Midwifery 101 with Gloria Lemay

I’ve been sitting in on Gloria Lemay’s Midwifery 101 classes, which are a great intro course into midwifery, and joy of joys, she’s announced another series of the same classes starting in January, at a time suitable for those in the European, African, Asian and Australian time zones.

Check it out HERE. The classes are weekly for 20 weeks, starting on the 24th of January, until the 6th of June 2011, and unbelievable value at $140, I highly recommend anyone interested in birthwork to join; students, midwives, doulas, pregnant mamas.

Proceeds from the class are going to support the current legal challenge to birth rights led by Lisa Barrett

Presents!

At Littletree’s request, we had a sort of Christmas celebration here… though we did it in honour of Mithras.

Since we now live in a village with established friends and neighbours, Littletree had accumulated a hefty stash of presents under her “tree” (well, I think compared to the average Christmas-celebrating Aussie family, it was pretty minimal, but for us it seemed huge).

I think there was about a dozen presents, though admittedly four of them were from me ;) Littletree was hugely impressed, especially considering the only time she’s ever gotten Christmas presents before was two years ago, when she got two presents (last year we managed to avoid the whole affair by being at the World Rainbow Gathering in New Zealand).

Littletree’s Christmas wish list contained: a photo album; a yacht; a trip to India; and funky t-shirts. We already got her some t-shirts at the op shop last week, and we’re going to India next year… a yacht was out of my budget, so I got her a photo album, and a gift card to have photos developed. She was so happy to get that! I also got her a small box of her favourite chocolates and a coconut

Her godmother sent a chemistry set

 

Our neighbour gave Littletree a Ganesha colouring book

A friend from rainbow sent us all little hanging decorations made from origami cranes

And she also got a few assorted trinkets from her friends in the neighbourhood.

I even got a present! The ever-gorgeous Lady Demelza sent down a magical box full of goodies, including this awesome bumper sticker for me:

Women & midwives united – PEACE AT BIRTH – PEACE ON EARTH – bringing honour & trust back to birth

An excellent sentiment :) Merry Season to everyone!

Hand Made Presents

Being that we live in Australia now, and I’m all for participating in the local culture, customs and traditions of wherever we happen to be, I decided to give a few of our friends and neighbours Christmas presents this year.

Of course, I’m still me, so rather than going to buy random stuff to wrap up, I made special batches of my organic chocolate truffles in various flavours – the new favourite is Chilli-Citrus.

I folded some origami gift boxes - little-known fact about me: I did four years of Japanese in school, but I can’t remember more than a few words and phrases. I do, however, remember how to make origami gift boxes.

The end result was fantastic; a cheap and easy way to create beautiful, effective gifts… and the best part; even better than being home-made, nourishing, organic treats… they’re DELICIOUS!

Mmmmmmmm!

Village Christmas

It’s that time of year again, and we went to the village Christmas picnic, which was really lovely

We hung out with our friends, and sang carols, and ate yummy food while the kids all ran around

“Santa” came on the village fire truck again, for those who remember last year, when Littletree was too polite and well-mannered to push, and therefore missed out on getting a treat from Father Christmas, this year she learned to push her way to the front and make herself known to the jolly red-suited fellow and emerged from the throng triumphant.

Not sure if it’s a good thing or a bad thing, but she did share her well-won booty with some other kids, because despite really wanting to get something from “Santa”, Littetree isn’t really all that into gratuitous candy consumption.

We ended the evening like just about every gathering in the village; with a bunch of friends jamming and making great music

I got my iPad!

The Apple iPad I won in the Nuffnang blogger challenge arrived!

   

It was very exciting to get it finally, though being Apple, opening up the box was no big deal and the instructions were somewhat non-existent

I did work out how it works (mostly)

I’ve been having lots of fun playing with the various Apps =D

And Littletree is enjoying it too!

So a big thanks to Nuffnang for hosting the competition!

Luscious Visits

*for some reason, this post didn’t go through last week when I sent it originally, so I’m re-posting*

We’ve had such a steady stream of friends, visitors, houseguests, couch surfers and random hippie folk staying at our house since we got back from the last Australian Rainbow Gathering!

Last weekend we had Luscious over to stay with A, her 2 year old boy, which was great, we even got to celebrate her birthday! (Naturally I made some decadent yummies)

It was great to get to connect, and share life in our village

 

and share hanging out by the Laundromat while we dried laundry, since it rained about the whole time they were here

Though we didn’t get to do all that much since I came down with a yucky head cold and spent half their visit in bed feeling miserable.

At least A had lots of fun with Littletree’s rollerskates

Fun times!

Happy Hannukah

*for some reason, this post didn’t go through last week when I sent it originally, so I’m re-posting*

A Short photo-essay of Hannukah 2010

As far as holidays go, it’s really not all that big of a deal, but it is nice to light the candles and sing a little song every evening, and to feel part of a tradition.

Midwifery Monday

I started hosting morning teas for my clients and any pregnant women or new mums in the area to get together and have a birthing-focussed women’s circle.

It’s been really lovely to sit with women and have a natter, and very convenient for me when I have 4 clients all approaching due – this way I get to see them all at once, rather than seeing each one individually every week, and I can answer everyone’s questions at the same time, rather than repeating myself over and over. Even better, the mamas all talk amongst themselves too, so they get to share and connect with each other.

Its great for the mamas who’ve already had their baby to share with the pregnant mamas, and for everyone to be able to talk about their experience, and know they’re not alone. And we all get to fawn over the cute babies, and I get to see them as they grow.

I’ve also been listening in on Gloria Lemay’s new online Midwifery Classes, which are awesome – I highly recommend them to anyone interested in midwifery or birthwork, they’re incredibly affordable and open to anyone. Check it out HERE.