I gave birth at home with an independent midwife named Lisa, and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Today is International Midwives Day, which is basically to recognise and honor midwives around the world. Midwives are specialists in normal pregnancy and birth, which is what most women have. The World Health Organization says midwives should be a woman’s main carer through pregnancy and birth. I know this is kind of a radical idea when in our society, everyone hires an obstetrician because everyone does, but think about the thousands or millions of years women have been birthing without obstetricians. The human race managed to survive all that so it can’t have been all bad.

So last night/this morning I was having a dream about doing a Google search for independent midwives back where I grew up, and I woke up thinking, why not actually do it? So here’s a few links – some I just found, some I’ve had in my bookmarks for two years.

• Joyous Birth – Homebirth awareness and advocacy, mainly in Australia
• Community Midwives LLC – Home birth in Madison, Wisconsin
• Midwives active in the Home Birth Network of South Australia
• North American Registry of Midwives
• Midwives Alliance of North America
• Australian College of Midwives
• Find a midwife in Wisconsin
• Morning Star Women’s Health and Birth Center in Menomonie, WI
• Twin Cities Homebirth Meetup Group

The Lighter Side of Low-carb is a funny blog by a woman doing a low carb lifestyle. I made her Cauliflower lasagna tonight for tea and it was great.

I made these for breakfast today.

1 cup quick oats

1 cup plain whey protein powder

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3 teaspoons xylitol

1 cup (240g) sour cream

3 drops liquid stevia

1/2 cup (120g) melted butter

1/8 cup (30 ml) cream

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

10.5 ounces (300g) diced peaches (fresh, canned, whatever)

Combine all dry ingredients in a small bowl. Combine sour cream, stevia, butter, cream, eggs, and vanilla in a larger bowl. Mix peaches in with the dry ingredients until everything’s wet, then mix into the wet ingredients. Pour into paper-lined muffin tins. Bake for 20-25 minutes at 180C.

The original recipe says 12 large muffins. It’s not kidding – mine overflowed into each other. So next time I’d make it into 18 smaller muffins so they stay separate.

Oh, and I see no reason why you couldn’t substitute some other fruit instead of the peaches if they’re not your thing.

Something.

Not much of one, but it’s a post.

I’ve discovered Fishpond, an online bookstore for Australia & New Zealand. And I just placed my first order with them. Assuming all goes well (they said they’ve already shipped 2 of my 3 books), I’ll be ordering from them a lot more and Amazon a lot less.

Incidentally, my birthday is coming up, and gift vouchers for either of these would be lovely.

So. Those spaces in car parks for parents with prams. What if you have a kid but not a pram? Can you still use them?

(Okay, we DO have a pram, but I only use it for small shopping expeditions, and then I usually just walk.)

I forgot to post yesterday. So sue me.

Happy Thanksgiving, my fellow Americans.

Yeah. I’ve got some time at the moment, so I’m writing an extra post. If you see it, that means I couldn’t be bothered writing anything the day it’s posted and just went with something canned.

MOUTH-OLOGY

Q. What is your salad dressing of choice?
A. Ranch

Q. What is your favorite fast food restaurant?
A. In the US it’s Arby’s. Over here…dunno, I guess Hungry Jack’s.

Q. What is your favorite sit-down restaurant?
A. In the US, Old Country Buffet. Here, Genghis Khan Mongolian BBQ.

Q. On average, what size tip do you leave at a restaurant?
A. None unless I’m in the US. I leave about 15% but I don’t make a special effort to make it EXACTLY 15%.

Q. What food could you eat every day for two weeks and not get sick of?
A. Bananas.

Q. What are your pizza toppings of choice?
A. Lots of meat & lots of cheese

Q. What do you like to put on your toast?
A. Butter. Sometimes strawberry jam, or bacon & eggs if I’m eating toast with them.

TECHNOLOGY

Q. What is your wallpaper on your computer?
A. Caleb sitting on his dad’s lap at the computer

Q. How many televisions are in your house?
A. One

Q. What color is your iPod?
A. What iPod?

BIOLOGY

Q. Are you right-handed or left-handed?
A. Right

Q. Have you ever had anything removed from your body?
A. Wisdom teeth

Q. When was the last time you had a cavity?
A. Probably have one now.

Q. What is the last heavy item you lifted?
A. Caleb

Q. Have you ever been knocked unconscious?
A. Yep, a couple times.

RANDOMOLOGY, pt 1

Q. If it were possible, would you want to know the day you were going to die?
A. Nope.

Q. If you could change your name, what would you change it to?
A. I wouldn’t change it.

Q. What color do you think looks best on you?
A. Purple

Q. Have you ever swallowed a non-food item by mistake?
A. Chewing gum a few times.

Q. Have you ever saved someone’s life?
A. Maybe, don’t remember.

Q. Has someone ever saved yours?
A. Well, there was this time when I was really little, and trying to put keys in an electrical outlet…I’m sure everyone has a story something like that from their childhood.

DAREOLOGY

Q. Would you kiss a member of the same sex for $100?
A. Probably not.

Q. Would you allow one of your little fingers to be cut off for $200,000?
A. Uh, no, I’m quite attached to them thanks.

Q. Would you never blog again for $50,000?
A. And not be able to blog about getting $50,000? No way!

Q. Would you pose naked in a magazine for $250,000?
A. Would I pose AT ALL in a magazine for $250,000? Doubtful.

Q. Would you drink an entire bottle of hot sauce for $1000?
A. I’d give it a go.

Q. Would you, without fear of punishment, take a human life for $1,000,000?
A. No.

DUMBOLOGY

Q: What is in your left pocket?
A: Don’t have pockets today.

Q: Is Napoleon Dynamite actually a good movie?
A. Dunno, haven’t seen it.

Q: Do you have hardwood or carpet in your house?
A: Carpet, mostly.

Q: Do you sit or stand in the shower?
A: Stand, unless I’m feeling dizzy.

Q: Could you live with roommates?
A: I think I do live with roommates…

Q: How many pairs of flip flops do you own?
A: One

Q: Last time you had a run-in with the cops?
A: Does it count as a run-in if I took in somebody’s driver’s license that I found lying on the footpath? Because I did that Thursday.

Q: What do you want to be when you grow up?
A: Alive.

Q: Who is number 1 on your top 8?
A: Top 8 what?

LASTOLOGY

Q: Friend you talked to?
A: Darrin

Q: Last person to call you?
A: Don’t remember

Q: Person you hugged?
A: Caleb

FAVORITOLOGY

Q: Number?
A: 42

Q: Season?
A: Winter

Q: Book?
A: Only one?

Q. Website?
A. I have a lot of them.

Q. Month?
A. Eh, January I guess.

Q. Alcohol?
A. I don’t drink alcohol

CURRENTOLOGY

Q: Missing someone?
A: Not really

Q: Mood?
A: Tired

Q: Listening to?
A: The hum of the air conditioner

Q: Watching?
A. Caleb sleeping

Q: Worrying about?
A: Whether or not I’ll get sick later today from being dehydrated

RANDOMOLOGY, pt 2

Q: First place you went this morning?
A: The toilet

Q: What can you not wait to do?
A. Go to the toilet…be right back…

Q: What’s the last movie you saw?
A: Umm…good question. I can’t remember.

Q: Do you smile often?
A: How can you not smile often when you have a baby as cute as I do?

Q: Are you a friendly person?
A: Sometimes

Q: Someone you wish you never met?
A: How much time do you have?