impact them.

In hopes to keeping up with this blog, I will make the best attempt as possible to share with you the things I am learning and my thoughts, ideas, opinions on those topics as well as elicit your thoughts as well.

Before I go, I would like you to notice the change in my blog background. This was created by a friend. If you like what you see and are interested in having her design your blog, let me know and I'll pass her information on to you!

Here's to hoping I do a much better job keeping up with this blog!

Polyface Farms

My DH and I were discussing today, "How did this journey start?" To be honest, it was not one ah-ha moment when everything started and we entered "Crunchy" living. There were many factors that went into our journey. Ultimately, the defining moment came when we watched Food Inc. You may have remembered me mentioning it in a previous blog. In the movie Food Inc, there was a special little Virginia farm highlighted known as Polyface Farms. In our great adventure to living green we decided it would only be fitting to drive to Polyface Farms and take a lunatic tour. If you're not familiar with Polyface, you need to be. Joel Salatin, the owner of Polyface, has revolutionized farming in America. The way he does things makes so much more sense than what our giant industrial farmers are practicing. Just like any other green living practice, Joel takes it back to its roots. Everything on his farm does the work for him and it's so amazing to see how well everything functions. My words could never justify how awesome the trip was, but I will try to recap our adventure.

We arrived at Polyface just before our 10:00am tour. We were a little unsure as to what to expect, but everyone else seemed that way too. At 10:00am sharp we all jumped on the hayride to tour the farm. My DH and I had front row seats to the back of Joel's head, which made it kind of fun when we were snapping shots of him up close. Seeing Joel in person was seriously like meeting a celebrity. Anyway, the first stop on the tour was to visit the pigs. Joel allows the pigs to graze in 3 different paddocks. As the pigs feast on the ground there, they are ultimately helping to keep the brush trim. They get a varied diet and more exercise. This makes for some yummy pork later... As the pigs finish grazing, they get moved to another paddock and start the process over again. After they have left their first paddock, that area then grows back for the pigs to eat again in the future.

We left the pigs and headed over to the chickens. I love chickens, I really do. I like roosters too although I don't have one and if I did maybe I would feel different. Anyway, the chickens are in movable coups that are moved everyday, so that the chickens can eat fresh grass. The laying hens are in the "Egg Mobile." They are moved to a new spot and then are allowed to roam free. In the area that the chickens are roaming, the cows have just left. The cows left nice little presents all over the ground for the chickens to dig through and kill all of the larva of the nasty flies and other insects, which means I did not get bit by a single bug in the middle of August on a Virginia farm. Amazing, isn't it? While the chickens are digging through the manure they are not only reducing the insects, but also are fertilizing the grass.

We left the chickens and followed the cows. The cows had just left the chicken field and now were grazing on a new area of grass. Yes, you heard me correctly...grass. Cows are not supposed to eat corn, contrary to what our government tells us. Corn is difficult for cows to digest and is not a natural food source for the cow. (If you haven't seen Food Inc, I can't stress enough how important it is to watch it) It was a little hot for the cows, so they were hanging out under the "Shade Mobile."

We left the cows to visit the barn. This is where the cows go in the winter. The barn had hay on the ground and the cows come in the barn and eat the hay that is in front of them in troughs. The troughs are on pulleys and raise up as the ground the cows are standing on raise up. You might be wondering how is the ground being raised? Well, as the cows drop their waste, another layer of hay is laid down as well as some wood chips/saw dust and corn kernels to keep the cows from standing in their manure (like they do on industrial farms). This process keeps going on throughout the winter. As the winter comes to an end the cows are standing much higher up than when they first began. This is when the pigs come in. The pigs, also known as the pigerators come in and pick through the waste and dig for the corn. As the pigs dig for the corn they are stirring up all of the cows waste as well as the wood chips and saw dust and making a really great compost to be used in the future.

I mean really...Joel is brilliant.

After our tour, we went to gift shop and purchased some meat, a cute T-shirt and some of his books on how to farm like he does. I'm not sure if we will ever have a farm like Joel's, but we can at least be inspired by what he is doing.

 If you get a chance, you should visit his farm. It's such a great learning experience. Here is a picture of DH and me with Joel.

Organic Gardening!

I apologize for my lack of discipline in keeping up to date with this blog. My life has been turned upside down this past year and it’s been hard to keep up, but nonetheless, here I am.

Back in March/April, my DH (dear husband, for those of you who do not follow women message boards) decided that we would use the land we were blessed with to start our own garden. This idea was so exciting and I couldn’t wait to get started. I mean living off your land, who would ever think to do that, right? What a novel concept.  We realized how brilliant we were for thinking of such a clever thing to do, so we jumped in full swing.  Will (DH), created this entire layout of 12 raised beds with crops all meticulously selected to be planted near one another in order to support, protect and serve each other.  It was going to be fantastic. I mean who cares if we didn’t know how to garden …it can’t possibly be that hard!  As the planting season began creeping up on us and then passing us we realized we hadn’t really planted anything. I mean we dug up the garden and it was beautiful and we ordered some compost from the neighbors and spread it all out, but it was May and we hadn’t planted anything! We kept justifying our procrastination by reminding ourselves that we have a little bit of a longer growing season in Virginia than most states.

Finally, towards the end of May we managed to plant a few veggies and flowers. As the seeds were quickly sprouting, so were the beautiful weeds!  We couldn’t keep up, the grass was growing like crazy and suddenly we couldn’t see our crops anymore.  I sure as heck was not going to use any type of spray, so I got out there every day and pulled a little bit up. This was great at first, but then there were too many weeds. It was out of control. At about the time the weeds were making themselves at home, we had to leave for a week vacation out of the country. We had our neighbor help us out by watering our garden, after all his garden is right next to ours, but while we were gone Virginia had some of its hottest June weather on record.  We came back only to find that our garden was scorched. We were able to salvage some of the crops, but not enough. The lettuce was yummy and I believe we saved a couple of zucchinis and a few tomatoes, but otherwise our garden was a total bust.

Here is what we learned for next year though:

1. Start small: everyone warned us about this, but we fought back with go big or bust…or in our case go big and bust
2. Using compost that is full of goat manure could lead to an outbreak of grass in your garden. Our solution for next year is to use cardboard. We will place the cardboard down to prevent the weeds and hopefully that will help
3. Start early enough in the season, so that you can spread out your crops and don’t go on vacation for a week and expect to come back home to a beautiful garden
4. Love your garden and sprinkle her with showers
5. Don’t get frustrated when you are left with no crops.  Everyone has to learn somewhere, so we will pick up the pieces and start again next year

Here are some pics of our garden when she looked beautiful…I’m not posting the ugly pics as I think she would prefer to be photographed at her finest! 

Happy Gardening! 

Happy Earth Day!

On this Earth Day, I thought I’d share a way that you can help save the earth and save your money.

In high schools, it was cool to go “thrifting.” That’s what we called it anyway. It was this idea of going to the thrift store looking for the best deal on nice clothes. My best friend and I would hop into the Two-Two (which was her car’s name) and go once a week on a mission to find used clothes for cheap that we could later show off to our other friends as the best deal in town. I thought of it as a talent and my parents were grateful because I would spend $10.00 at the thrift store and have 2-3 new outfits. At some point, I grew out of this phase. Maybe it was when my friend graduated (she was two years older), or maybe it was when I decided that I should dress more professionally. I’m not sure, but suddenly thrifting wasn’t cool anymore.

In college I got really into Ralph Lauren clothing, which is still, by far, my favorite type of clothing. It is pricey, but it is high quality and lasts throughout seasons. I love Ralph Lauren clothes, but I also realize that it is expensive. As summer has rolled around, I have really wanted to increase my skirts and dresses wardrobe, but have found it to be very difficult. First, I’m not willing to spend that much on new dresses and second, I can’t tell the difference between a shirt and a dress these days! It then dawned on me that I needed to be true to my green mission and go to the thrift store to see what I could find.

Over spring break, I jumped in my car (an improvement from the two-two, although has much less character) and I headed over to the Goodwill. Strangely enough, I was a little nervous about going in. I thought people would see me in my current clothes and wonder why I was shopping there and then a part of me felt bad, almost like I was taking away from people who really need it, but as I stepped in the store I saw other people just like me. Then I also realized that my purchase at the thrift store was donating money to a good cause as well as helping the environment by recycling clothes. So, nonetheless, I shopped. I found awesome deals. I got 3 new skirts for $4.99 a piece and 1 new pair of shorts for $3.99 and… the pair of shorts were Lily Pulitzer shorts!! Crazy!! I have since worn all 3 skirts to school and every single time I got compliments on my skirts. Everyone was like “Wow, I love your skirt!” It made me feel so good to know I have cute outfits and that I only spent $4.99 on them. I have also proudly shared with people where I bought them without embarrassment! I am now really excited to go back to the thrift store to see what else I can find.

So, here it is Earth Day, and I challenge you to go to your thrift stores and shop for new clothes, but only if you need them. This is not only financially responsible, but also earth friendly!

Happy Earth Day and Happy Thrifting!

“We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.” ~Native American Proverb

Radical Homemakers

I have recently finished a book titled, Radical Homemakers: Reclaiming Domesticity from a Consumer Culture, written by Shannon Hayes. I discovered this book through an article that my husband sent me on email. He didn’t send it to me because he yearned for me to be at home, it was actually the opposite. I have been struggling for the past year on my role as a woman. I have always been driven in my career and anyone who knows me knows that coming across my path when I have a goal in mind is like walking directly into a tornado. I set goals and I reach them. That’s just who I am. However, in light of recent events in our family, I have started to feel this struggle between my role as a career woman and my role as a wife and one day as a mother. The career driven, B.A. degree in Government, Masters Degree in Education felt that I was going to go earn my PhD in higher administration and that I was going to be that career woman that everyone, including myself, wanted me to be. The homebody in me started to fear that my drive towards career was turning me into someone I never really wanted to be.

Let me give you a little background about my life to help you understand where I am coming from. When I was in fifth grade, I was selected to interview to be a part of a gifted school for art. I was accepted and every Friday I would leave “regular” school to go to art school. In addition, I was an excellent artist. I was the only 6^th grader who was placed in the advanced I art class with the big bad 8^th graders and I was only one level away from being at the highest artistic level of the school. As the school year went on, I decided that I was missing out on my friends on Fridays and told my mom I was not going to go back to the gifted school. My mom let me quit. I never did much with art after that until 11^th grade, when I took an art class with Mr. B at my high school. Again, my natural ability to draw was beginning to shine and Mr. B took a liking to me, so much that I was able to be his classroom assistant. One day the class was discussing, while we were drawing, where we thought we’d be as adults. Mr. B said to me, “Kelli, I think you’ll be a politician one day and I think you’ll be miserable. You’re going to miss your true calling because you’re so driven to be successful.” I never, repeat NEVER forgot those words he said to me. The funny thing about it is that throughout college that’s all I ever wanted to be, was a politician. I’d be lying if I said I don’t still have that desire, because a part of me still wants to run for state legislature, but it wasn’t the career choice that Mr. B said to me that bothered me, it was the word miserable. Would I really be miserable?

I gave up art and pursued my dreams of becoming a politician. I, however, have recently reached a crossroads in my life where I’m not sure what direction to turn, which brings us back to the Radical Homemaker. My husband and I live on a farm, no animals, just land with two barns and an old farm house (where we live). I have recently decided that I would take my green efforts a step future and explore organic gardening, canning and chicken coops. Fortunately, my husband is on board. During our research and reading, I realized that this farm is so peaceful. Being on the farm is so relaxing and I found that when I am home from school on break, I am such a nicer person than when I am working, which begs the question…Can women do it all?

I know, what I am about to say is contrary to the way I have always lived and I know many of you will be upset, but I have concluded that woman cannot do it all. After reading the previous mentioned book and exploring my life choices I do not believe woman can do it all anymore. I think if one woman could do it all, it would have been me, but I believe that when we as women take on homemaking (laundry, cooking, cleaning gardening etc..) and we take on raising children and we take on a successful career, something will be sacrificed. Now, to clarify, I believe that a woman can work and can raise children and can do homemaker stuff, but I believe that her time is so divided between all three that there is a possibility that something will be sacrificed. She may do well at all three, but think about how much she would excel if she did not have to focus on all three. I have also concluded that it is possible to make all three your career. What if your work came from home, or came from craft or came from your farm, then you can use your career minded self to excel as a “business woman,” a mom and a homemaker.

I’m not sure where this leaves me, I’m not sure this blog has really helped any of you or has more acted as a therapeutic way for me to analyze my life decisions, but I do know that I have reprioritized what is important in my life and now I am on a journey to discover how I can keep those things as my only focus. I hope one day I can work from home and create a working farm and raise children and get back to doing art, but before I can make those choices I have to clean up the mess I have made through my consumerism and pay off my debts.

I hope this blog post leaves you thinking about where your true position in life is and I hope that Mr. B’s thoughts of missing your calling will have you wondering about your true purpose in life. I also hope that as time goes on, I too, will find my true purpose in life.

Here’s to discovering our passions, pursing them and prioritizing what is most important to us in life!

“The sacrifice, which causes sorry to the doer of the sacrifice, is no sacrifice. Real sacrifice lightens the mind of the doer and gives him a sense of peace and joy...” Mahatma Gandhi 

It's been a long time...

Pardon me for having taken so long to update my blog. Things have been extra busy between commuting, exercising and getting to bed on time. My goal of late has been to get to bed before 9:00pm, which still is not early enough considering I wake up at 4:45am. I have been exercising on a regular basis and have started to see changes in my body. My arms are building up and my stomach is starting to flatten and tighten up. I’ve been enjoying Jillian Michael’s 30 day shred and Bob’s Power yoga. Some days I have more time and I do both, other days I only have a limited amount of time and the 30 day shred helps me squeeze in an effective 20 minute workout.


Exercising aside, I am writing to let you in on a little known book that I find truly beneficial. If you are looking to make food changes, but are having a hard time committing and/or reading there is an excellent book written by Michael Pollan. His book, Food Rules, is an easy book to read and understand. You can read a couple pages a day and still finish the book within a week. It’s almost a pamphlet size and is perfect for bringing with you to the grocery or to work. Pollan gives a very simplistic look at how to make good food choices and I highly recommend reading it!

Finally, I wanted to put this out there. My husband and I are starting an organic garden and we are looking into composting and rain collection. Anyone have suggestions of good barrels for us to use? Once we start the garden, I will be blogging about our experiences. We are laying out our plan now and are very excited about the process.

Thanks for sticking it out with me and I promise to write an update much sooner than before!

"Rule 7: Avoid food products containing ingredients that a third-grader cannot pronounce." - Michael Pollan