Jammin for Isabelle

  

Please click here to go to our fundraiser page

 
Hi everyone, we have decided to do it. We are selling jam as a fundraiser to raise donations for the Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation.  Now I don’t mean to toot my own (well my husband’s) horn, but this jam is delicious.  As I write this I am dreaming of using the apple cranberry jam as cranberry sauce this year.  And the blackberry sage would taste so good with venison. And the spiced plum … Well just by the spoonful that one is so good. but probably on a charcuterie board would be amaze-balls.  Anyway I guess I can’t eat all our jars of blood sweat and tears since that wouldn’t help anyone, least of all my waistline.  But maybe that would give you some tasty ideas.  These jams would make great Christmas presents, or of course you can hoard it for yourself too! 

For a donation of $9 dollars you can choose  a flavour of your choice, and for $25 dollars we will give you all three.  We hope that you will also feel generous to give a little bit more as well.  In Calgary, I will deliver.  Edmontonian and Vancouverites, I will try to arrange something if there is enough interest.  The rest of the world, sorry it’s too hard to ship.  We would love to receive a donation none the less!  Please click on the fundraiser page for more details.

Please support our fundraiser.  We owe the Children’s Hospital a lot.  It was our home away from home for a little less than a month, and even now we see 3 different clinics there on a regular basis.  Please help us keep the children’s hospital a world class facility. I know we can’t all be PK Subban but we can all do our little part. Lots of love and thanks in advance for your support! 

Weekly gratitude review

when my husband became a citizen he got a unique perk of getting free admission to various attractions and parks across Canada for a year.  We didn’t get a chance to use it for the first half of the year because we were just a bit busy and then frankly we forgot. But this summer we have used it at the Dinosaur museum and today we went to one of my favourite Calgary attractions: Heritage Park.

Addison made ice cream!  

 
Addison rode a boat!  

Addison rode a train!  
 
We also saw a bonus dragon boat race! In summary, great day.  For free. Win! 

Giving Back and being proud of your accomplishments

Where are you taking my milk mommy?

Last week I had the opportunity to go to Calgary Mothers’ Milk Bank and donated 11 L of milk.  While there I got to see the pasteurization process and meet the awesome ladies running the place.  Calgary Mothers’ Milk Bank is an amazing organization, accepting milk from western Canada for pasteurization and processing and then sending to babies in need back out to hospitals in western Canada.  They work hard to provide the most vulnerable babies with the best possible nutrition when their mothers cannot.  I am very proud that I can do my little part for this very worthy charity.

The milk that I have stored at home represents 4 months of hard work and struggle.  From the moment Isabelle was born I started pumping.  Each bottle of milk represents the heartache of not being able to feed my baby when she was born and the physical aches inflicted on my body.  They represent all the weird wardrobe malfunctions.  One day I pumped behind a curtain in my underwear because the dress I chose could not accommodate my pump.   I wore sports bras with holes over the nipples for 4 months. Not a sexy look, let me tell you.

 Snappies from our NICU pumping sessions

After we got home, each pumped bag represents the constant fight with my darling baby to try to give her fortified breast milk.  It represents all our struggles with trying to help Isabelle gain weight. I spent all my spare time sitting with my pump.  No shower was taken out of enjoyment but always out of trying to ensure I don’t get blocked ducts or mastitis. The constant change of routine meant that my boobs never felt settled.  No, there aren’t any chickens or beef under there.  Just more milk.

Four months of pumping while also feeding and taking care of an infant first at the NICU and then at home was so tough.  It was so frustrating when Isabelle rejected her bottles but also a relief when we finally gave up.  Finally deciding to bring the milk into the bank meant that we had produced more milk than Izzy will use in a year.   This hard work gave me an amazing opportunity to do a small part for vulnerable babies.  

A while ago I took a women in engineering workshop about self promotion.  One subject that really resonated with me was how women are really bad at accepting compliments.  For example when the boss says “good work on the project” a women is apt to respond “oh it was more the team than anything I contributed”.  I am particularly guilty of this.  I am terrible at accepting a compliment or gratitude.  I actually blush and stammer and say all the wrong things.  Often when I get a compliment or someone thanks me, I make a self deprecating joke or change the subject.  Even when a friend says thank you for something I did I often will say “oh it was nothing” rather than just “you’re welcome”. When I was at the milk bank and the ladies were thanking me for bringing the milk, I just brushed it off:”oh, Isabelle rejected the bottle anyway” as if it wasn’t an epic triumph that I had a huge store of breast milk at home.  

It actually took me some time to even decide to write this post because it felt like I was being a braggart, or that by writing this I might make mothers who had trouble pumping or producing milk feel bad.  It also felt like nothing really to be proud of because to be fair we were pumping with the intentions of feeding all the milk to Isabelle.  She just had different ideas.  But as a mom, and as as a woman, I need to stand proud of my accomplishments.  There are so many reasons for it. Women need to promote themselves so that the world has a better understanding of what we are capable of.  Women need to promote the causes that they support so that others gain awareness.  Women need to provide a good role model for their daughters so that they know they can achieve great things, and to their sons so they know their peers of an opposite gender are just as capable. There should be no shame in doing an awesome job.  We should all support each other’s achievements, or at the very least be proud of our own.

So I wrote this post. I am letting you all know I did this great thing and I am proud of myself and the hard work I put into this. And that even though it was tough because it felt a bit like a failure to admit that I won’t be giving this milk to our own daughter, it felt so amazing to help these vulnerable babies. And you know what, it feels pretty awesome to write about it too.

Weekly gratitude review – indoors

I am grateful for the great indoors, the only place safe from the Mosquitos.  I’m using anti itch cream as if it were a moisturizer.  I have bites on top of bites from being outside for 10 minutes. Bug spray doesn’t work, anti itch cream doesn’t work. 

Not to mention the storms. Two hailstorms in two days.  Our garden has been completely destroyed.   Our greenhouse doesn’t have a roof now. Being outside means looking over my shoulder to make sure the next big storm isn’t coming.

   
And then when it’s not a storm it’s the heat. So hot. Having a 10 lb baby strapped to me is unbareable.  

So here’s to the indoors.  The wonderful, climate controlled, bug controlled indoors.  And TV. Here’s to TV.

Weekly gratitude review – yyc festivals

Awesome photo booth at Market Collective

When I first moved from Edmonton to Calgary I looked down my nose at the yyc festival scene.  Edmonton had the best festivals and for years I would go back for Heritage Days, And Fring Festival.  I couldn’t stop comparing. The year I went to Calgary’s Heritage Festival and saw only about 10 tents, one with a sign labelled “asian food” I decided to write festivals all Festivals in Calgary off altogether.

Fast forward to 2 kids and a dog later and I finally have come to appreciate the way Calgary holds a festival.  On any given weekend, there are more than just one festival.  Some larger like Galorie Calorie art walk and party in Inglewood, Beakerhead or Lilac Festival in Mission others are smaller like Greek Festival or Turkish Festival. All these festivals big or small are put on by passionate Calgarians wanting to highlight their unique neighbourhood/culture/artwork/whatever.  All festivals have really great food and entertainment.  This weekend we went to Market Collective (ok not quite a festival, more like a local artist market with amazing food and live music) and the Turkish Festival.  We missed Wings over Springbank and Fiestaval.  Unlike Edmonton, the events are not huge affairs, so you can partake in a festival or two over the weekend, You can also pick or choose what you want to do.  Also with young kids, attention spans are short so these smaller festivals are perfect.  By the time Addison has had enough, we were onto the next.  Finally because the festivals are smaller affairs I never have the panicked feeling of missing out on food I want to try, things I want to see. We can go to many different festivals through the summer and I get to have a sampling of many different foods and culture. As our roots grow here I find myself enjoying this place more and more.

I was going to list out our favorite festivals here but it’s too hard, we love them all.  Well I still haven’t gone back for “asian food”.  Anyway instead here is a really good website with the festivals listed and description of them all. Happy festival hopping everyone!