OpenSky!

My dear readers, I haven’t been this excited about an announcement since my last pregnancy. I am happy to report that I am now an Expert Shopkeeper on Open Sky. What is OpenSky? I’m glad you asked. OpenSky is where relationships, passion, and commerce meet. It’s a new way of looking at commerce. OpenSky is a community of Shopkeepers, Suppliers, and Shoppers working together to change the way the world shops. A Shopkeeper is a real person who sells what he or she loves with passion, creativity and a point of view, (that would be me-wink). I mean wow, it’s not just a place to sell stuff, it’s a place where REAL people share, it’s not just things but their knowledge and insight too!

A Supplier is someone who provides extraordinary goods; things that make life better, easier and more joyful. A Shopper is an individual in search of goods to help them live their passion. An OpenSky good is something that adds value to a Shopper's life, that a Shopkeeper loves and would be proud to put their name on. The mission statement at OpenSky is; to make relationship commerce available to every person on the planet.

Essentially they’re redefining how we shop on the internet and I get to be a part of it! I am excited to see the products I endorse make their way here. I will be adding products every week. Feel free to check out my shop, but do yourself a favor and check out some of my favorite shops here. These people are awesome, and really care about what they do. Be sure to tell your friends about OpenSky too. The following are some of my favorite shops at the site: Happy Hour Mom; these two gals are amazing and they host one of my favorite mom blogs, Happy Hour Mom. His Boys Can Swim, Jane is hysterical and so much fun, their site is fantastic too! Another Favorite is Kelly Tirman; she’s a cool lady and someone I would want to be friends with. Oh yes, it will happen.

So to sum up dear readers, go to the openskyproject.com and have a blast and be sure to share this very special place with all your friends! Thanks for all your support in all my adventures. Love, Gena

Doula Life in Fresno

I received a phone call at 8:45 this morning from my friends husband, "Hi Gena, Uh, Lisa's client went into labor and she's at the hospital and I need to be at work today in a few hours..." No sweat, I say. My friend Lisa is a Doula and so am I, (don't know what a Doula is? CLICK HERE). Doulas are essentially on-call 24hours a day. No matter what time it is, or what the weather's like, they are out the door when their clients need them. Being on-call 24-7 is rough when you have kids. So, Doulas are sure to have a whole community of support.

Most Doulas have supportive partners and families and friends that understand the unconventional job we love. They understand that we may get called to a hospital or home-birth at 2am or 3pm. My mom has taken sleeping children at 4am and my poor kids have fallen asleep at home and have awkened at grandmas as if by magic a number of times. We wouldn't do it if we weren't nuts about this job

I've never met a Doula who wasn't in love with her profession. Most Doulas however are not just Doulas. Most of us here in Fresno have "real" jobs that either pay on a more consistant basis or offer benefits, like retirement. I could never dream of more than three clients in a month. The problem isn't finding a client. The problem is each birth is amzing and beautiful and powerul, regardless of the outcome. I'm physically and emotionally drained after a birth and need at least a week to process it and recover physically and mentally. So more than 3 for ME seems like a lot. So, since most of us Doulas take half payment up front and the other half when the baby's born, being a Doula doesn't really pay the bills. Yet, we do it. I know I would be crushed if I couldn't. I LOVE my job! We don't do it for the money, we do it for the joy of it. For the opportunity to participate in a miracle. We do it for the opportunity to be close to the creator and to witness the strength of women. And I do it because I love watching families come to life, to see the look on a new dad's face, the tears in the eye of the grandma. The disbelieving look in the mothers eyes as she spies the wondrous outcome of love.

I'm crying as I write these last lines. I can recall so many happy faces. I remember watching the faces of a mother and her mother as they looked wordlessly at this brand new pink little baby, born only seconds before. Their eyes brimming with tears of joy glancing silently from baby to one another. I felt so honored to share this incredibly intimate moment.

Lisa just called and let me know her client had her baby and all is well. I breathe a sigh of relief and as I do my phone rings. I hang up with Lisa, it's my client. She is in early labor and it looks like I will have to go to the hospital myself this evening. How exciting! I better make some phone calls....

In Protest of the Holiday Season

It has lost it's appeal to me over the years, this season of supposed merriment. On Facebook I read posts from frazzled harried friends, complaining about 'Holiday traffic' and 'Starting late on gift buying'. Why is it that a holiday that's supposed to be about brotherly love and giving always turns into a migraine inducing consumer melee of guilt and obsessing over things? Why can't Christmas be more like Thanksgiving?

My kids don't pester me for weeks prior to Thanksgiving about buying them Barbie's dream Hampton get-away cottage. Thanksgiving's biggest woe for me is picking out the perfect gift for the host or hostess. One gift, the end. Thanksgiving's focus is on the family and reflecting on how grateful we are about our place in the universe. Christmas seems to have become about how much we want stuff or in most cases agonizing about the stuff other people may want.

I still feel terrible lying about Santa Claus to my kids. Most of my friends can't tell me why we have trees in our houses on Christmas or about the history of the holiday. Am I a humbug? Maybe? Am I the Grinch? Possible. Am I a mom who's stretched financially and is only complaining because there is no possible way I can buy a gift for even a quarter of the people in my life that are so very good to me? Totally. My friends are loyal, steadfast and true. They lift me up and make me laugh. I am grateful for my friends. I am mostly grateful that almost all of them know I will not be presenting them with a gift this time of year and they love me anyway, and isn't that what Christmas is really all about? Happy Chanukah and Holidays of all kinds! Be good to each other and Ho HO HO.

Huge Sale!

Join us this Sat between 10 am and 2 pm for a huge sale! All Maternity Clothing Items must go! Save 10-75% off certain items!

All Maternity Clothing is 75% off!

All childrens shoes are 50% off!

All Nursing Bras are 20% off

Prepay and pre order slings and save 15% off!

Prepay and Pre Order Wraps and recieve 15% off!

Call 559-930-2032 for more info

RSVP at our Parent Circle

Time Machine

Unbelievable!When did I step into this time machine? Time has just flown! It has been four weeks since my last blog entry. I was brought up Catholic and this is beginning to sound like confession! I guess it is to a certain extent. Finding the time with a third baby has proven much more difficult than previous fantasies had me believing. Typing with one hand is not that simple, I really don't recommend it. Now it is sounding more like excuses and less like a confession. In order for it to be confession like I guess I should say exactly what it is I have done. I have completely shirked my duties when it comes to my creative outlets. I write for this blog and 5 others. It sounds like a lot because it is. I also write for two publications and I just haven't done any writing in 4 weeks!

It's been lovely though. I haven't experienced; eye strain, back ache, head aches, shoulder strain or any signs of carpal tunnel. I've managed to recover from what my husband swears was Swine Flu. My husband and daughter also suffered through a week of hellish flu symptoms that had us down for the count. We never ate or drank better in our lives! Or since, because now we are just running through gallons of Superfood and raw milk. We are eating more greens than ever and really cutting back on our refined sugar intake and I've vowed to pick up yoga once a week again. Figures, the minute I drop it, I'm sick.

Now that I'm mended and back to normal, whatever state that may be, the creative juices are a-flowin' and I am back to crouching like a Harpy at my desk to pund out words with one hand. Keep an eye out for me next week when my new T.V. show (MOMMY MATTERS LIVE!)starts on 33.1 or on www.centralvalleytalk.com Monday's at 11am.