Jenn Clark

Some posts from jennryan / Jenn Clark.

Colors of the rainbow

Saturday, February 19th, 2011

Along with reading at least one book a month, I’ve also carried over trying to finish one craft project a month from last year’s goals. A friend I’ve had since middle school (that’s almost 20 years!) just had her first baby and I wanted to crochet them a blanket. I’ve only ever completed a few blankets and most of those were with a ripple pattern. This time I wanted to try something new.

I taught myself to crochet on the Internet, so it’s where I find almost all the patterns I use. I tend to find a lot of patterns through Lion Brand Yarn’s site. While scrolling through their free crochet patterns for baby blankets I came across this one. I loved the big stripes and the nice detail that the eyelets produced. And it looked like it would go pretty fast.

Around this time we also got the kids the They Might Be Giant’s Here Comes Science cd/dvd. They have one song about the colors of the rainbow using the acronym ROYGBIV. In their song Roy G. Biv is an elf at the end of the rainbow. The video is awesome and it’s quickly become one of our favorite songs.

Harper went to the craft store with me to pick out yarn colors for the baby blanket and we decided that it should become a Roy G. Biv blanket. I try to only buy yarn now with no acrylic. Fortunately one brand was 100% wool, affordable and carried all the colors of the rainbow. One ball makes up each color stripe. This particular yarn was a little bit short so I changed the pattern slightly- instead of nine rows per color I did seven. It crocheted up really fast and the zigzag pattern that connected each panel made me rethink my avoidance of stitching together panels or squares.

Tags: blanket, colorful
Posted in Crafting, Crochet | 3 Comments »

Baby catcher

Monday, February 14th, 2011

Today I finished a wonderful book chronicling a midwife’s career catching babies. Baby Catcher by Peggy Vincent is a memoir based on 40 years of delivering babies. The book begins with the story of a patient in a hospital who wanted to deliver naturally. She did not want to sit quietly in her bed. She wanted to walk around to help labor progress and make noise to help deal with the pain. In the end this young woman was strapped down and forcibly knocked out. Witnessing that experience as a nursing student set Vincent on a new course in life.

In the 70′s Vincent still worked as an OB nurse in a hospital. She remembers an exchange she had with a doctor uncomfortable with the new alternative birth center the hospital just opened.

“‘What am I supposed to do in there?’ he asked.
I smiled. ‘Nothing. She’s doing fine. Just catch the baby.’
‘The hell with that. I didn’t go to medical school to do nothing at a birth.’
‘But if the birth is normal, then what’s there to do?’
‘Normal birth is a retrospective diagnosis,’ he said. ‘No birth is normal until after the fact. All births are complicated until proven otherwise.’”

Here lies the great separation between doctors and midwives. Most doctors treat pregnancy as a medical condition and midwives treat pregnancy as a normal part of life. In the book there are a handful of doctors that support midwives and the idea that as long as the pregnancy is low risk a woman does not have/need to deliver in a hospital. But for the most part that is something that the doctors could not grasp, and often still can’t.

Eventually Vincent becomes a certified midwife with her own practice and delivers thousands of babies at home. The book chronicles of some of those birth stories. Vincent delivered babies to people from all walks of life – hippies, corporate professionals, Muslims, Christian Scientists, nurses, suburbanites, and teenagers. Some of the stories will make you laugh out loud. Some of the stories are heartbreaking. And some of the stories are inspirational.

Throughout the book Vincent discusses the ongoing difficulties midwives face in the United States. Our country is medically advanced in so many way, yet our approach to labor and delivery is not one of them. We teeter back and forth in supporting midwives and home birth and then saying that hospitals and doctors are the only “right” way to deliver babies. Midwives get the support of hospitals and insurance carries and then are dropped. Last year New York midwives lost their rights to deliver babies at home because the only hospital in the city that backed them (a legal requirement since 1992) went bankrupt.

Personally I know very few woman who have either delivered naturally in a hospital or used a midwife at home or in a stand alone birth center. Decades of women were brought up to think labor is a medical condition that can only be handled in a hospital with drugs. But in reality most births are normal. Our bodies were created to give birth.

Baby Catcher embraces that truth. Vincent shows us that birth is natural and emotional and miraculous. When women are allowed and encouraged to labor naturally they not only end up with a baby, but with a better understanding of who they are and what they can accomplish. I delivered all three of my children naturally in a birth center and reading this book excites me that in three short months I will be there again.

Tags: babies, delivery, labor, midwife
Posted in Life | 3 Comments »

The Maine thing

Friday, September 17th, 2010

I’m back from Maine! The weekend was a lot of fun and the weather was very cool. At night it was even cold. Seeing Meghan was lots of fun and we explored Maine’s coast – at least the surrounding areas of Waldoboro. Meghan’s staying on a farm so I got to experience farming life… in the easiest sense. She showed me all the animals (and there were lots!), we gave water to the pigs one day and collected a few eggs from the chicken another day. I did not become a farmer by any means, but instead got to have all the animals around me and very little work.

The coast is so different than Florida’s coast and basically perfect for my tastes. I’ve always said how I wished the beach didn’t have sand. In Maine there are rocks and not much sand. Perfection. We visited Pemaquid lighthouse and sat on the rocks watching the water. We went to the top of Mount Battie – by car. The hike was 25 miles and we only had about 30 minutes. We visited cute little towns like Camden and Boothbay Harbor which made me so thankful that we live in a cute little town too. (Though Sanford’s stores are not nearly as cute.)

One of the neatest experiences was going out on the water. We went out on a lobster boat one evening with the church Meghan’s been going to up there. A couple times a year the church meets up with another coastal church in the water. Four big lobster boats and one smaller one met up way out in the bay. They all tied together and then we spent some time in worship. As the sun set the air turned cold. It was so beautiful and such a wonderful way to reflect on God’s majesty. From the boats we could see some seals a further out toward the sea. The trip back to the docks left Meghan and I with chattering teeth. The lobsterman’s wife told us that when her husband goes out in the winter as the water splashes up around the boat it freezes in the air and he gets icicles all over. Crazy! And not something I would ever like to experience. Going out in a lobster boat in September was about as much as I can handle.

We also went to the summer home of a couple who live in Orlando and go to our church the rest of the year. Their summer home is right on the water and it is beautiful: Blackberry bushes on one side of the yard. An awesome swing on the tree out front. I could easily envision spending my summers in a house like that: The kids running around the yard gobbling up berries. Playing in the water and exploring the rocks. Sitting outside and watching the stars at night. Perhaps some day.

It was great to have some time away. I missed my family of course, but I relished the silence. Thank you Meghan! Thank you Maine!

(All the pictures are from my phone because I didn’t bring a camera. You can see Meghan’s photos here)

Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments »

Up, up and away

Friday, September 10th, 2010

Today begins my first trip away from my husband and kids. Ever. Nathan and I have gone on plenty of trips just the two of us. And we’ve gone on family trips. And just the kids and I have been on a few trips. But I’ve never gone away by myself. And I am excited.

I’m off to Maine to visit my good friend Meghan who drove up there a month or so ago. Currently she has rented a room at a farm that’s filled with horses, llamas, pigs, chickens and other farm goodness. To say I am excited really is an understatement.

I’ve been telling Nathan for a while now how much fun I think it’d be to take a farm vacation. I think the kids would love it. They talk often of living in the country and I think it’d be fun to have a farm…. for a week. Maybe eventually longer.

Silence is the biggest thing I am looking forward to. Not that Meghan and I won’t talk, but silence from children. No fussing, no whining, no constant noise. My children make noise non stop. Even in their sleep they all talk. I will cherish every moment of quiet I get this weekend.

My two small carry on bags are packed. (Traveling light!!) I’ve got books from the library ready to be read. Some music on my iPhone. Candy to snack on. Three hours of solitude on an airplane. Solitude if you don’t count all the other people on the airplane. And I don’t.

Update when I return from Maine!

Tags: maine, meghan
Posted in Life, travel | 2 Comments »

“How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book.” Henry David Thoreau

Monday, August 2nd, 2010

A new era with a book? How about 12 books? Or maybe 50 years worth?

One of my resolutions was to read a book a month with Nathan. That is one of the few resolutions we’ve actually kept.

January: Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
February: Eating the Dinosaur by Chuck Klosterman
March: Keats: Poems
April: 37 signals: Rework
May: The Irrational Season by Madeline L’Engle
June: Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
July: No One Belongs Here More than You by Miranda July

Our year’s resolution started off with picked-by-the-cover novel that turned out to be an incredible book. The Keats selection was inspired by the movie Bright Star which if you haven’t seen please do! I read a handful of Keats’ poems, but not the whole book - we did not do well with a month of poetry. Hunger Games was a loaner from a friend. The rest were books from familiar authors. We sought all them out except the Miranda July book which we stumbled across just before August and grabbed as our July read.

So far this year we’ve read modern lit, essay, poetry, business, journal, teen and short story. We’ve varied the genres on purpose and it’s been a great exercise.

I’ve enjoyed getting into reading again. I’ve always loved reading. Right before I got married and graduated college I had this grand notion of continuing my education through books. Back then I was working at a bookstore and had already widened my scope from literature to include a business book or two and a small collection of nonfiction.

Right after getting married I continued reading. But 10 months after marriage our son was born. Then a daughter 27 months later. Then another daughter 30 months later. I’ve still been reading all theses years of course, but with children underfoot I haven’t read nearly as much as I thought I would.

In these last seven years I’ve grown to love most everything Madeline L’Engle wrote. I’ve read and reread lots of children lit (last summer I read the entire Anne of Green Gable series). I’ve laughed out loud while reading AJ Jacobs the Know-It All. And I’ve left unfinished a fair amount of books – something I never did when I was younger.

Reading a book a month with Nathan makes me want to read more. I’ve been talking with a friend about starting a book club. When list searching around Google for must-read books I found a list called “A Lifetime’s Reading.” It’s broken into 50 years of reading. Many of the works are from authors I’ve never even heard of (and I was a lit major). Nathan mentioned it’d be interesting to do a decade of the suggested reading.

I am turning 30 in two months. What a perfect time to return to my dream of continuing education through reading. I was going to go in order or start at year 30 but those years have no one I’ve heard of. Best to start with a year that includes a writer I want to read. A decade is a long commitment. And my free time has not drastically increased.

But I’m intrigued by a reading plan. I’m encouraged that I can do it because of the success of my 2010 resolution. I’m excited about diving in to works I’d never pick up on my own, but that no doubt will stretch me. I’m curious what this new era will bring.

Posted in Life, resolutions | 3 Comments »

Welcome to the animal house

Wednesday, May 19th, 2010

We have a new addition to our family. Make that three new additions. Last night Basha used some of his birthday money from his Great-Grandma and Great-Granddad to buy two new goldfish. Basha had a goldfish named Chomper that lived three years! He was a normal goldfish… until he died a month ago. Now Basha has two new fancy goldfish. A black moor goldfish named Beard and a spotted multi-color goldfish (I can’t remember the type) named Moustache. Pear also got a fish to placate her desire for a bunny. She picked out a betta and named it Moon. They’ve had fun watching their new fish and talking to them and reading stories to them. They both decided to try and hold their fish last night which resulted in an explanation of how fish breathe and why they can NOT take fish out of the bowl or touch them. We’ll see if Beard, Moustache and Moon can make it through the summer.

And as if fish were not enough we have turned into a butterfly hatching house as well. We’ve been checking our milkweed plants almost daily for a month now in hopes of finding some monarch caterpillars. Butterflies have finally landed and their eggs have hatched! We currently have 7 eggs on the plants out back, 8 caterpillars in Basha’s new butterfly house, 1 chrysalis from a caterpillar collected at Grammy’s house and 1 butterfly that hatched and was released today. I think we will need to find some more milkweed to keep up with all these caterpillars. Right now they are tiny, but soon they will be huge and hungry.

Posted in Life | No Comments »

A ROAR-ing good time

Saturday, May 15th, 2010

This past Wednesday my firstborn turned six and we celebrated with a full day of Basha.

Basha wanted me to make blueberry pancakes for his birthday breakfast. Unfortunately the night before I went to get out the pancake mix I discovered there was none. I’ve never made pancakes from scratch, but I was certain it wouldn’t be hard. I was right: I premixed all the dry ingredients then went to bed. First thing Wednesday morning I finished making the mix and we had homemade-from-scratch pancakes, which were quite tasty.

We brought fruit popsicles to Basha’s class for his birthday One of Basha’s friends offered to switch line leader days so he could be the line leader on his birthday. It’s so sweet to see how kids naturally think of one another.

After school is was time to get ready for his birthday party. We’ve usually had the kids’ parties with their friends on the weekend. But my first nephew will be born anytime and we are keeping our May weekends as free as we can. Besides, I like the idea of having a party on Basha’s actual birthday.

This year the theme was tigers. For over a year Basha has been talking about trying to raise money for the tigers. Not just any tigers: Our zoo wants to build a tiger exhibit, and has for a long time. Every so often ideas come up for how we can raise money; lemonade stands or yard sales or saving any change we find. I suggested to Basha that for his party he could let his friends know that he was saving money for the tigers and if they wanted to help him they could donate money instead of a gift. He agreed right away.

I drew up some Charley Harper inspired tiger invitations. We decorated a jar for the tiger fund. I baked tiger cupcakes. We decorated with black and orange balloons and crepe paper. And we bought a lion pinata that we painted to look like a tiger.

We had 15 kids (and their parents) plus our three kids in our backyard for tree climbing, soccer playing and food eating. The kids had a great time as evident by how dirty they all were. And a weeknight party worked out amazingly well.

After reading this I’ve decided that if the kids have parties with all their friends they will open the presents after the party. So once all the Basha’s friends left we went inside and opened gifts/donations. He raised over $100 from his birthday party! I could not be more proud of him! After opening the presents and counting the money (which immediately was put into a cute frog bottle one of his best friends made) he said, “The people that gave money for the tigers were a tiny bit nicer than the people that gave me presents.” So cute. I’m excited about future parties where the focus can shift away from all the loot and be focused instead on who we are celebrating.

Now I have a great big six year old. And I feel like he’s getting bigger every time I look at him. Happy birthday Basha!

Posted in Life | 3 Comments »

Easter craft time

Sunday, April 4th, 2010

I think Easter is my favorite holiday. I love what we are celebrating – the resurrection of Jesus. I love the decorations and spring colors. I love the visions of new life – flowers, eggs, baby animals. I love the warm sunny days.

And I love Easter crafts.

The other day I actually prepared the night before and had two crafts ready for the kids when they woke up. They could make little carrots from pipe cleaners which was fast and easy and pretty successful. I also had paper plates out that they could cut and glue and make into bunny masks. Pear decided to watercolor her bunny mask.

We also made bunny bookmarks I found from Martha Stewart. The night before Basha’s class’ Easter party I decided we should make one for each of his classmates. Luckily there are only 10 kids in his class because they took me a good deal longer than I was counting on. But they are cute and he was excited about them.

Of course we also dyed eggs. In the process, we managed to dye our fingers and arms too. One of these days we’ll do a natural version of egg dying. I think Basha would be intrigued by the science of it. But this year we stuck with the kits.

I have a long list of other crafts. Perhaps those will keep us busy over spring break, which just started. The craft I’m most looking forward to is yarn eggs we could hang from our little tree out front. I would be tempted to leave those up forever. Perhaps they’ll find a home hanging somewhere in our house. The kids new room does need some more color.

Posted in Crafting, Holiday, wondermrs | No Comments »

Strawberry fields forever… or at least for summer.

Saturday, March 6th, 2010

Basha has been begging to plant strawberry plants for weeks. We’ve planted strawberry plants before and had great success. We checked the farm store in our town a few weeks ago, but they didn’t have anything. Yesterday Basha and Nathan found some at Lowe’s and came home with 16 plants.

We’ve had bookshelf hanging out back for a while. Rather than throw it out we decided to re-purpose it into a raised planter to house our strawberries. I’m hoping the wood holds out – at least for the summer. We may need to coat it with some sort of weather proofing paint.

The kids had great fun dumping in the gravel and the dirt and planting in the strawberries. Now to wait for our crop.

Basha said, “The best part of gardening is harvest time.” I couldn’t agree more.

Hopefully there will be another post soon of us enjoying fresh, sweet, ripe strawberries from our backyard.

Posted in Life | No Comments »

Making amends with the machine

Saturday, March 6th, 2010

Today I pulled the sewing machine out, something I thought would not happen for a while. A long while. A few weeks ago I decided to take a long break from sewing because every time I worked on a project I ended up getting frustrated. That’s not an emotion I like to associate with crafting, or experience in general, so sewing was out.

But a baby shower to celebrate a sweet friend and her soon-to-be-born little boy changed my mind. Thankfully my machine and I got along this afternoon. Target sells old school cloth diapers for around $10 (if you buy the organic kind). I took some vintage fabric quarters I bought from Jo-Anns a few weeks ago and stitched them onto the diapers.

The whole project took an hour from start to finish. I also did a little embroidery on a hoop, but alas, I did not photograph it.

Up next on the craft list: finish crocheting a sweater for Arden. It will be done just in time for the weather to get warm, of course. Then I need to finish crocheting a blanket, start crocheting a dress for Harper, and finish crocheting a blanket for Sebastian that I started years ago.

Just a few things to work on. In all that free time I have.

Posted in Crafting, Sewing, wondermrs | 2 Comments »