Milk and Motherhood: October 2022

 

What I'm learning

To be honest, now that our breastfeeding course is finished and launched, my learning brain is on a bit of a hiatus. What I'm needing to re-learn is patience and presence as launch winds down and I don't need to be spending as much time on social media promoting it. (That being said, the launce sale ends tonight at midnight if you meant to snag it at 30% offand haven't done so yet).

What I'm reading

In fiction, sorry not sorry I'm still working my way through all the Jenny Colgan books I can get my hands on via the library. What can I say? When I find something I like, I'm all in! I mostly read before bed and these are perfect because they are long, have a great sense of place, and they aren't scary or suspenseful. Many of them also involve people eating yummy food, which is a plus! The one I most recently finished was Welcome to Rosie Hopkins' Sweetshop of Dreams.

In non-fiction, I just started M is for Mama! I literally JUST started it, though, so I don't have much to say except that, well, the author has A LOT of kids.

What I'm listening to

Organic Olivia started a podcast in 2020 and she just came out with an episode called, "So You're Thinking About Having a Baby" and it was fun to listen to her venture into a new area of learning. Of course, there were some breastfeeding inaccuracies in the episode since the guest is a mom and acupuncturist, but not a lactation consultant, so be warned your nipples do NOT just have to "burn" during feedings for a month until your baby "just figures it out." I reached out and told her I'd love to do an episode called, "So You Had the Baby... Now What?" ;-)

Also, the Freely Rooted podcast had a PHENOMENAL episode on femininity this past week with two fantastic guests. I learned so much and it made me more passionate than ever about presenting an appropriate and Godly model of femininity for my daughter to grow up with so she's not looking to the world to tell her what it means to be a woman.

What I'm cooking

The baby's allergies mean I can't eat chicken, eggs, and dairy among other things and I'm getting pretty tired of turkey, beef, and pork. I ordered some other things from US Wellness Meats last week to add some variety. I'm most excited for the duck drumsticks... I miss roasted bone-in chicken so much! I also got some lamb sausage, liverwurst, and beef bone marrow.

What I'm feeding my kids

Now that my oldest two are past toddler and preschool ages, it's fun to see persistence pay off when it comes to putting food in front of them and letting them try it. They will try most things, and I'm super grateful. Today I made a braunschweiger (a type of liverwurst) dip and added it to a little snack plate with homemade crackers, raw A2 cheese, apple, and this dip. My daugher tried two crackers-full and my son kept going. It was an effort not to make a bit deal about how excited I was, lest I freak them out and make them wonder why it's such a big deal. Even the 10 month old ate a few bites of braunschweiger. The recipe for the dip is here!

If you want to be a little lower-key about sneaking in organ meats, Force of Nature ancestral blends are the easiest way to do this. We use them at least once a week. Especially when it's in something like tacos or spaghetti sauce, I swear you can't taste anything different. You can use this link for $15 off your first order if you want to try it!

POSTSCRIPT: 

Our Nourished Beginnings breastfeeding and postpartum course launched last week and it's been SO FUN seeing what the launch team things of it and seeing you all purchase it. I'm SO excited to start getting feedback from mamas-to-be who are taking the course, once they have their babies. If this is you, reply to this email and let me know what you think of the course material so far!