It was an eventful weekend at the Davis house -- I (finally) had my baby! I woke up on Friday morning to contractions that came every 20-40 minutes. After quickly figuring out that the baby wasn't going to come out that morning, we decided to go out to breakfast for one last Davis 6 outing. The three-contractions-an-hour-game continued, to my great annoyance, until about 4:00 in the afternoon when all of a sudden the contractions sped up to every four minutes. Will called my midwife and told her to come and he and Audrey started setting up the birth tub while I walked through the apartment contracting. The birth tub set-up took about 45 Keep Reading
Our baby girl is here!
Why I chose homebirth (Part 3)
Here’s part three of why my husband and I have elected for me to birth our babies at home. If you’re new to this “series,” please catch up with part one of “Why I choose homebirth” and part two here. And as a refresher, please re-read the section in the first post about how I don’t care how you birth your baby. It’s really important. Well, the clock has changed and we're no longer counting the days until our baby's due date, but the days since the due date. My last two babies came quite a bit early (9-10 days), so this recent development has required some attitude adjustments on my part. It's difficult to not feel entitled to give Keep Reading
Giving Opportunity: Welcome Boxes for kids entering foster care
FLNW Community -- I am so excited by this awesome giving opportunity! You have blown us away in the past by your generosity toward different causes. Read the details, dig into your stockpile, hit the school sales, get others involved, and help us support the kids in our local community. Thank you! Emily, FLNW Guest Post by Jillana Goble I am a foster and adoptive parent through the state of Oregon. Being a foster parent has brought more joy and more heartache than is possible to write about in a single post, so I won't even attempt it. I do want to let you in, however, on something surprising I learned recently. After all these years of being Keep Reading
5 Days in Portland on a Budget (family-friendly activities in PDX)
Guest Post by Amy Hunt Because our summer had been pretty unexciting so far, we planned a family fun week: five days of local, inexpensive outings. To get the kids excited about our week, we taped up a square paper for each day which my son decorated with what we were going to do. Day 1 -- North Clackamas Aquatic Center: We had one BOGO coupon from the Chinook Book and one from the Entertainment Book. Retail $32; we spent $16. And because we can't leave the house without eating, we stopped for McDonald's ice cream cones on our way home. Day 2 -- Oregon Zoo: We went on a Second Tuesday $4 admission day for $16 total, instead of $36 plus $4 to Keep Reading
Back-To-School coupons
Here's a great list of coupons that will pair well with back-to-school sales. Print off any coupons you think you will need to stock up for easy mornings and quick lunches. Cereals $.50/1 Cinnamon Toast Crunch® cereal $.75/1 Fiber One® cereal listed: Fiber One® Original • Fiber One® Honey Clusters® • Fiber One® Raisin $.50/1 Lucky Charms® cereal $1/2 Cheerios® cereals listed: Frosted Cheerios® • Apple Cinnamon Cheerios® • Banana Nut Cheerios® $.75/1 Total® cereal: Whole Grain Total® • Total® Raisin Bran $.50/1 Original Cheerios® cereal (the one in the yellow box) $.50/1 Cinnamon Toast Crunch® Treats, Cocoa Puffs® Treats, Lucky Keep Reading
Why I chose homebirth (Part 2)
Here's part two (finally!) of why my husband and I have elected for me to birth our babies at home. If you're new to this "series," please catch up with part one of "Why I choose homebirth." And as a refresher, please re-read the section in the middle about how I don't care how you birth your baby. It's really important. I'm now at 39.3 weeks and still a-gestating. I'm at the point where my medium maternity shirts no longer fit, but there's no way in God's green earth I'm forking over another $12 to get a larger size. I'm also chubbing out. Big time. I call it getting "ripe." I really want this sweet girl to show up before I tip two-hundie on the Keep Reading
Project Playdates: Organizing a fun, productive time with friends
image credit I love lists. Some are mental: Don't eat that third piece of cake. Go for a run instead. Some are written: Scrub the bathtub. Scrub the children in the bathtub. Some are totally unnecessary, I just write them down to make myself feel productive on blah days: Make a to-do list. Make a cup of coffee. Many are for my husband. These involve a higher level of concentration and skill than I possess. Find those drywall anchors we bought two years ago and hang up that heavy map, centered between the bookshelf and the window. xoxo. Hook up the tv so we can watch the Olympics (men's swimming tonight!). Keep Reading