Hurricane Juan has really made a mess in Nova Scotia and PEI. The power is still out in many places. Tonight on the news, they showed another affect of not having water because of the power outage. Moms who are formula feeding are having a hard time and it really shows how much a relief it must be for breastfeeding mothers. It reminded me of the ice storm in Quebec a few years ago and how the ready made formula sold out in stores immediately.

The van went in the shop again this week. 3 weeks ago the throttle cable with the transmission had to be replaced and now the transmission itself is toast. We took it to the shop and found out it needed to have 2000.00 of repairs done to it. It’s a 1994 dodge caravan. We just bought it last February for 2500.00, sigh. Then today Kevin called from work and said the starter in the car was acting up and he couldn’t get the car started. We just bought a new starter 2 weeks ago. This is the 5 starter in the last 4 years. The car is really hard on starters. I am so sick to death of having vehicles that barely run. We’ve saved money in the past with repairs, Kevin was always able to do them but this time it’s a lot of stuff. I think we’re going to have to get a newer vehicle but I cringe at the thought of a monthly car payment on top of all the other bills. Everything always has to happen at the same time. It’s times like this that I miss living in a city with public transit. However being a rural area, a car is a necessity.

There are certain times in my life,
when I feel like I’ve been blessed from above,
and when I walk hand in hand with you,
I’m warmed by the depth of your love.

And I do feel so incredibly lucky,
without you I wouldn’t be who I am today
and I have so many loving thoughts for you,
I have so much on my mind I’d like to say.

You see, you’re such a beautiful person
and my soul is touched when you are around,
I’m so glad that it was me that you chose,
I’m so very glad that it was you that I found.

And we have so many happy memories,
I remember fondly all the laughter and the smiles,
You are my very significant other,
and I feel so very privileged to have shared your life
and to have come with you this far.

And I really just wanted to say thank you
and Happy Birthday Kevin, you are my soul, you are my life,

(some is borrowed, some is mine, all is for you:))

Saturday’s Breastfeeding Challenge at the mall was a success. I’m glad Andrea and Carol showed up:-) Carol generously donated some of her books to the LLLC-Miramichi group.

Sunday we celebrated Kevin’s birthday and spent the day getting caught up on housework (well I did), Kevin relaxed:-) Although Kevin did cook a great seafood casserole and rolls for supper.

I’ve been looking at the Roots of Empathy program that brings breastfeeding mother/baby dyads into the schools on a regular basis and how it nurtures empathy and reduces bullying and aggression. It’s a very interesting program. It has been implemented in 2 districts in NB and Miramichi is trying to develop it but is having funding problems. It would be a great way to normalize breastfeeding for kids ages 5 - 14.

We’ve all got colds today. Bram’s nose is running non-stop. Another busy week coming up.

I don’t have a lot of time to comment on this right now but I wanted to make a quick statement. When you look at the abstract for the study that is generating all this negative hoopla, 2 of the doctors in the study work for the consumer product safety commission (CPSC). The CPSC gets a lot of their funding from surprise, crib companies. Kevin worked out the statistics and I will post later but the actual statistical number of babies that would die from co-sleeping (and how many of these are situations where parents practised unsafe co-sleeping?), it was practically minute. Fortunately, so far it looks like the Canadian Pediatric Society will not speak out against co-sleeping but rather encourage safe co-sleeping. As usual the media has jumped on the band wagon with scare tactics and instead of teaching safe co-sleeping practices, has encouraged it not at all. I’m sure Mothering Magazine and Dr. James McKenna, a world authority on sleep research and proponent of co-sleeping will have responses to the media.