dolphins born tail first- the umbilical cord snaps as the head is born and they nurse for at least 2 and up to 7 years old. sexually mature at 10.

elephants gestate for 2 years and nurse for 5 years. stay with their mother until 13.

we watched this show about animal birth and i was very disturbed at the amount of intervention the humans performed in the birth and post partum. and at one point you could see the mama trying to climb a fence to get to her baby who was being guided to walk right away by humans in the bright florescent lights of the building as the narrator explains that elephants has poor eye sight at birth but usually elephants are born at night so they have time usually to adjust. heavens to betsy cant we ever just sit on our hands.

everything is illuminated
good movie- check it out.
http://wip.warnerbros.com/everythingisilluminated/

i want the sound track.

i am diggin on eugene hutz who was in the above movie. not only is he very attractive but he is a musician. gongol bordello http://www.gogolbordello.com/
listen to it here http://www.myspace.com/gogolbordello

and they are coming to detroit july 14th! that would be a fun date night..hint hint.

a good day is good to have- it gives me hope that i am not totally ruining my children.

the bean and i got up at 6:30 for some reason this morning. but even with that the day went ok. it was the last day of sams homeschool connection class. then after that we went to the lake with our lovely neighbor. it is summer ot me now. we have been to the lake. it was lovely and refreshing after sweating all day. the bean was all about it and sam was like a mini donn worried about her clucking about her (not that donn clucks). then ice cream at tuckers! summer all the way!

today was the day of the comfrey oil i have been meaning to make for a friend. it turned out beautifully. It is dark green and strong smelling. there was enough for me, my friend and one other. i find great satisfaction in doing such things. ans i got free bottles from the apotheke in depot town. you cant get better than that. now to go look up ALL the uses for comfrey oil!!! that post will follow.

looking forward to hanging out with the ladies tomorrow.

the universe is very odd sometimes. i am going out of town from july 21-25/26 and i thought i was going to be financially tight this summer but i have ad folks hire me in august knowing i will be gone and last night i got an email from a woman who is due right before i leave but due to a health issue will be induced before her due date- so i could take her as a client. so, so weird.

very needed though since i had to drop $1000 into my car a few weeks ago and i have to drop another $1000 sometime this summer. thats why i love my mechanic he makes it reasonable (as can be) for us to get our car fixed. there is no way i could have dumped $2000 in one sitting. this way at least i can kind of plan for it. ugh. Orion Auto check it out http://www.orionautomotiveservices.com/ He kicks ass!!!

i came across this http://placentabenefits.info
this morning on the midwifery today enews. it is really interesting. i havent had a chance to read through the whole site but i really agree with this- eating encapsulated placenta that is. it is some potent stuff. makes me think about bigger concepts of how we as humans have disturbed the natural process of things. it has an anthropology section in its research- i am really looking forward to reading that.

it is supposed to be 90 degrees today. summer is here and accordingly we are skipping soccer practice and going to the lake damn it. whoohoo. sam wanted to go yesterday but i had to work last night so no go. he was very sad about that. tears even.

when it rains it pours. i have 4 births lined up from july 30-august 24 not including helping out with the homebirths as a assistant. deep breath and know it will all work out ok with careful planning and good backup. the money is much needed so it is not like i could say no if i wanted to.
there is one doula birth and one homebirth in june both due on the same day actually. i find that more comforting for some reason. like if they are due on the same day they are less likely to go on the same day. weird logic but it works for me.
i am hoping to get away with the kids for a few days to fenton. i desperately need to unplug from life. my stress level is too high and my adrenals are shot. i can really feel my health deteriorating from stress. i dont like that.
i went to a chiropractor to try to get my back fixed just to find out she is not in my network actually she is not accepted by blue care ad she knew that but had the first visit anyway. and went on to recommend nutritional counseling without telling me that it would be an additional cost and not covered by insurance at all if i went forward with the nutritional plan. she is a very nice woman but a little too heavy on the business savvy crap. kind of a turn off in my world. also it turns out she does a much more aggressive "webster technique" than i had done by my other chiro. and my back went out again the next day.
i really do not like working with health insurance companies. it drives me nuts. i have to call them for something else too. dreading having to do grown up stuff.

my friend told me about the Flying Spaghetti Monster and i am very excited to look further into this http://www.venganza.org/ check it out.