Maternal Health Accountability Act

On Mother's Day I saw an interview with Christy Turlington Burns about her documentary No Woman, No Cry. The film follows the stories of pregnant women in the US, Bangladesh and a couple other countries. It's amazing what obstacles they face - I felt frightened for them. I'm a fan on FB of the organization EVERY MOTHER COUNTS and this is a quote from the page.

"Turlington Burns, a mother, activist, women’s health advocate and fashion icon, made the film in conjunction with EVERY MOTHER COUNTS (EMC), a five-year outreach campaign she founded in 2010 that is dedicated to improving maternal health and reducing maternal mortality around the world by engaging the public, raising awareness and driving action." Since seeing the film I have been doing some reading on maternity issues and came across this info/website link/petition.

While maternal mortality has decreased by 30% worldwide, the rate of death from pregnancy or childbirth has nearly doubled in the U.S. since 1990.[1] Furthermore, data show that African American women in the U.S. are approximately four times as likely to die during childbirth as Caucasian women even when their health status is similar.[2]

How is this possible in our nation?

Join me in demanding an answer now!  Use our one-click tool to contact your members of Congress and ask them to co-sponsor the Maternal Health Accountability Act:  http://action.momsrising.org/go/1049?akid=2830.38501.NUiMiv&t=4

The Maternal Health Accountability Act (HR 894) would give states the resources they need to report and investigate all pregnancy-related deaths as well as create a panel of medical experts to review the data and recommend strategies to reduce maternal deaths. This is a critical first step to preventing so many women from dying from pregnancy-related complications in our nation. After all, without information about why women are dying, we cannot adequately respond.

Currently, hundreds of women in the U.S. die each year as a result of pregnancy and childbirth.  In fact, 49 countries around the world do a better job of preventing women from dying from pregnancy-related complications than the U.S. [3] Despite these terrible statistics, we do not have adequate information about exactly how many women are dying and why. Currently, only six states require reporting of pregnancy-related deaths and 29 states and the District of Columbia have no mechanism in place to review maternal deaths.[4]

MomsRising members have already sent more than 42,000 letters to Congress urging action on the Maternal Mortality Act. We want to nearly double our impact and generate 75,000 letters to Congress before we deliver copies of the letters later this month.

Beech Nut's "A Jar for a Jar" drive

I thought this was interesting - wanted to share what Beech Nut was doing (I signed up for Beech Nut's newsletter to get coupons a while back. If I have coupons and can get a good deal at a store I buy them and donate the jars. This drive would double my donation without any extra work on my end - pretty nice!).

Beech-Nut® has teamed up with ABC Family executive producer and mother of two, Melissa Joan Hart, to introduce the "A Jar For A Jar" virtual donation drive. For every virtual jar of baby food shared, Beech-Nut will donate a jar of baby food to international hunger relief agency Feed the Children® — up to a million jars.

Visit Beech-Nut's Facebook page to share a jar and help fight childhood hunger! While you are there, print coupons for Beech-Nut infant and toddler products.

fruit and veggie chart

I have been wanting to make some sort of chart for fruits and vegetables for some time. I knew it would be time consuming to make so I kept putting it off.
When the boys got their hair cut a few months ago it was SO bittersweet for me because they looked like such big boys. I must have looked quite sad because the hair dresser handed me a BUNCH of samples that were Scotch re-stickable squares in an attempt to cheer me up. It totally worked. I love free samples.
I took it as a sign that I needed to create the chart.

• First, I drew all of the fruits and vegetables.
• And they sat and sat on my dresser. Until Joy was over and offered to cut out them out for me while Isla slept on her. woohoo!
• The pile sat again.
• My sister in law, Abby, was over and I asked her to cut the pre-cut Scotch squares into fours. Then I was able to stick all of the fruit and veggie shapes to the chart and hang both charts.
• I used double sided-tape once because I couldn't find the re-stickable squares it doesn't work well. It's a huge pain

The boys love this anatomy book my neighbor gave them so my plan was draw a stomach on poster board. Could NOT draw it. It kept looking like a weird rectangle. I'm not an artist by any means but I really thought I could draw a stomach for cryin out loud. I drew a circle and labeled each chart "Mason's Tummy", etc. I wanted them to see how many fruits, veggies and glasses of water ( I added it last minute) they put into their tummy each day.
I was not sure how successful it would be but it's going really well. Both boys actually try new fruits and veggies just so they can update their chart.
I don't have a difficut time getting Mason or Jaxon to eat adequate servings of fruits and veggies each day or try new things to eat. But Brant wouldn't even snif a vegtable. He was always great at eating fruit but since having the chart he has tried new fruits and veggies.
WARNING: THESE PICS MAY OFFEND THOSE WHO CAN ACTUALLY DRAW

strawberry champagne float

Remember that homemade strawberry champagne sorbet I made last month?
Well I put quite a few scoops in a tall glass and doused it with some moscato. IT WAS AMAZING.
Root beer floats remind me of my dad (my sister and I would giggle at the way my dad pronounced root beer "rut beer") so I drink them when I can. BUT if I had to choose between a sentimental root beer float and this refreshing concoction, I would pick this cocktail.

Happy 4th Of July!!!

Hope everyone is having a fun and safe holiday!! Adam was sleeping (on midnights), my mom was working and my sis was out of town so I took the boys to the zoo. It was nice! First time I went by myself with all three kiddos.

We did a festive craft inside the Hamil Family Zoo

The boys were all excited about the black rabbit!

In the greenhouse, the boys were happy to see the "baby bananas"

SpongeBob popsicles with gumballs for eyes, saved the day when meltdowns were about to go down.





Grizzly Jack's Resort Review

We spent two days at Grizzly Jack's Resort in Utica, IL. It's off 80 - if you are going to Starved Rock, it's the same exit. Admission to the indoor waterpark and amusement park are included with any overnight stay. Please see below for a detailed review.

• Gorgeous area - it reminds me a lot of Grayling, MI (which is 5 hours away and this only and hour and a half) or OLD Frankfort. Speed limit is 40mph, farms, etc.
• We checked in and staff was pleasant. The only thing I didn't understand was that they held 40% of your room total on your credit card for other expenses. I can see providing a credit card to charge other expenses but to actually hold your account - that bothered me. The way I understood it that 40% is in addition to your room costs. So basically we had $1100 being held on our credit card. I don't get out much so maybe this is now standard in the hospitality field.
• We got into our room and unpacked. But had to call the front desk for bug spray because there were a bunch of ants on the counter and on the side of the fridge feasting. I don't mind ants but we had brought a bunch of snacks and didn't want to have to toss everything later. An employee came rather quickly and although he was nice his attitude was that we are in the woods and this is how it is. I agree but feel had the fridge been properly cleaned in the first place the ants would not be having a party there. He started sprinkling an ant killer powder, which is not safe around my almost 2-yr-old. My husband pulled the fridge out from the space since this man had not. "Oh yeah. There is a bunch of stuff back here. When you check out, I'll have the housekeepers clean this." Oh. Well shouldn't they clean it now, I thought to myself.
• Ten minutes later we see a roach walking across the kitchen floor. I call again. And put a bowl over the roach so when the staff person arrives they can take a look. Adam and I have have seen our share of roaches so we were pretty confident that it was a roach. We called back and asked to be moved to another room. They sent the head of housekeeping to our room. She was so nice. She did say the bug was just a beetle but you never really forget what a roach looks like so...this was my response. "Well it's not like we are from the city. I mean my husband and I have seen our share of roaches." What kind of thing is that to say!? I have such pride that we moved from the city and before I knew it I acted like I never owned a pair of city shoes. But I was embarrassed. I used to work at a hotel and since that experience I never wanted to be a high maintence guest. I had been there 20 minutes and felt like one. I was also annoyed because over the last two hours we packed the car, unpacked in our lodge, then repacked and now have to unpack again. But I had to change my attitude. So I said, "Thank you for being so nice about everything. I feel bad that we are moving because I know since having worked at a hotel, your staff has to re-clean this room just because we set foot in it. And they probably just finished cleaning it." Her response was awesome: "We don't mind at all. This is how we keep our jobs - taking care of guests."
• The resort has a shuttle or train that picks up guests and takes them wherever they wish - waterpark, amusement park, etc. It was very convenient and of course a huge hit with the boys.
• We went Tuesday through Thursday so the resort was pretty ghost town-ish. Worked out well for my kids because they were more comfortable swimming, going down slides, etc. Sometimes they can be timid in large, chaotic groups. I think total the park had three small slides and maybe one big one - I could be wrong on that. Jaxon loved the Ranger Station play structure and tot pool. The other two boys just wanted to swim in the wave pool.
• The indoor amusement park is pretty small and cheesy. Brant went on one ride - Mason was too short to ride anything. The kids didn't ask to go back.
• Every night these robotic charactors, Grizzly Jack and Grand Bear, tell a story. But they are up pretty high, perched on a fireplace (I think) in the main lobby so it's hard to hear.
• Bear Island has a fully equipped park, which was nice. There was also a walkway that we heard led to a waterfall but we didn't get a chance to find out.
• I'm a food snob. And I certainly know my pizza so I was hesitant to try one at Lumberjack's Pizzeria. But Oh.My.GOSH. Was it AWESOME. It tasted like it was made from scratch - on the menu it states to please allow for 30 minutes for a pizza. The sauce, the thin crust, the toppings - all was great. We had a cheese and sausage pizza one night and the next night we had the taco pizza. So good I couldn't believe it.
• The Grizzly Bean Cafe has an early bird special. It's a buffet - $7 for adults and $5 for kids three and older. Felt like I was back eating at the Purdue cafeteria, the food was so crappy but what do you expect at that price? Two thumbs up on the watermelon though - Coffee gets a big thumbs down.
• Apparently there is a Charactor Breakfast photo opp but since we stayed during the week we didn't get to meet the "silly Grizzly Bear" as Brant called him a.k.a. Grand Bear. Brant is deathly afraid of mascots anyway so I'm actually glad we missed it.
• Our best bet was just to use the kitchenette in our room. We made eggs, french toast, etc. I brought the french press with us so we were all good in the coffee category. There is a Jewel about 10 minutes from the resort which helped.

Overall I don't think we would go back. It was perfect timing for my kids because they are so young. But had we stayed another day, they would have been over it. We went to Starved Rock for maybe and hour and a half, nothing hard core. Brant LOVED it, the other two boys grew tired pretty quickly. I was happy to have gotten out of the house. I really liked how spacious the villa we stayed in was and really liked the area in general - reminded me of REALLY old Frankfort.

Three Boys and a breakfast diner

Breakfast is my favorite meal. I have ALWAYS looked forward to going out for breakfast...until I had kids. And I don't mean for that to come across negative - it's just how it is when you have a 2yr old, 3 yr old and 4 yr old.
Waiting for the food is the most stressful part. Then once the food arrives it feels like I can't dish it out fast enough, etc.
The good thing is, the few times we have gone out to eat with the kids, I get at least one compliment on how well behaved our kids are.
Here are my tips:

• Before we enter the restaurant, I tell the kids what my expectations are.
• I take advantage of anything the restaurant has to offer to entertain the kids - coloring, crayons, etc.
• The last time we went to a restaurant it had no crayons, etc. It was breakfast time so they had packets of jelly out on the table. Each boy took a turn counting all of the orange jellies, or the purple ones, etc. Then we lined up the jelly packets and made a jelly train. We made a jelly "bed", tucked in the spoon with a napkin and sang Twinkle Twinkle.
• Look at the decor and make conversation about it. "Do we have a rolling pin at home?" "How many flowers are in this vase?" And so forth.
• Save the paper from the straws. I always end up doing random things that crack the boys up like I weaved a wrapper through a fork's tines and pretended it was a giant spagetti noodle trying to attack Brant's mouth.
• Lately my boys pretend it's someone's birthday or that they are Santa Claus. They take a small toy and cover it with a napkin. They give it to me and I "unwrap" it and act all excited. We did this in the restaurant with one of their napkins (we wrapped up a jelly packet, a creamer, whatever we could find) and it bought us some time.
• Praise when they are eating well, using manners, etc.

My favorite part of eating out with the boys is when Adam takes all of the boys out to the car and I get to finish eating and pay the bill. Seriously.