Livin' the Good Life

Steve staged some portrait sessions over Christmas, and here were some of my favorites:
The guys clowning

Could anyone use a family therapist? Here’s your man!

And his wife-to-be, Reanna

The “expecting” couple

The newlyweds

I took this promotional shot of Steve

And our latest Shadow Mountain Band photo

Other than resolving to improve my health this year by 1) raising my average body temperature by one degree and 2) conquering my chronic cough, I have one other goal that means big changes for me. I am retiring as a Bradley teacher. I have no particular problems with the Bradley Method founders. They have set up an excellent and thorough method that leaves no stone unturned when it comes to preparing couples to give birth naturally. I highly recommend it to anyone who is having a hospital birth. But, my heart is just not there for hospital births. I’ve been trying for 17 years to improve the hospital experience for couples wishing to have the most natural experience possible, but, with today’s medical climate, it’s getting harder and harder to do. The docs fear lawsuits, and rightly so, and do everything they can to protect themselves. Unfortunately, this is not in the best interests of pregnant couples. Every bit of technology and every possible test is used on moms-to-be in order to detect potential problems with the baby or the birth, which ends up making births over-medicalized and cloaked in fear. Innocent babies are routinely exposed to potentially harmful drugs in the majority of births, and we still don’t know what the long-term effects might be.
So my big news is that I will now be teaching natural childbirth for homebirthing couples ONLY. (It feels so good to say that!) I will no longer be affiliated with the Bradley Method. I’m not sure how I’m going to proceed, but I’m figuring that out now. I’m looking into other methods and teaching programs. But, the bottom line is, I will not be supporting hospital births anymore. I know that some people feel they must have them, or are told they must, but, I’m not one of them. Hospital births are perfect for the few that really need them. And there are plenty of childbirth preparation classes out there to teach these people how to navigate the hospital birth experience. I am just no longer one of them. It will feel really good to finally be putting my energy into something I wholly believe in.

So, how are these two posture improvement methods different? There are many ways, actually, but here is what I see as the fundamental difference: Egoscue requires exercises and Gokhale doesn’t. Egoscue’s exercises are aimed at the origins of pain in your body and in relieving that pain. Once pain relief is attained, you start doing general exercises to perfect and then maintain your new posture. The Egoscue Method is time-consuming. Gokhale’s method, on the other hand, takes no time. She just teaches you how to sit, rise, stand, walk, bend over and sleep while maintaining impeccable posture. While I sit at this computer, my body is in good alignment. I’m in the process of “working on” my posture while sitting here typing. When I lie down, I get myself in a position that encourages and supports ideal waking posture. I’m actually improving my posture while I sleep. I love that!
I believe that both methods have merit, and I plan to use them in conjunction with each other in addressing many physical problems I’ve had. I look forward to this process.

My number one New Year’s goal for 2011 is to completely perfect my posture. I plan to do it with a combination of the Egoscue method and a new method I’ve discovered that I think will be complimentary from the book, EIGHT STEPS TO A PAIN-FREE BACK, by Esther Gokhale. It’s simply the most fascinating and thorough book on posture ever! It’s a “can’t put it down” kind of book, full of incredibly illuminating and useful picures. I know it will take time to make this change permanent, but I think a year should do it, and I am determined to see it through.
This is not my only goal for this year, but it definitely feels like my most pressing one. I’ll keep my readers posted as to how it’s going and post pictures at the end of the year.

Here are the new ornaments we just made for next year’s tree.
Left to right: pregnant Maya’s belly, my Nana Honey ornament, a chemistry beaker (another Maya contribution), Gabe surfing, Reanna’s “running shoes”, Damian’s bass. (Nathen’s ornament wasn’t ready when I took this picture, but it was a computer screen with Reanna’s face on it, like they were skyping.)

I got the best present!

It’s been nice having more female energy around this house. (Even our cats are males.) Here’s beautiful Reanna, Nate’s intended.

And sweet Maya with her pregnancy mug

more to come…

I love my family!!
They are all such unique and interesting people. I could listen to them for hours and not get tired of the conversations. I could watch their antics all day and still be laughing and smiling. Our celebrating officially began on Christmas afternoon when Ely and Christina arrived. Dinner was almost ready and everyone pitched in on last-minute preparations:

Cutting the turkey:

Me enjoying the energy of “the marrieds” in our family during present opening. Aren’t they cute?

Wondering what we were doing here? It was kind of like a bell choir, only we did it with whistles. Not very good whistles either. Ben is directing us. It was good for a laugh!

More to come….

For those who would like to see more of the Advent ceremony I held at my house a couple of weeks ago, I’d like to direct you to my friend Jeannie’s blog entry for Dec. 23: http://www.womantalk.org/ because she did an admirable job of describing and recording it for me. Thank you, Jeannie!!

Maya is now entering her fourth month of pregnancy. The nausea is subsiding. The fun is beginning… we are all “expecting” in our own ways.

Here is our beautiful Maya. I love the gleam in her eyes!