I know there are a lot of parents out there that struggle with ideas of what to do with your children on a nice day that isn’t going to cost an arm and an leg! My mission this summer is to uncover some great local places that offer this!
This weekend as a family we took a trip to Southford Falls in Oxford. It is not all that far from where we live, so we packed up the children and headed out.
We got there and got the children out, strapped Ben, our youngest, onto my husband’s back (real men wear babies haha) and off we went. We were lucky enough to have a friend of ours from my husbands fire house with us to help with the toddler also. He wanted to just RUN! There is so much open area that a child could really tire themselves out there!
They have a plethora of trails, picnic areas, a large pond, and stream for fishing, and while we were there, we saw quite a few fish caught!
Camden wanted pictures sitting on all the big rocks!
Our toddler wanted to take pictures on all the big rocks we walked by. We also had a moment where he was being carried and decided to kick his shoe off, right down a cliff. It missed the stream by less than a foot!
My husband had to use his military skills to climb down and save the shoe, and the day!
I highly recommend a trip to Southford Falls. There is so much for the family to do, and the best part is the price! Free!
On November 20th, 2009 Viviana Rose Cavalli was killed in a car accident which also claimed the life of her boyfriend, and injured her best friend. The community in Shelton, which is a tight knit, and incredibly supportive community came together to support the families of the children involved in the crash. Only a short time later, the Tutka and Cavalli families still find themselves grieving the loss of their bright and vibrant daughter Viviana who was taken from this world way before her time.
In honor of the life of Viviana, her mother Dee, and other community leaders are coming together to form the Shelton Butterfly project. A memorial foundation in the name of Viviana to not only help prevent a tragedy like this from happening again, but to provide two $2,500 scholarships to Shelton High School seniors in memory of Viviana who graduated herself from Shelton High School in 2009.
To apply for this scholarship, high school seniors will have to write an essay surrounding a question about drinking and driving. The essays will be read by the Cavalli and Tutka families and the two best essays will determine the recipients of the scholarship.
In correlation to the scholarship fund, The Shelton Butterfly Project will also be selling butterflies to be release on the downtown River Walk on June 13th. The painted lady butterflies are $20 each, and can be released in the name of Viviana, or any loved one. With each release, the name of the person whose memory they are being released in will be read.
Anytime from 12noon on June 13th till 3pm people can visit the River walk and release their butterflies, or simply gather in the memory of Viviana. If the Butterfly release is rained out on June 13th, the event will be canceled and on Monday June 14th, the butterflies will be delivered to local elementary schools for the children to release as they are insects and cannot be stored to a different date.
To order any butterflies, you can contact Dee Tutka directly at petertutka@yahoo.com. Orders will be collected until May 30th.
I had never made strawberry shortcake, or a strawberry sauce to go with it and I finally tackled this project over the weekend. It was much easier than I expected! Because I am by no means a Suzie Homemaker. Baking is about the extend of my culinary talent. I can make mean desserts, by my dinners are simply mediocre.
First I started by rinsing and slicing the strawberries and placing them into a pot.
After slicing about 25 strawberries up I added a cup of sugar, and about 1/8 cup of lemon juice.
After getting the strawberries, sugar, and lemon juice all mixed up, I heated it on the stove on low heat for about 10 minutes until the mix started to become more on the liquid side, and some of the strawberries started to break down slightly. Once the mix turned into more of a sauce, then it was time to empty this into a plastic bowl and place it in the refrigerator to cool before serving.
You can really serve this over anything, we went with an easy, simple store bought angel food cake. But this can go over ice cream, or simply be served alone with some cool whip.
It is also a treat that is friendly for the children. You can control the amount of sugar they are getting by simply altering the recipe, and there is a nice fruit filled treat for the day, or a healthy dessert option!
Recently the top baby names of 2009 were released, and I must say I was surprised by some of them, but happy that our boys names didn’t creep up in there (Camden & Benjamin)
A lot of older names are starting to creep back up into popularity, and I think the age of Aiden is starting to move on out.
For little boys :
Jacob
Ethan
Michael
Alexander
William
Joshua
Daniel
Jayden
Noah
Anthony
For little girls :
Isabella
Emma
Olivia
Sophia
Ava
Emily
Madison
Abigail
Chloe
Mia
I have noticed especially with the little girl names, the most simple, and plain names are starting to come back into style. Which is probably better for children. For a while there we were seeing some outrageous names that the poor kids probably couldn’t spell till Third grade!
I always tell people, I could never move away from the beach. When I was 19, I moved to North Carolina. Fayetteville to be exact, inland, and not near the beach. I was itching for the beach mere weeks into my move.
Now that I am settled back in Connecticut, where I grew up on the water, I could never leave again. The other day during one of our family travels, I took the kids to the beach. Both of my boys love it as much as I do.
Benjamin and his shell
Since I got my new Nikon earlier in the year, I am obsessed with my camera, even more than I was before. I have always felt it is so important to document, and keep pictures of the children. But even more so now.
Camden at the Beach
Besides taking a million and three pictures of the kids, I have taken to nature, and different scenic type pictures. I have always admired others work, and now putting my own together feels like a real accomplishment. I have been working with photo editing software recently and trying to understand and learn it on my own.
One of the local beach roads
Just another scene from the beach
My mother always calls this “her” part of the beach. When she saw there was a chair there she insisted someone was invading her beach. LOL! Till she realized these are the new Life Guard chairs posted.
Are you into taking pictures?
What kind of camera do you have?
There are many changes to the way women have babies in the past 100 years, especially in America. Many of the changes have left professionals in the childbirth community including Marsden Wagner, and Ina May Gaskin one of the pioneers of Modern Midwifery in the United States, wondering how to make a new change.
Changing the way obstetrics handles birth.
Changing the way women give birth.
Changing the way women are educated on childbirth. And lastly changing the amount of deliveries being handled by Midwives Vs. OB/GYN’s.
During some of my studies in becoming a childbirth educator through Lamaze, I came across the Mothers Advocate website which is a showcase of amazing videos to help childbirth educators teach their classes, and study. One of the sections focused on the history of birth, starting in the 16th century, and advancing to moderns care. One of the clips actually was in a video I watched as a joke with a good friend of mine, the late Karen Kilson.
I wanted to share a couple of the clips, so us mothers, and birth professionals, or even first time mothers who may still be pregnant can observe the difference and help to ponder the question on whether it is a step forward or backwards.
With all the recent news releases, and Medical Organizations jumping on the bandwagon with concern over America’s Maternal Mortality rate being at alarming rates, the reason for this is under heavy scrutiny. Out of the world, the United States is the “28th” best place to be a mother. But yet we spend the highest monetary amount per birth in the World with no so ideal outcomes.
While this video shows some great information, it is outdated as the cesarean rate is no longer 1 out of every 5 births, it is 1 out of every 3 births, and increasing yearly. The national cesarean rate has grown for the past 12 years in a row in the United States, and the number of VBAC or Vaginal Birth after Cesarean has dropped as the number of hospitals banning access to this procedure is also dropping. It is now estimated that 50% of the Nations hospitals do not offer VBAC at all.
In March the National Institute of Health had a two day conference on VBAC, and the lack of access around the country. The providers and presenters at this conference ranged from Obsetricians, to Rita Rubin reporter for Newsweek.
In the end, the panel released a final statements saying Ob/Gyn’s should be encouraging VBAC, and there should not be bans in hospitals across the country as they are more dangerous for birthing women.
Besides the VBAC information, and VBAC in general there is the lack of access to Midwives, the lack of legality of midwives, and the fact that women are being mislead regarding the option of midwives, and alternative birthing options such as home births, or free standing birth centers.
Studies show that women who are low risk patients, using a trained medical professional, are just as safe in a home birth environment as they are in a hospital. Unfortunately out women are being educated through shows on television looking to make ratings instead of show the accuracy of births today, and our generation has become fearful of birth, unlike our mothers, and grandmothers.
Funny story, over the weekend my husbands Grandmother who is almost 87 years old asked me if my youngest son, Benjamin who will be a year old next week was born at home. We talked a little bit and I told her about Camden (my oldest son) and Benjamin’s births, and what we plan for our third child, if and when that time comes.
I made some delicious cookies last night, and while I didn’t take pictures along the way while making the recipe up as I went along, I thought I would share the recipe minus pictures. (Sorry, I hate recipes without pictures so I am breaking one of my own rules!)
Kitchen Sink Cookies
3 table spoons Vanilla
2 Eggs
1 cup butter
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 packed cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar (white)
1 cup flour
3 cups all purpose oats
1/2 cup raisins
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup walnuts
1/2 cup pecans
I know it is pretty self explanatory to mix this all together, but I tend to mix the liquid ingredients together first, followed by the flour, then the oats, with the goodies all last.
Bake on 325 Degrees for between 12-15 minutes.
Keep a close eye on them if you let them cook too long they won’t be as chewy as they should be!
Benjamin and his shell
Camden at the Beach
