Have you heard???

Keller is opening a Farmers Market in April!!!

This market (unlike many suburban markets) will be featuring lots of local produce in addition to artisanal products and unique prepared foods made in the Lone Star State. One of my favorite local producers, Homestead Farms, will be selling their delicious cracked-pepper goat cheese and produce there.

I. AM. SO. EXCITED.

Get ready for outdoor music, cooking demonstrations and wellness education. Oh, and there are festivals. It’s going to be like having four extra holidays this year!

Berry Festival – April 2010 (exact date currently pending berry harvest)

Wellness Fair – May 2010

Tomato Festival – July 2010

Fall Harvest Festival - October 9, 2010

This would be a FANTASTIC opportunity for some of you momma’s with artisanal skills (Katie Browning I’m talking to you! Your handcrafted soaps would be a perfect fit for this venue).

The outdoor market will be held at Keller Town Center each Saturday from April through September.

You see before you the starting point of Mommypotamus.com – a children’s book I love to read to our daughter. In the book, a socially hesitant potamus (for we all know by now how many varied forms of potami there truly are) sees everybody playing and doing cool stuff together, but she is always hanging back. I won’t spoil the ending for you. But it’s a real tearjerker.

With most of Katie’s stories I get bored and accidentally use the wrong voice for the wrong characters halfway through. But not so with this one. I so obviously enjoy it each time we read this book that Daniel started calling me Mommypotamus. It stuck, because in a lot of ways the book is about me.

I experienced loss early in my life. I don’t want sympathy (PLEASE!!!). I’m just saying that because I became a very timid, cautious person as a result. Being fearful took a huge toll on my health, as did my total ignorance of what healthy food really was (at the time I thought that meant Grape Nuts with half a cup of sugar poured over the top). By my early twenties my health was failing. I was rail-thin and could not gain weight, my abdomen hurt constantly, and I had severe-acid reflux and acne. I was told not to get pregnant because I was not capable of carrying a baby to term.

I was alive, but I wasn’t living. I was sick of being sick, or so I thought. After seeing doctors, quacks and I don’t-even-know-what-to-call-them, I came to a very strange conclusion:

I realized that being sick had a payoff for me. Being “sickly” got me attention. Being afraid to “get out there” and take chances didn’t. I wanted life to come to me without me having to take any risks. But in choosing to be a “hanger-backer” I had slowly evolved into “the girl in the plastic bubble.”

God knows what He is doing. He knew that if my body were healed it would do nothing for my sick soul. Don’t you think it’s strange that when Jesus met the lame man at the pool of Bethesda, he asked him if we wanted to be well? But really, how many of us define ourselves by our weaknesses (and actually enjoy it on some level)?

So at the perfect time I met a fabulous doctor (not an M.D., a PhD) who used a modified version of acupuncture (using lasers) to help me get well. The timing was perfect, as I said, because I was ready to be well. For the first year I lived in daily amazement when I woke up pain-free. I rushed headlong into life, sucking in every possible experience.

I used to be alive without living. Now I have said “yes” to life: All the good stuff with pain and disappointment mixed in. All of it. Now, when people pay attention to me (and they sometimes do!), I want it to be because I have something loving, funny, or helpful to say. I want to live my life so loudly that people can’t help but take notice. Not in the “spotlight-hog” kind of way, just in the plain ole “everybody is unique and we should celebrate it” way.

For those of you that have read the book, it is for this reason that with all my heart I cry:

“But YES the Mommypotamus!!!”

My love of butter is a running joke among my friends. When Organic Valley came out with their Limited Edition Pasture Butter, I literally bought it by the case. Why?

From May through September, the sun shines its warmest, pasture plants grow the strongest, and cows graze the longest. It’s also the time pasturing cows produce the most delicious and nutrient-dense milk for the finest butter. With the introduction of rich-tasting, cultured Pasture Butter, Organic Valley is celebrating the healthful benefits of organic cows enjoying those lush, green summertime pastures.

Throughout history, summer butter has been prized for its beautiful color and flavor, and a long held belief in added health benefits.

Organic Valley Pasture Butter contains elevated levels of beneficial fatty acids: CLA (conjugated linoleic acid), and Omega 3 and 6 essential fatty acids in an optimal ratio.

It’s some of the best butter I’ve ever tasted. Fortunately, you don’t have to buy it by the case to enjoy it. I stocked up for winter, but apparently the guys at Organic Valley had already thought of that. Although it is only produced for 5 months out of the year they have figured out a way to sell it year-round. Silly me!!!

My appreciation for summer butter comes from my love of nutritious ingredients in general. Knowing my passion for cooking, several of my friends have asked me to post a sample weeks meal plan. This week is nothing fancy. We’re busy scouring our house so that we can put it on the market next week. Here it is:

Monday

Bacon, Mushroom & Cheese Omelette – I know, this is really a breakfast food, but it is super-fast, super-satisfying and suitable for pregnant mommies with food aversions and picky discerning toddlers alike. Our eggs come from local, free-range organic chickens (although we’d like to find eggs from truly “pastured” chickens, we haven’t been able to). The mushrooms are local, too. We’re waiting on our bacon from Paidom Meats and are supplementing with the best available from Whole Foods.

Sides –

Sweet potato fries (fried in coconut oil)

Green Salad

Tuesday

Irish Lamb Stew -  You can find a delicious, frugal version at one of my favorite blogs: The Nourishing Gourmet.

Sides -

Soaked Whole Grain Bread – Made from scratch in our kitchen, this bread is also perfect for double-stacked chicken sandwiches at lunch, PBJ’s (although we use sunflower or cashew butter instead of peanut), and occasionally french toast

Green Salad

Wednesday

Hummus, Falafel and Feta Stuffed Pita’s with Yogurt-Dill Sauce – I’m making the hummus and falafel from scratch this week using Sally Fallon’s recipes. The pita bread is a soaked grain recipe I adapted recipe from The Fresh Loaf. I use yogurt made from goat’s milk to make the dill sauce.

Side –

Green Salad

Thursday

Spaghetti and Meatballs - This recipe comes from another of my favorite blogs, Kitchen Stewardship. I like to use sweet potatoes as the meatball “binder” as it sweetens them a bit. Katie loves them. For a low-gluten pasta option try quinoa pasta or “make” your own pasta using spaghetti squash.

Side -

Green Salad

Friday

Baja Chalupas – I’ll admit, they’re not exactly chalupas. When I make pita bread I double the batch and use the leftovers for chalupa night. We use grass-feed ground beef topped with homemade queso, baja sauce (using homemade mayo), and diced tomato, onion and cilantro.

Sides –

Guacamole

You guessed it!!! Green Salad

Saturday

Beef Stir-Fry – Love this recipe from Whole Foods.

Side –

Wilted Greens with Toasted Sesame Seeds and Mango

Sunday

Kitchen CLOSED!!! – Out searching for restaurants that serve local, organic, or pasture-raised ingredients.

We serve baked apples or cherry clafouti for dessert a few times a week. They’re simple to make, DELICIOUS and naturally sweet! But enough about what’s going on in my kitchen. Please don’t leave without telling me one thing YOU are making this week!

Happy eating!

Last week I wrote about the journey of forgiveness I am on. If anyone is interested, part 3 of Jack’s sermon, “How to Forgive,” is now available here.

I hope ya’ll are having a relaxing Sunday!

I can’t tell you how much time and energy Heather has put into researching different parenting and food related topics. And I don’t WANT to tell you all the weird and embarrassing stories that have resulted from some of her preferences. I don’t want to. But I probably will.

What was initially a bane to me has become a joy. This anti-fast food / anti-restaurant / anti-fun attitude drove me mad for more than a year. But she’s won me over. I’m not even sure how she did it, really. Where I once grumbled and complained and snuck out of the house for supersecret fast food meals (almost nightly), I now have a deep appreciation for her cooking and a calming sense of satisfaction when I see her share these valuable insights with other people.

You see, I had a prophetic understanding of who she was when we married. She was not yet the embodiment of the woman she would become. But I saw her in my mind’s eye. I knew she was destined for many honorable and admirable things she was not yet walking in. While she practically tortured me for more than a year researching and gathering and putting pieces together to better grasp the puzzle of personal health and wholeness, she has become a valuable resource to many people, and a woman I greatly admire.

I wish I could explain the change and how it affects my heart. She was great and I loved her, of course, but she was hidden and obsessed with learning and practicing all these organic, local, grass fed, non-toxic concepts which meant a lot of inconvenience for me.

Tenacious for Truth

I never use the word “tenacious.” But for my wife, I think I’ll make an exception. She has tenaciously pursued knowledge and understanding of which foods are safe, why they are beneficial, and how they need to be prepared in order for the human body to draw out the necessary nutrients. She usually refused to settle for less than what was best for her family, which meant digging deeper and going to greater lengths to provide life giving sustenance to her family.

I want to honor her for the work she put in when no one (and I mean NO ONE) cared or applauded. She pursued her passions when no one was around to give credit, and even I was mostly ungrateful. And I am the beneficiary. Today I have the best physical health I have ever had. My emotional health has seriously improved as well, due partly to vital nutritional supplements my body was aching for that I never knew.

I am blessed to be married to her. She is the most unique woman I’ve ever known. She is worth listening to, and I’m hoping you’ll come around to my point of view.  She practices what she says. I’m excited to see where Mommypotamus.com goes from here. I hope you stick around and talk back the entire time.

I have had Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS) on and off for years. In my early twenties a doctor prescribed me a tranquilizer and I was able to sleep through the night. However, as I became aware of holistic living I cut out the drugs and realized I could control RLS with a Calcium-Magnesium supplement along with some liquid trace minerals. Apparently my RLS was triggered by a magnesium/trace mineral deficiency. By taking these supplements before bed I returned to long, restful nights of sleep. (Where have those been since I became a mom??? But that’s another can of worms . . .)

NOTE: Because taking too much magnesium can deplete calcium levels in the body, it’s best to take them together at a ratio of 2:1. In other words, take twice as much calcium as magnesium.Also, calcium citrate is more easily absorbed by the body than calcium carbonate.

Where was I? Oh yes, restful nights of sleep. Until pregnancy. When I was pregnant with Katie it got REALLY BAD. Cry my eyes out and bang my head on the floor bad. I used to exercise in the middle of the night just to calm the sensations down! It was an absolutely miserable experience. It continued after pregnancy until I found the third magical ingredient that solved the issue for me: iron.

The formula may be different for other RLS sufferers, but I strongly recommend that pregnant women with RLS symptoms give these three supplements a try. The body needs a lot calcium/magnesium, iron and trace minerals to grow a healthy baby and it’s easy to become deficient. Hope this helps someone!

Vibrant woman seeks long-term relationship with restaurants that serve local, organic, and pasture raised ingredients. Will bring wallet and friends for mutually satisfying relationship. If you’re out there. Please contact me.

I LOVE Chipotle. Yes, they make good burritos, but the reason I practically adore them is that they are bringing “Food With Integrity” mainstream. Every time I stand at the Chipotle counter I feel like a good citizen. I am voting with my dollars. I am voting against cheap, edible substances that are NOT REAL FOOD. I am agreeing to pay more for hormone-free, rBGH free and organic products. I wish I could tell every restaurant that if they will stop putting genetically-modified slop on the table that I will come back. But they are not listening to me, so I take my dollars to Chipotle.

A few interesting facts about Chipotle ingredients:

• About 40% of their beans are organic
• All of the pork comes from pigs raised in a humane, ecologically sustainable way
• All the chicken is “naturally raised” (which is NOT the same as pastured chickens but better than what’s served elsewhere)
• More than 50 percent of their beef is naturally raised
• Cheese and sour cream at their restaurants is free of the synthetic growth hormone rBGH

To be blunt, their ingredients wouldn’t pass snuff in my kitchen. We have gone beyond “naturally-raised” chicken to “pastured chicken.” Our dairy is organic and raw if possible, not just hormone-free. But they are taking steps in the right direction, and I can’t help how fall-down slap-happy that makes me. Because  as much as I enjoy cooking, sometimes mommies need a break. And if you think the idea of CAFO meat is revolting (as I certainly do), that leaves you with very limited options.

At least I thought so. Recently people have been sharing their secret haunts with me, whispering things like “Did you know they serve grass-fed beef from Burgundy Pastures?”

No, maam, I did not.

The Game Plan

So, over the next several weeks I will be exploring these culinary gems and sharing my discoveries with you. Restaurants that serve local, organic, or pasture-raised ingredients are not too good to be true!. I hope to get a chance to interview an owner (or better yet a chef!) along the way as well. Are you as excited as I am? Probably not, because I love food and I’m pregnant (and nursing), so that pretty much seals up the excitement trifecta for me. But I hope you are at least a little excited : – )

Check out this video on Chipotle if you haven’t already seen it. Very interesting.

When I got pregnant for the first time I took for granted that we would find out our baby’s gender before the birth. “Why not?” I thought.

The answer to that question came during a routine visit with my chiropractor, who specialized in caring for expecting mothers. As I chattered on about our excitement in “finding out,” she calmly responded “It’s fun to wait, too.”

It’s fun to wait, too? What’s fun about waiting?

I tried to think of something that it is fun to wait for. Nothing.

It bugged me, because in the time I had been under Dr. Cindy’s care I had come to deeply respect her. I knew there was a reason for what she’d said, so I asked her at my next appointment. It was then that I learned there were considerable risks associated with ultrasounds.

Yale Study Links Prenatal Ultrasound to Brain Damage

Physicians should continue to be prudent about the use of ultrasound and perform the study only when medically necessary (emphasis mine) and when benefits outweigh risk, according to the American College of Radiology. The advice comes in the wake of recent findings by Yale researchers that link prenatal ultrasound exposure to brain damage.

During fetal development, neurons of the brain migrate to their correct positions. In a study of 335 mice, the researchers found that exposing pregnant mice to ultrasound waves at frequencies of 6.7 MHz for 30 minutes or more interfered with this normal migration in their fetuses. This interference could potentially result in brain abnormalities such as mental retardation and seizures.

The study has unveiled a risk previously not known, according to Dr. Carol Rumack, head of the American College of Radiology ultrasound commission. The study provides further proof that ultrasound keepsake videos should not be performed and that ultrasound equipment should be used only by qualified people, said Rumack, a professor of pediatrics and radiology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine

The effects on neural migration were the result of direct prolonged exposure of the fetal mouse brain to ultrasound waves. Ultrasound examinations in pregnant women with abdominal pain are targeted to the evaluation of the mother’s abdomen and not to the fetus. Typically, the fetal brain is not exposed or is exposed during very short periods of time during the examination.

In clinical practice, physicians often perform ultrasound for 30 minutes, but they typically move the probe around on the patient. In a quest to find the perfect 3D image of a developing child, however, others might hold the probe down in one spot for longer periods of time, increasing the risk of fetal damage.

The Yale study was performed in mice who were in the equivalent of the human third trimester of pregnancy. Traditionally, concern about performing imaging studies has centered on the first trimester, when basic organs are developing. The mouse study suggests concern in later stages might also be appropriate.

It’s important for the public to remember that the imaging study involves putting ultrasound energy into the fetus, Rumack said.

“One should not use ultrasound as if it were a digital camera,” she said.

But mice aren’t humans!

The most common response I’ve seen to “studies on mice” is: “But those are mice! Mice aren’t people! If I listened to every study about how things affect mice, NOTHING would be safe.” And we often go about our lives, assuming that such studies can’t be taken seriously.

That’s why this article is so important. It describes why we SHOULD pay attention to what studies on mice show, and why mice are the ideal specimen for indicating potential human reactions.

Why should neurodevelopmental defects in rats or other mammals be of concern to expecting women? Because, as Cornell University researchers proved in 2001, brain development proceeds in the same manner “across many mammalian species, including human infants.” The team found “95 neural developmental milestones” that helped them pinpoint the sequence of brain growth events in different species.(15) Therefore, if repeated experiments show that elevated heat caused by ultrasound damages fetal brains in rats and other mammals, one can logically assume that it can harm human brains, too. (3)

I don’t live my life in fear of toxins, BPA, or sonograms. I know that I cannot insulate myself or my family from every risk and I’m not trying to. When I began having contractions during this pregnancy that scared me into thinking I was having a miscarriage I seriously considered having an ultrasound. I wanted to know my baby was alive, and I think that it would have been a perfectly valid decision. But then I started wondering, “If my baby is okay, what have I done by exposing them to a technology that increases their risk of dyslexia, epilepsy, mental retardation, or autism?” (Just to name a few of the conditions studies suggest may be linked.) After praying intensely about the decision, Daniel and I decided not to do it. If we had a perfectly healthy baby we wanted to keep it that way. And if not, a sonogram wouldn’t change it. We would just wait and see.

What can a sonogram really tell us?

The desire to ensure that “baby is okay” can be a powerful motivation to get a sonogram. However, according to research collected by Sarah J Buckley, M.D.:

And while many women are reassured by a normal scan, RPU [routine prenatal sonograms] actually detects only between 17 and 85 percent of the 1 in 50 babies that have major abnormalities at birth. A recent study from Brisbane showed that ultrasound at a major women’s hospital missed around 40 percent of abnormalities, with most of these being difficult or impossible to detect. Major causes of intellectual disability such as cerebral palsy and Down’s syndrome are unlikely to be picked up on a routine scan, as are heart and kidney abnormalities.

There is also the risk of a “false positive,” which causes needless worry for expecting families.

But won’t a sonogram ensure a safer birth? In most cases, no. According to The American College of Obstetricians, women with low-risk pregnancies experience neither a reduction in negative outcomes nor fewer interventions.

In a population of women with low-risk pregnancies, neither a reduction in perinatal morbidity [harm to babies around the time of birth] and mortality nor a lower rate of unnecessary interventions can be expected from routine diagnostic ultrasound. Thus ultrasound should be performed for specific indications in low-risk pregnancy. (4)

Disclaimer:

I REALLY do not judge people that choose to find out the sex or get an ultrasound for medically necessary reasons. A lot of responsible healthcare providers (including my midwife), feel that one sonogram at 20 weeks to determine sex carries a minimal amount of risk. What really concerns me is how doctors and boutique 3D imaging centers are doing multiple scans with long exposure times for no medical reason. Did you know that the March of Dimes organization estimates that birth defects involving the genitals and urinary tract affect “as many as 1 in 10 babies,” adding that “specific causes of most of these conditions is unknown.”(1) Could it be that by repeatedly focusing on that region to determine gender we are causing harm?

What is the true price of a peek? No one knows. UK consumer activist Beverley Beech has called routine prenatal ultrasound “the biggest uncontrolled experiment in history” (2). The FDA has repeatedly warned consumers against non-medical or “keepsake” portrait studios, yet they become more and more popular each year (especially with the introduction of 3D sonograms.)

I don’t want to tell people what to do when it comes to getting a sonogram or not. After all, I don’t want people to tell me where to have my baby! I wrote this post because I was completely ignorant of dangers associated with routine sonograms. I’m glad someone told me, and hopefully someone who reads this will be glad I told them.

For any of you folks I may have offended, I’m sorry. I know we each invest heavily in the choices we make for our children and I do not doubt that their good is our goal.

P.S. All this info applies for Doppler devices, too ; – )

Additional Resources:

Concerns About Ultrasound – Dr. Jennifer Barham-Floreani

Questions about Prenatal Ultrasound and the Alarming Increase in Autism

Ultrasound Scans- cause for concern – Dr. Sarah J Buckley, MD

References:

1. “Genital and Urinary Tract Defects.” March of Dimes. www.marchofdimes.com/printableArticles/4439_1215.asp. Accessed 27 Aug 2006.

2. Beech BL. Ultrasound unsound? Talk at Mercy Hospital, Melbourne, April 1993.

3. Questions about Prenatal Ultrasound and the Alarming Increase in Autism

4. American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. ACOG practice patterns. Routine ultrasound in low-risk pregnancy. Number 5, August 1997. Int J Gynaecol Obstet 1997;59(3):273-8.18

Dear Baby D,

I felt you go “bonk bonk” tonight and thought about how amazing it will be to meet you face to face. I know we’re only thirteen weeks along in this journey, but when a baby goes “bonk” his/her mama knows.

Something I’ve learned as I raise your older sister is that the time goes by fast. Before I know it you will be here. I want to relish every moment with you. I can’t wait to hold you for the very first time. But I am getting ahead of myself. We have six months left to wonder what color your eyes will be, how much hair you will have and whether you will look like me or Daniel (Pick me! Katie looks just like daddy). Oh, and whether you are a boy or a girl. Because, of course, we are going to let you surprise us with that news yourself.

I love you, baby D. Your daddy want to name you Gerbilmiah, but he loves you, too. Trust me.

Stay comfy in there,

Mama

If you’re local to the DFW and  interested in joining a veggie co-op, I highly recommend Monica Brown’s. As a mommy of five, she is VERY passionate about the quality of what she puts on her table and it shows! I love the produce we get from her. There is a lot of standard stuff (lettuce, tomatoes, apples, oranges, etc.) with a few things mixed in that I’ve never tried before. (Like mizula, a delicious asian green that I’d never heard of before Monica sent some home along with a delicious wilted green salad recipe.)

Every other Tuesday is co-op day in our house. This is how it looks when everything arrives. Boxes are produce and paper bags are dry goods like figs, dates, spelt, whole wheat, sucanat, etc.

Katie loves to load everything into the (very clean) sink to be washed.

We order an extra share, which means we have veggies drying on all available flat kitchen surfaces. Occasionally we need the coffee table, too. I love those weeks!