SortaCrunchy

"No Shots, No School!" - Not True! (On Vaccine Exemptions)

As Aliza Joy fast approaches two, I've been working on correcting and updating our delayed vaccination schedule.  I have to admit that as I have re-read Dr. Sears' The Vaccine Book and found new media stories and articles on the topic of vaccination, I've been getting a little worked up on the topic again.

As children across the country head back to school, many states are launching campaigns to remind parents, "No Shots, No School!"  That statement is simply not true.

Every single state offers an exemption policy for vaccinations.  In Mississippi, vaccinations can only be exempted for medical reasons; in the other 49 states, parents may obtain forms for vaccination exemptions due to medical, religious and/or philosophical reasons.

I want to share with you the most current, up-to-date, and easy to navigate source that I have discovered on vaccination exemptions in the U.S. - the National Vaccination Information Center (NVIC) has compiled a map which details state vaccine requirements.  Using this map, parents can quickly see which exemptions are allowed in their state.  Clicking on the state will provide links to further resources applicable to each state.  For years, state vaccine requirement information has been scattered and difficult to navigate.  I am so grateful the NVIC has created a resource for parents and care givers that is clear and concise.  

Parents who are choosing exemptions may also wish to read through Dr. Merola's article "How To Legally Avoid Unwanted Immunizations of All Kinds." 

Remember that the underlying public health philosophy on vaccinations is based on herd immunity.  From the viewpoint of schools and public health officials, it makes sense for each child to be fully immunized.  But parents must also remember that full, on-schedule vaccination is not necessarily the best choice for your child, for your family, for your religious views, for your beliefs.  Neither the CDC nor the AAP nor the State Department of Education holds the responsibility of making the best possible choices for your child - that responsibility belongs solely to each parent. 

Don't be bullied into believing otherwise.

photo by ZaldyImg

Live~Love~Dance - Giveaway!

There's someone I would like to introduce to you today.

Keara and I met four years ago via our mommy message board.  We both had become first time moms in January 2005, we were both moms-at-home, and we soon found out that we share the same birthday!  When we lived in Texas, Keara and I lived close enough to each other that we were able to get together in real life to talk and hang out while our little ones played.  She and her husband are two of the kindest, most generous, loving, wonderful people I know.  I have so many sweet, happy memories of spending time with Keara's sweet family.

Just about two years ago, Miss Keara opened an Etsy shop to sell the handmade tutus she discovered that she loved creating.  Her shop took off right away, but she recently had put the business on hiatus when they added baby number three to the family.  She has opened up again with a fun new addition - glass tile jewelry.

Here is some more from Keara in her own words:

Hi! My name is Keara and I am a wife to my wonderful husband, Joe, and a mother to three beautiful kids. My oldest son is four, my youngest son is two and my daughter will soon be eight months. I definitely have my hands full!

I am most happy when I am creative. I think sometimes as mothers we can lose ourselves in the hustle and bustle of taking care of our families and we forget to do the little things that make us happy. This inspired me to open up my shop, Live Love Dance Boutique. This really makes me set time aside for my creative time. I started out just making custom handmade tutus and I loved it! I really liked the feeling of accomplishment when I would get the feedback of happy customers and see pictures of the tutus on smiling little girls. I took a break when I was pregnant with my little girl and have recently opened my shop back up with my fun glass tile pendents.

I offer both premade pendents with fun images or personalized pendents with names, words, quotes or pictures! Please come by and take a look around. If you do not see a listing for something that you would like, please convo me and we can make a reserve listing just for you!

When she started posting pictures of her creations on Facebook, I knew right away I needed one!  I sent her a favorite picture of the girls, and look what she was able to do:

As you may know, I'm quite the fan of owls.  My sister Emily is too, and so I picked up this sweet little guy just for her:

When Dacey turned three, Keara and her boys came to her birthday party.  Keara gave Dacey a tutu from her shop and it has been one of Dacey's absolute favorite gifts ever!  It has been through two moves and both Dacey and AJ have worn it a lot, and it has held up brilliantly:

This month marked a special milestone for SortaCrunchy - this little ol' blog that I started to talk about cloth diapering and raising babies hit the 500 subscriber mark which just fills my heart with humble gratitude.  To celebrate and honor you sweet readers, I am giving away a photo tile pendant from Keara's Live~Love~Dance Boutique.  All you need to do is pop over to her shop, look around at her lovely creations, and come back and leave a comment telling me if you won, would you pick one of the premade tiles, a custom-worded pendant, or have her create a photo tile for you?  That's it!

Givaway will run from today (August 29th) through Thursday, September 3rd.  Thank you for hanging out here with me, and thank you for shopping handmade and supporting work-at-home-parents!

Jonah & Me

I settle into the sands outside of Nineveh, nestle down into a spot next to Jonah.

Oh, Jonah.  You reluctant prophet.  The one who was birthed back onto dry land on a tide of fish vomit.  You sit outside the great city of Nineveh - newly spared from God's wrath - and you seethe over God's relentless pursuit of you and His relenting hand of compassion and grace.  It's so hard to follow a God who won't behave.

He's been pursuing me, too.  Insisting I do something I absolutely did not want to do.  Relentless pursuit.  I grew weary of running, exhausted with weathering threatened shipwrecks, and tired of the stink of fish guts in my hair.

I broke and I relented and my hot tears splashed on the alter of sacrifice.

And now, weeks later, I'm here.  Side-by-side with Jonah.  It's been a long time since I've been on this side of obedience.  I'd guess not since adolescence has my obedience stemmed from a fear of consequences rather than from a heart that desires to follow Him with reckless and selfless abandon.

"Have you any right to be angry?"

I wrap my arms around my legs and rest my chin on my knees.  The hot wind stings my eyes.  I know I'm being petulant.  I thought things would look different on this side of Nineveh.  There is forgiveness.  There is compassion.  He is slow to anger and abounding in love.  Jonah knew it and so do I.  I thought there would be sweetness and light.  Dancing in a rain shower of gratitude.

My tongue feels thick in my mouth.  Parched.

I realize I'm still clutching the soggy remains of my ticket to Anything But That.  I uncurl my fingers and it flutters away, borne by the scorching wind from the east.  Jonah's unflinching gaze never turns from The City God Spared.  I admire his tenacity; I'm too thirsty to stay much longer.

I'll get up soon.  I'll push myself up off the sand, and soon I'll turn back.

This is from my actual paper and pen journal.  I can't think that I've shared much of that writing here, but I felt like I needed to.  It's vulnerable and I hope it didn't make you too uncomfortable.  It's an explanation of sorts of the past few weeks of relative quiet here.  This is a dry season for me.  And I know you don't expect an explanation, but in one of the most brave and challenging pieces of writing I have read in a long time, Amber wrote, "humility hates a secret."  And isn't that the truth?  And that gave me permission to share, even if my hands shake a bit as I hit Publish.

photo by Rui Ornelas

Status Report - August 2009

Alternate titles for this post:

In which I steal content from Elizabeth yet again

My name is Megan and I love lists

Treading water until I can sit down and write up my thoughts on public schooling, updated vaccination schedules, the bazillion items on my endless gifts entries, and various and sundry other thoughts flitting through my brain these days . . .

First of all, thank you all so much for your generous, kind, and encouraging words on Saturday's post.  I think my friend Robin correctly recognized part of my internal struggles.  It is true that the past few weeks have been full of transition for me.  Not only have I become a public school parent, I've also packed up cloth diapers and realized that after four and a half years of wearing them, the nursing bras are no longer a necessity. 

I don't know if you caught the Slipping From Their Shells post at Simple Kids earlier this month, but that's actually a very accurate description of where I am right now.  This summer has brought some change, and I feel newly emerged and unsteady.  I feel like I need to stretch off the cramp of too-tight skin, but these old joints aren't sure how to bend and extend yet.  My heart wells up, however, in response to your gracious response.  A million thank yous for that.

So, on to the content stealing.  Last week, Elizabeth posted her Status Report, and she borrowed the idea from Lisa.  Isn't this community fun?  I enjoy it.

My Status Report - (nearly the end of) August 2009:

Sitting . . . at the desk in a very quiet house, listening to far away lawn mowers hum while I peck the keys in air conditioned luxury

Drinking . . . diet coke from the can, just like Elizabeth.  O, Constant Companion in the shiny silver can.  I can't quit you.

Moving . . . much better than this time last week!  I cannot even tell you how grateful I am to be WELL this week!

Reflecting . . . a lot.  Always.

Planning . . . AJ's second birthday party which will be not so much birthday party as it will be Football Season Kick-Off Party for our Sunday School class. 

Looking Forward To . . . the county fair this weekend!  Pony rides for the girls, Indian Tacos for me.  (Oh, I guess I can share with them, and perhaps even Kyle, too.  No, he should get his own.)  Animal smells and greasy food.  Does it get any better?

Wanting . . . more than I can afford or justify.  (Amazon cart, I'm looking at you.)

Hoping . . . to lay down some routines on our This Is Our New Normal days.

Regretting . . . that I didn't get the kitchen floor mopped this weekend.  It's an abomination.  And yet, here I sit, mop not in hand . . .

Stressing . . . over the To-Do List that regenerates itself every night whilst I sleep.

Surprised . . . at how much fun AJ is on her own.  Without anyone around to torture or torment, she focuses more energy into just being.  She is such a funny, funny kid.  Absolutely delightful.  I'm truly enjoying time alone with her during the day.

Studying . . . The Parent Adventure.  Kyle and I are facilitating this study at our church this fall.  I like it so far.  (Don't come near me with the word teaching.  We are NOT teaching a parenting class.  Are you kidding me?  No.  Facilitating.)

Frustrated . . . with nothing at the moment.  Kinda nice.

Eager . . . to get a home-based Bible study/book club for moms at home off the ground this week.  I've been praying for such a group from the day we got here!

Enjoying . . . this spot.

Missing . . . my Room of Grace girls.

So.  That's where I am right now!  Thank you again, Elizabeth, for inspiration.  Hope your Mondays are beautiful!

 

SortaWhat? Revisited.

As it is written, "A man cannot serve two masters . . ." so it is true, a mama cannot serve two blogs.

That is to say, I'm struggling, y'all.

I knew it would be challenging to try to run two blogs at once, and I thought I would just work out a posting schedule so that I am working on SortaCrunchy one day and Simple Kids the next.  Ideally, that's what I would do.  Why I haven't put that plan in place yet is utterly beyond me.

Beyond the perpetual time management issues, however, something else has been bothering me.  Over two years ago, I shared about what makes me sorta crunchy.  So many of those things aren't part of my day-to-day life anymore.  No one here is being breastfed, cloth diapered, or worn in baby carriers.  True, I can still speak on natural family planning, public schooling, and vaccinations, but . . . I don't know.  I feel like I am losing part of why I started this blog to begin with.  That's pretty painful to write, but it's true.

Any thoughts to help me walk through this?  What would meet your needs as a reader?  Any specific questions you can ask me to provide some direction?  I'm open to and so appreciative of any thoughts you have for me.

Thanks, friends.  Have a gorgeous weekend wherever you are!

picture by Etwood

12 books that changed the way I . . .

(I'm not going to say that I think we are on the tail-end of this crud because I live in fear of The Jinx.  But if I were not the type to live in fear of The Jinx, then I might make mention that we are kinda sorta feeling better here.)

I saw this idea at Elizabeth's today, and she was inspired by Melissa, and I do believe I'll play, too.

(I've got a post brewing on why we have chosen public school, but I'm gonna need another shot of bold before I share that one.)

So here we go - your daily dose of narcissism, a la Megan. 

12 books that have changed the way I. . .

think about marriage: Sacred Marriage

understand my husband: For Women Only

think about politics: Jesus for President

appreciate Christian spirituality and the personal essay: Blue Like Jazz and Cold Tangerines

view the writing process: Bird by Bird and Walking on Water

take pictures of my family: Photographing Your Family (bad title, great book)

mother: The Baby Book and Free Range Kids (and if you think those two books are on opposite ends of the parenting spectrum, then you might be misunderstanding what attachment parenting is)

go about my daily work: The Quotidian Mysteries and the creative family

Goodness, me.  I could go and on.  I didn't even get to vaccines or birth control!  But I'll stop here.

Tell me about a book (or books) that changed you!  Leave a comment or write up a post of your own and share the link here.

OH! Speaking of comments.  I hear tell that comments here were a little wonky again yesterday.  I don't know why, but sometimes Typepad comments just act up.  It's my one and only complaint about this platform.  Boo.  Anyway, what sometimes works is if you will refresh the page a few times, the "post" and "preview" buttons should go from unclickable to clickable.  Someone please tell me if they are still being weird, m'kay?

some faves of mine - websites

Last Friday in her weekly Friday Faves series, Missy (It's Almost Naptime) asked about favorite websites.

Clearly the ship has done sailed on me participating on time like a normal, healthy, non-feverish person, but because I am in desperate need of talking about anything besides this stupid sickness (uh-uh!  We do not say "stupid" in this house, Mommy!), I thought I might take a minute to share some places on the web I've been known to frequent (or stalk, I suppose, depending on how you look at it).

Like Miss, almost all of my time online is spent in one of three ways - checking/responding to email, Facebook, and blog reading.

However.

I have been known to venture out and spend precious time when I could be treating stains or wiping down the "little potty" (again) (blech) at

Pandora - love, love, love this free internet radio site.  If you aren't familiar with Pandora, here's how it works - you create your own radio stations based on a song or an artist you like.  It picks and plays music based on your preferences.  I have stations that range from Patty Griffin (of course) to George Strait to The Doors to They Might Be Giants.  I think you can create up to 100 stations; I have fourteen and that's more than enough to keep me happy.  Love it.

Amazon - I can spend hours reading about books  at Amazon, just like I used to spend hours ogling and caressing books in the brick-and-mortar bookstore of olde.  I have over $800 in books in my cart, books that I would love to welcome in to our home library, if only I had $800 and time to read them all.  

Message Boards - this is where the majority of my non-email, non-bloggy, non-Facebook time is spent, and as you can imagine, it's not nearly as much as it used to be.  Not nearly.  But I love message boards for the information and sense of community they provide.  My first ever message board was the discussion board at Weight Watchers.com, and a few years later when I got pregnant with Dacey, I discovered the Babycenter birth club boards.  These days my message boards are limited to

• private mommy board - a spin-off of our Babycenter birth club.  Love, love, love these mamas and their little ones.  If it weren't for them, there would be no SortaCrunchy!
• MotheringDotCommunity - the message boards affiliated with Mothering magazine.  True, the culture there can, at times, be a little . . . oh . . . what's the word?  Superior?  Maybe.  But it's also extremely helpful, supportive, helpful, informative, helpful, challenging, and helpful.  I've learned a lot from the women at MDC who are far, far more advanced in crunchiness than I will ever be.
• Gentle Christian Mothers - last month, I was thrilled to finally get an actual membership at GCM.  Board registration is only open every few months, and I kept missing registration periods.  This message board is a beautiful blend of the alternative living approaches that I love about MDC and Christian love and encouragement.  Long before I had an official membership there, I've read the public forums for information on a variety of topics.  Love this place.  

So that's about it as far as websites go for me.  I would love to hear from you!  What are some of your favorite non-bloggy, non-email, non-Facebook websites?  Please give me something to think about besides feverish children and laryngitis.

photo by scottfeldstein

From the Archives: Oil Cleansing Method

I'm still here.  Sorta.  We have bit hit hard with a case of the Back to School Plague.  The girls and I have been all kinds of feverish and coughish and sore throatish since Thursday.  I start each day thinking we are well on our way to recovery, but alas.  Sickness abounds.

Seems like a great day for re-running an older SortaCrunchy article - some hows and whys of the Oil Cleansing Method, highlighted from a post originally run on May 7, 2008:

. . .  it was actually my husband who persuaded me to try this method of facial cleansing.  I'll bet you didn't know that football coaches can also be into natural living and good skin care, huh?  Well, there's a lot about football coaches that might surprise you!  Anyway, he came across this method and thought it made sense - the idea being that most facial cleansers create two damaging situations for your skin: 1) they remove the body's natural oils from the skin causing it to overproduce oil to compensate for the oil that was washed away, and 2) many include ingredients like fragrances that irritate the now vulnerable skin.

I'll let you read the article to learn more, but for now I want to address some specific questions that were posed to me:

1) How often should you use OCM?

Personally, I do an OCM treatment on my face every other or night, maybe every two nights.  It's important to note that I use bareMinerals make-up and feel no need to wash this off my face at night.  Maybe I should, but I don't, and I don't have any problems with break-outs or build-up.  The Coach does a treatment about three times a week or so. 

My sister has begun to use OCM to cleanse her face, too, and she does it about five nights a week.  She wears traditional (non-mineral) make-up and on the nights she doesn't do OCM, she uses her trusty Clinique face wash.

2) What kind of skin types can use the OCM?

I would guess any skin type.  I have combination dry/oily in the T-zone skin and it works great for me.  My sister's skin tends to be more oily than dry, and she has found great success with this method, too.

3) My skin feels dry after I use the OCM.  Why?

It's possible you are using too much castor oil.  The castor oil is the part of the system that actually carries dirt, make-up, impurities, etc., away from your skin.  Too much can be drying.  If you find your skin is too dry, try changing up the proportions in your oil mixture.  Instead of one part CO to three parts of your nourishing oil (we use EVOO), try one part CO to four parts or five parts nourishing oil.

4) Do you still use moisturizer?

I think you'll find if you do an OCM treatment at night, you don't need to put on a moisturizer before bed.  I still put on just a tad in the mornings after I shower if I have dry patches on my face.

5) Have you had any break-outs since you started the OCM?

Actually, no.  When my hormone levels fluctuate with each cycle, I might have a blemish or two pop up (blemish . . . I'm terribly proper, aren't I?), but other than that, my skin is really quite clear.  And sometimes even glowy.  (Or maybe that's the minerals talking.)

If you want to read more, here's a few articles I can suggest in addition to the one I linked to above:

Cleaning Up With Oil: The Oil Cleansing Method
Suite 101.com: The Oil Cleansing Method
Aisha Wood: OCM - The Oil Cleansing Method

Comments on the original posts are now closed, but I'm always happy to discuss the logistics of OCM!

Wordless Wednesday: there goes my baby

PerPoTues: haiku

Faithful watering
Nurtured soil. Bud bursts forth, blaze.
Brilliant life unfurls.

This is my entry for this month's PerPoTues (Perfectly Poetical Tuesday) at Little Stuff of Life.

Last April, Dacey and I planted sunflower seeds in the most sun-soaked spot we could find.  We watered and worried and watered and worried.  Finally, tender green shoots grew into mighty stalks, but the buds were so slow to appear.  The one above was the only one that really lived up to its blooming potential.  I'm so glad I snapped a few shots of it when I did, because it was only a matter of days before it drooped and died.

As we bustle around making last minute preparations for tomorrow's First Day of School, my mind is adrift in metaphor, pondering this little bud over whom I've watered and worried and watered and worried.  Keeping the camera close at hand . . .