How to Freeze Blueberries

Penelope and I went blueberry picking last weekend and came home with 5 pounds of blueberries. We used 2 pints for a blueberry pie (recipe and tutorial to coming soon!) and froze the rest.

First I picked off all the stems and picked out any red and not fully ripe berries. I also looked for berries that had been crushed or cracked. Then I spread them out on to cookie sheets and put them in the freezer. DO NOT wash them before you lay them on the cookie sheets.

I put some in the deep freezer and some in our side door freezer connected to our fridge. I let them freeze for about two days and then I took them out and put them in gallon freezer bags and laid them flat, like bricks. By freezing them on the cookie sheets first, the berries do not stick together in the bag and you can scoop out a cup at time as needed. The owner of the blueberry farm that we visited said that she keeps them in her deep freezer for up to a year, in a side door freezer they would last six months.

We found the organic blueberry u-pick farm by searching LocalHarvest.org. Its a great site to help you find organic, local and farm fresh foods.

This is a blog post I found with a yummy blueberry recipe and she also had some Aruvedic information about blueberries.

Carnival of Nursing In Public Post: The First Time I Nursed in Public

Welcome to the July 2010 Carnival of Nursing in Public


This post was written for inclusion in the Carnival of Nursing in Public hosted by Dionna and Paige at NursingFreedom.org. All week, July 5-9, we will be featuring articles and posts about nursing in public ("NIP"). See the bottom of this post for more information.


***



My nursing in public experience is a bit different than most breastfeeding moms I'm sure. My daughter was born with some physical problems that made nursing impossible for us. She had severe tongue tie and TMJ. On top of all that, she had a weak sucking reflex and I have flat nipples. It was like a perfect storm. I refused to give her formula. So I pumped. And pumped. And pumped. She is almost 8 months old now.

Even though I was pumping and giving her bottles, I did not give up on the possibility that she could at least comfort nurse, if not fully nurse one day. We did EVERYTHING! And finally at 5 months, she latched on and nursed to sleep. And we haven't looked back. She still prefers a bottle for a full feeding. But from me she gets snacks and comfort and I get to nurse her to sleep. I can not even describe in words how thankful I am to have those nursing moments with her.

The first time I nursed in public. I almost cried I was so happy. I have always wanted to be a mother and to nurse my baby, so to finally be able to nurse my baby like a normal mother was overwhelming. We were at a park with two of my friends and their babies. It had been a couple of weeks since Penelope started comfort nursing. She was fussy and tired, so I offered my breast. To my surprise she latched on and stayed latched on for several minutes. I had to stop talking and rock her a bit to keep her calm and focused, but still it was impressive, because normally if she is not nursing to sleep, she gets too distracted and frustrated that the milk is not flowing fast enough to stay latched on. It was a beautiful spring day, the weather was perfect. There were other moms with older kids running around near by. I am not sure if anyone looked at us, because I was entrained on Penelope. I was worried that she would pop off and expose my nipple to everyone, but I didn't really care. I was so happy to nurse in public, like a normal breastfeeding mother.

About a month after that experience, I nursed in a restaurant and again, I was nervous of the distractions and her popping on and off. I would never not nurse my baby in public because of my nervousness, and if anyone ever said anything to me, I have the type of personality, that I would give them a piece of mind and some. But because I know how people view breastfeeding in public, I do not whip out my boob as readily. I try to calm her another way first and only try to nurse as a last resort. If she was a better nurser, then maybe this wouldn't be my tactic, but because getting her to latch and stay latched is still a production, I prefer not to have to do it public.

Recently, I also nursed her at the beach. And even there, I felt self conscious and felt everyone eyes on me as they were staring at us. You would think that at the beach people are half naked, so who would care if you saw a bit more cleavage?

I so wish more people breastfed in general and that they nursed in public, uncovered, more often. To send the message to everyone, but especially young girls, that nursing is the way you are supposed to feed babies.








Welcome to the Carnival of Nursing in Public


Please join us all week, July 5-9, as we celebrate and support breastfeeding mothers. And visit NursingFreedom.org any time to connect with other breastfeeding supporters, learn more about your legal right to nurse in public, and read (and contribute!) articles about breastfeeding and N.I.P.


Do you support breastfeeding in public? Grab this badge for your blog or website to show your support and encourage others to educate themselves about the benefits of breastfeeding and the rights of breastfeeding mothers and children.

<center><a href="http://www.nursingfreedom.org/p/carnival-of-nursing-in-public.html" title="Carnival of Nursing in Public"><img src="http://www.babydustdiaries.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/inip1.png" alt="Art by Erika Hastings at http://mudspice.wordpress.com/" border="0"></a></center>

This post is just one of many being featured as part of the Carnival of Nursing in Public. Please visit our other writers each day of the Carnival. Click on the links below to see each day’s posts - new articles will be posted on the following days:

July 5 - Making Breastfeeding the Norm: Creating a Culture of Breastfeeding in a Hyper-Sexualized World

July 6 – Supporting Breastfeeding Mothers: the New, the Experienced, and the Mothers of More Than One Nursing Child

July 7 – Creating a Supportive Network: Your Stories and Celebrations of N.I.P.

July 8 – Breastfeeding: International and Religious Perspectives

July 9 – Your Legal Right to Nurse in Public, and How to Respond to Anyone Who Questions It

Baby Finger Painting Art Project: Part 2

When Penelope was done finger painting, I cut out the prettiest section of her art and framed it up for Peter's gift.

Pretty cool, huh?

Here is Miss P giving her Papa his present, which he loved! Baby-finger-painting-art-project success!

Baby Finger Painting Art Project: Part 1

For Peter's first Father's Day, I wanted to make him something special and handmade. I set up the kitchen floor for Penelope to go crazy with the finger paints. It was her very first art session! I taped a plastic tarp down, and then taped several pieces white art paper to the tarp. Then I put four plastic paint containers out, each with a different color. I added a paint brush to each container.
























We used eco-friendly, non-toxic paints and Penelope went to town!























She managed to get as much on her body as she did on the paper.

Cleaning up! I will show you guys the finished product on Tuesday.

Giveaway: Mimi the Sardine, Messy Baby Bib!

I am so excited about this giveaway!  About two months ago, before I started experimenting with solids for Penelope, I ordered this bib in Dots Blue.  I LOVE it!  I like that it is long sleeved, because Penelope likes to paint her body with food more than putting it in her mouth, and the pocket in the front catches pieces that don't make it in her mouth (and 80% does not make it in!).  It can double as an art smock as well.  AND it's made by an American company, and the fabric is organic!  Couldn't ask for a better product.

Mimi the Sardine sent me the Messy Baby Bib, in the Jungle print, great for a boy or girl.  So to enter, tell me your favorite baby eating memory so far, in the comment section. Share the giveaway on facebook by clicking "like" below, or tweet the giveaway, then leave another comment each time letting us know for an additional entry. Entries will close at midnight July 11th (Penelope's 8 month birthday!) and a winner will be randomly selected.

I'll start: My favorite memory so far, is the very first time Penelope tasted a food.  She was about 5 months old and was grabing and holding onto everything she could get her little hands on.  I was chopping up vegetables for dinner and she was in her bumbo on the counter, watching.  She started to get fussy, but I wasn't done chopping vegetables, so I gave her a big slice of red pepper to keep her entertained.  She immediatly put it in her mouth.  Then, she looked up at me, her eyes wide in amazement.  Her face was priceless!  It was if she was saying, "Oh. My. God.  There are other tastes in the world other than breast milk!"  She was in shock!

Friday Link Love: 7.2.10

Sorry for the late post! I still have one hour left of this Friday, so technically I am on time. Getting the house ready for sale is exhausting!
Hope you enjoy this Friday's link love and have a happy July 4th!

This is insane! An OB office in Ohio that banned patients from using Doulas!

Cool site to help you search for different sunscreens and see what their toxicity levels are. Look yours up, you might be unpleasantly surprised.

Great article about what makes Midwifery care different then hospital care. With cool home-birth, water-birth videos to boot.

I have started another blog! Its all about my move to Chile. Check out my first post.

Starting Solids: Blackberries are a Hit!

I intended for this to be a post about eating local, farm-fresh foods, but today is turning out to be pretty insane for me. So instead, its just a show and tell of a cutie patootie picture of Penelope eating her new favorite: blackberries!