Blossom Rot

We have blossom rot! Oh the horrors! The butts of our pretty tomatoes are turning black.

But we also have a lot of healthy tomatoes so all is OK. And the chickens are gobbling up all the messed up fruit.I can't find the camera cord so no pictures.

I'll distract you with this report from OECD about Family Well Being in OECD countries.

More info here and a fun interactive thingy ma doo.
http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/

The Great Pumpkin Arrives Early

My Mother's Day gift to you, my friends, is this word of advice:
Never compost a pumpkin!!!

A "modest" volunteer pumpkin plant

My Mother's Day present two years ago, right before we moved into this house, was a compost bin. This Spring was the first time we used any of the compost as it needed about 18 months to really develop good dirt. However, during that 18 months our small boy was obsessed with pumpkins more than once. The chant of "More, more, MORE pumpkins" was very popular. Turns out that putting lots of pumpkins and pumpkin innards from pies into a compost pile gets you dozens of little volunteer pumpkin plants sprouting in your garden. Ooops.

Choking out the peppers

Since we were out of town for a week during which the weather was warm and perfect for growing, the modest vines we had been ignoring since we were busy turned into giant robust vines that required big garden clippers to cut. They were HUGE, choking out the peppers and okra and nearly pulling over two tomato plants.

A couple of other observations:  if you eat a lot of avocados (clearly we do) the shells don't compost well. Nor do peach pits. Remember the 27 lbs of peaches I processed last spring? Yeah. We found their remnants. But the dirt was fabulously black and rich. We had a great, relaxing Mother's Day that started and ended in the garden just like we like it.

Motherhood Matters

Me and my boy

I always wish we used Mother's Day to honor the work that mothering represents, value the health and well being mothers, and raise hell for policies that support mothers. Instead we get chocolate and spa days and waffles. I like the waffles, but I'd rather remember the sharp political undertones of the original day.

This is a nice idea: a "Motherhood Matters" week
http://motherhood.ksl.com/

 But it should say "Parenting Matters". And it should call for action. Families matter in any form. Mothers, fathers, and anyone who steps up to the plate to care for a child matters. As a society we sure make it hard on parents though family values rhetoric abounds every campaign season.

Did you know that the leading cause of poverty spells in our country is the birth of a child? That is just flat embarrassing for our nation. We are the only OECD country without paid maternity leave. Between 8 and 11% of American workers have access to paid parental leave. Can we get some support on that issue? Hey Hallmark, do YOUR employees making Mother's Day cards have access to paid maternity leave?

I study and work in MCH and there are a slew of interesting reports released about mothers timed to coincide with the annual holiday. I've picked a few of my favorites below: 

Save the Children released their State of the World's Mothers report.
http://tinyurl.com/state-of-mothers

Last Spring, the Obama White House hosted a forum on workplace flexibility. The report is very good.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/03/31/economics-workplace-flexibility 

I posted this before, but Human Rights Watch released a report on Paid-Leave and Work/Family support.
http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2011/02/23/failing-its-families-0

And though sometimes the research from this place gets spun in weird and unproductive ways, the Families and Work Institute always has good info on working families.
http://www.familiesandwork.org/

Mom's Rising is an awesome organization raising hell for families.
http://www.momsrising.org/

And as the ultimate negative outcome for mothers, Amnesty Internation just released an update on their Deadly Delivery report about maternal mortality.
http://preview.tinyurl.com/amnesty-deadlydelivery

Finally, my favorite, is the original Mother's Day Proclamation taped next to my computer at work.

Original Mother's Day Proclamation
Julia Ward Howe, 1870

Arise, then, women of this day!

Arise, all women who have hearts,
Whether our baptism be of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
"We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."
From the bosom of the devastated Earth a voice goes up with our own.
It says: "Disarm! Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."
Blood does not wipe out dishonor, nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil at the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace,
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God.
In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality
May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient
And at the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.

Mothering deserves more than a card and brunch. Mothering is a political act and as mothers, we need to ask for more from our day.