I've Got This: Memories of Mom & Trips to the ER

"Momma, it's a real emergency", said kid number 4 with not a lot of concern in her voice.

I'm fortunate that at a couple places I work I can bring my kids with me. But, they know do not interrupt class while I'm teaching for any reason except a real emergency.

Even so, when she walked into my Tuesday night yoga class, I wasn't immediately concerned. She wasn't crying and there was no blood on her. In fact I think my first response was "this better be a real emergency."

I'm not an uncaring or blase mom. But I am a mom with six kids and have been through my fair share of kid emergencies. In fact, I'm completely confident I can set a broken bone or diagnose general maladies all by myself.

So when I heard that kid number 5 had cut his leg my first response was oh just tell him to come here.

"No, he can't. The lifeguard has him laying down and is trying to stop the bleeding."

What? 


So with the love and well wishes of my class who were still holding Utthita Trikonasana, I ran out to the pool deck. Oh yeah, sure enough, his leg was cut pretty deep and the lifeguard was trying to stop the bleeding.

As I scooped him up into my arms to get him to the car and begin our trek to the hospital, the lifeguard asked if I wanted him to carry my son out. One of the other lifeguards, one who has watched my kids grow up and knows that this isn't our first time heading off to the ER, stopped him and said "She's got this."

Oh yeah, I've got this.

I'm very grateful for the nursery workers, fitness staff, teachers and friends who have helped me raise six good kids. But sometimes no one else can take the place of mom.

As I sat in the ER with him waiting on his stitches, I told him the story of when I had to get 54 stitches in my hand. This is absolutely a true story with no embellishment.

I was about 14 years old and "in charge" while my mom was at work. However, my disobedient younger sister wouldn't respect my authority as the older, wiser sibling. So when she refused to pick up her banana peel off the front lawn I tried to follow her inside to reason with her non-violently. Instead she slammed the door in my face and my hand went through the glass window causing me 54 stitches just weeks before my twirling debut in marching band.

It was all very traumatic at the time.

As I shared this memory with my sister, we both remembered our neighbor putting a dirty washcloth over my hand to stop the bleeding. Just at the time this neighbor was suggesting we pour peroxide into my open gaping wound, my mom's car flew onto our street and she ran up to the house.

"I've got this," she said as she gathered me up and into the car on the way to the ER.

How odd to be thinking about my mom as I sit with my son in the emergency room. Although, really, I guess I'm remembering the times when I was scared and hurt and by simply saying "I've got this" mom was able to calm me down and convince me it was going to be OK.

The next day my oldest daughter, kid #4 who first reported the real emergency and is all of 10 years old herself, asked me if I was freaked out when I saw how deep his cut was. No, I told her. It's a moms job to stay calm in an emergency.

And someday- in a long, long time from now, it will be her turn to scoop up her child and whisper in his ear "I've got this."

This picture is about 5 years old, but it's still
my favorite of me and my bunch.

It's Not Geeky, It's a Book Club Kula

It's back - the return of Twitter Yoga Book Club!

I've written lots of posts about my love of and for yoga. And there have been more than a few posts about my love of reading and books. So how great that I get to combine those two passions in one great book club.

This is not the stereotypical, stuffy, meet in the living room kind of book club. No, we are a cool kula of yogi's and book nerds who take advantage of social media and tweet our discussion using #YOBC. By using Twitter, I get to share the books with people from literally all over the world. And, sometimes the author even joins our Twitter discussion which takes it to an all new level.

The group had taken an unofficial summer break, but with some prompting from me and the need for a new good read from Meredith LeBlanc, we will begin reading again August 20 with the release of the much awaited Yoga Bitch by Suzanne Morrison.

And.. I tweeted Ms. Morrison and she said she will definitely be a part of our discussion group!

So, if you are looking for a good book to read, or a cool group of yogi book geeks, check us out on Twitter. There's no timeline for reading and you can tweet your thoughts at any time.

Update: The book is officially released August 16. But you can pre-order now on Amazon and it will delivered either to your door or your Kindle on that day. But even if you don't get it right away, just join in the discussion when you can!

A Health-Nut Mom Makes Mountain Dew Cupcakes

Last Sunday I posted about the delicious and healthy whole wheat oatmeal blueberry muffins that I baked. They only lasted a few days because the kids - and me - scarfed them down. As I offered to share my baked goodies with those around me, a few people asked why I'd ruin a good muffin with healthy ingredients?

Some people have accused me of being a health nut - absolutely not true. I try to eat a mostly vegetarian diet but I'm not extreme or super strict about it. And some have accused me of not letting my kids have "good" food - again, absolutely not true. Just because my kids have never had Spaghettio's doesn't make them deprived!

Today, I did my usual pre-cooking for the week. I made a big pan of roast vegetables, four servings of steel cut oatmeal, quinoa, and a pot of Buddha's delight. I'll eat off all that this week when I get home in the evenings after teaching.

When I was planning my menu for the week, I mentioned I was also going to make root beer cupcakes. I found the recipe in the Happy Herbivore cookbook. I figured it might be a neat way to sneak in a vegan dessert on the kids!

Well, my kids don't really like root beer, so the oldest instead asked for Mountain Dew cupcakes.

I do NOT recommend drinking or
baking with this soda.

Mountain Dew cupcakes?

I googled and sure enough such a recipe exists. Now, being the health nut that I am (not), I don't allow my kids to drink soda. However, as the older ones have reached their teen years they are less under my control and unfortunately know all about Mountain Dew.

Now the really funny thing is, this Mountain Dew cupcake recipe says it makes "lite cupcakes" because it omits the eggs and oil. I guess us health nuts have a different version of "lite" because I would never consider 7 cups of powdered sugar to be lite!

Anyway, wanting to be a cool mom, I made the cupcakes. I don't drink Mountain Dew and I didn't try the cupcakes so I can't personally vouch for how good (or bad) they are. However, they smell so sickeningly sweet that the smell alone gave me a headache.

And the best part -- my kids don't love them! Even the oldest Mountain Dew guzzling teen said they were "OK, but too sweet."

I'm considering it a personal victory that just maybe some of my health nuttiness will rub off on them after all.

For those who want to give it a try, here is the Mountain Dew cupcake recipe:

Combine a yellow cake mix with 12 oz Mountain Dew. Bake according to package directions.

To make the frosting, beat 2 sticks butter, 1/4 tsp each vanilla extract and lemon extract. Blend in 7 cups* powdered sugar. We tinted our frosting with green food coloring.

* I'm thinking the recipe I used possibly had a misprint. 7 cups of powdered sugar is crazy! And it made enough frosting for three times the amount of cupcakes we had. So you could easily cut the powdered sugar down if you also have health nut tendencies.

Feeling Down? Pick Yourself Up and Move For Just 5 Minutes

Isn't it interesting how one moment we ( I ) can be feeling on top of the world, confident and happy and then in an instant we ( I ) fall down to feeling hopeless, frustrated and defeated?

And isn't it interesting how easily we ( I ) give other people the power to set us ( me ) on that downward spiral?

And isn't it interesting how all the self care, live your yoga, stay focused techniques we ( I ) teach seem so far out of reach when we ( I ) need them?

I had a private client this afternoon who shared with me her struggles with depression. She admitted to not being in the gym the past two weeks because she just feels so overwhelmed right now it's all she can do to come home from work and wallow on the couch. Things she normally enjoys: walking her dog, exercise, gardening, she hasn't been able to make herself do because it feels like it just takes too much energy.

As we talked she realized the vicious cycle she was allowing to happen. Frustrated with life --> depression --> not take care of herself --> poor food choices --> guilt over those choices --> depression --> frustrated with life.

We decided that the next time she thought she didn't have the energy to get off the couch, she would force herself to do a self care activity for just 5 minutes. After that 5 minutes, if she really still felt down and depressed, she had permission to return to the couch. But if after those 5 minutes she even felt a little bit better, she would continue the activity for another 5 minutes.

Makes sense right? It's an ingenious idea that I know will work.

Damn I'm good.

And then I came home from work and my feel good, I love my life, happy little mood went to hell in just one phone call.

As I hurried to get the kids dinner I was looking at the clock wondering how soon would be too soon to curl up in bed and veg out in front of the TV. And I was not-so-secretly searching the pantry for sugar and carbs.  Thoughts of "why bother" and "it's always the same" were running through my brain.

As usual, after dinner the kids and the dogs were both dancing around for their evening walk. Ugh, I really don't want to. Walking two big dogs and three little kids just seems like entirely too much effort tonight.

Instead, with my own advice still ringing in my ears, I agreed to a walk. But a short walk taking the short route through the neighborhood.

As we set out I realized there had been a small break in the heat wave. I wasn't immediately melting into a puddle of sweat. As we made the first turn, it felt good to get the oxygen and blood flowing. By turn two I was saying come on we might as well take the long route.

And before I knew it me and dog #2 were even jogging.  We'd jog up a bit, then slow to a walk to let older dog #1 and kids to catch up with us.

By the time we got home, yes I was sweaty and out of breath, but I felt just a bit better too. And we had been out for way more than five minutes. I no longer craved curling up under the covers, the sugary carb cravings had passed and even those negative voices had quieted a bit.

Get moving for just 5 minutes even if I don't feel like it.

It's an ingenious idea that I know works.

Damn I'm good - no matter what anyone else does.

Blueberry Muffins

Is there anything better in the summer than home-made blueberry muffins? No. There isn't.

Tonight me and kid #4 made our first batch of blueberry muffins this summer.  I usually only let one kid at a time help me when I bake to cut down on fights and messes and to sneak in a little alone-with-mommy time.

With my large family I always double (or triple) recipes, but since I was experimenting with making the muffins super healthy I wasn't sure how they'd turn out so we only made a single batch.

I should have made more. Half of my super healthy blueberry muffins are already gone!

Jennifer's Whole Wheat BlueBerry Muffins  

1 1/4 C quick oats *
1/2 C all purpose flour
1/2 C whole wheat baking flour**
1 T baking powder
1/4 C brown sugar
1/2 C unsweetened natural applesauce
Squirt of local honey ( I have no idea how much honey I put in, I just squirted some out)
1 1/2 C fresh blueberries

Mix all dry ingredients together then add in the wet ingredients. Fold in blueberries. Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes.

* The only oats I had in my pantry were Steel Cut Oatmeal not quick oats. They give the muffins a unique little crunch and are really good!

** I usually don't have good results when I use only whole wheat baking flour as opposed to half whole wheat and half white flour. I'd really like to get rid of the white flour altogether. Anyone have any suggestions?

15 Blind Elephants

What happens when 15 Elephant Journal writers who have never met, aren't in the same place and come from different backgrounds decide to collaborate on an article? And they just happen to pick a really easy topic to start with:

What Is Spirit?

Thank you to my fellow Elephant writers for including me in their think tank and letting me run with the big dogs! (or big Elephants as the case may be)

Dancing With My Mom: In Spirit Only Now

Dear Mom -

I'm still pretty pissed at you.

You died and I wasn't done needing you yet.

And now it's been five months and you haven't even visited me.

Kim says you are still watching over me and that's why John didn't get hurt when the swing broke last week. Yes, in case she's wrong and you don't know about this, the swing broke just like last summer. He wasn't hurt this time, just scared to death.

Well if it was you that kept him from getting hurt thank you. But it's not enough.

You know we joked about how you'd come back and haunt us if we did things you didn't like. And I believed you when you told me how your grandmother visited you when Dad was in Vietnam. And I know you believed me when I told you about Pop being here in my house in Memphis the night he died.

So where are you? No dreams. No visions. No visits.

I want levitating dishes or things in the house mysteriously moved. I want vivid dreams that I remember in the morning of you telling me my future or giving me answers I'm seeking. I want that psychic lady that used to be on the Montel Williams show telling me something only you would know.

Tonight Matt was driving (yes, he has his permit now. At least you aren't around to have that worry!) and I was playing with the radio. He HATES when I constantly flip radio channels. Anyway, I was flipping through and he said "stop there."

It was Neil Diamond's Cracklin' Rosie. What 17-year-old boy wants to listen to Neil Diamond?

But we did. And I told him how when me and Kim were kids we would all dance in the kitchen to Neil Diamond.

And for a few minutes I laughed and smiled and forgot to be mad at you.