Mama Renew

It’s a cloudy Friday late afternoon in late August and that means one thing:

1.  We have to pick all those perfectly ripe blackberries before the rain comes.

2.  It’s jam time!

We’ve already braved the blackberry bramble and emerged with an abundance of both berries and scratches.  This afternoon I will don my cutest apron and enter the glorious realm of making jam.

Jam making skipped a generation in my family – my maternal grandmother was raised on a rural homestead where food preservation was a way of life.  In later years she was known especially for her pomegranate jelly, and I savoured each and every spoon-full.  I was raised in the suburbs – our jam came from the grocery store, and I never stopped to ponder the possibility of making our own.

I began to make jam in my first years of motherhood.  Somehow it emerged as something that simply made sense – I’m not sure why, really.  I have very clear memories of feeling completely overwhelmed by piles of fruit needing to be processed and a baby needing to be breastfed. How on earth did we find the time? 

The more we made though, the more it simply became a necessity, a strangely essential part of who we are as a family.  Blueberry Spice, Rhubarb Saskatoon, Strawberry, Blackberry Lime, Oregon Grape…these are just a few of my favourites.  Jam, of course, serves somewhat like a ‘gateway drug’ – once you discover the wonders and ease of jam, it’s only a matter of time before you start pickling, freezing, and drying.

For me, food preservation has been a source of wonderful reconnection & renewal, nurturing both my creativity and sense of adventure.  These long hours of canning, drying, freezing, and pickling have become a time that nourishes me, and each step I take “backwards” to our old food ways is actually bringing me one step closer to myself.

******

Favourite jam recipes?  How does making jam make you feel?

Comment Here…

I leave you with the lyrics to the most wonderful tune from Michelle Shocked – Strawberry Jam, sadly I couldn’t find a video of it anywhere.  Picture some fiddles with kind of a spoken word country vibe with a blues edge.

Saturday morning found me itching – To get on over to my grandma’s kitchen
The sweetest little berries was cooking up right –

And then we’d put them in a canning jar and seal them up tight
We were making jam – Strawberry jam, that’s what kind
Yeah, if you want the best jam – You gotta make your own

We have Smucker’s, Welches, Knotts Berry Farm
But a little homemade jam never did a body no harm
A little local motion is all we need – To close down these corporate jam factories
We’ll be making jam – Strawberry jam, mmmm-mm
If you want the best jam – You gotta make your own

Yeah, we have a little revolution sweeping the land – Now once more everybody’s making homemade jam
So won’t you call your friends up on the telephone
You invite ‘em on over, you make some jam of your own
You’ll be making jam – Strawberry jam
If you want the best jam
You gotta make your own

Subscribe to RENEW •  Follow us on Twitter • Join our Facebook Page

Did you know we have a weekly Mama Renew post on Mothering.com?  Here is this weeks’ offering:

We’re back!  One glorious week away at a stunning remote mountain lake – just two ferry rides and a long stretch of very bumpy logging roads to get there.  The reward?   Children running wild & free, a perfect clear water for swimming, sun, sun & more sun, wonderful friends & family to share in it with.  What could better, right?

Just one big catch:  in order to enjoy such paradise, we had to leave home. Which means:

Click Here to Read the rest at Mothering.com

******

Subscribe to RENEW •  Follow us on Twitter • Join our Facebook Page

We published a new article on Babyvibe this month sharing creative approaches to building a healthy relationship with the grandparents, one of the more tension-filled relationships for many young families.  Here is an excerpt and a link to the original article:

Are you are blessed to have grandparents who play a positive, supportive role with your family? Or perhaps you have equally involved grandparents who seem to bring more trouble than support? Conflict and judgment were most likely not on your list of things to look forward to when you were envisioning loving grandparents taking your little ones to the park.

Along with the perks of grandparents comes a new realm of relationships, and mother-in-laws (from your side or your partner’s) can play a particularly complex role in this new family dynamic. Our mothers are not the only mommy now, and as you grow into parenthood, they too are adjusting to her new role.

The result? Sometimes beautiful growth as you get to know one another in new ways. Other times? Crazy-making conflict. The last thing mamas need is tension with grandparents, so here are a few Mama Renew tips:

Click Here for ideas to support a healthy relationship with grandma

Subscribe to RENEW •  Follow us on Twitter • Join our Facebook Page

Inspired? Visit our guest post on the All About Mothering blog to find out just how much time I’ve had on my own this summer…and what I’ve done with it all.

Read More at Mothering.com

This quote arrived in my inbox last night from Meghan Rathwell (who also inspired this great post on new motherhood and donated a fabulous prize for our Virtual Retreat this Spring).   Perfect Timing.

One of the things I love about the experience of a Mama Renew group is the way we have room to explore our assumptions about what our lives are “supposed” to look like.  Often we see women asking daring questions, revealing seldom declared life dreams, and feeling a healthy dose of optimism and creativity.

Reaching clear discernment is not a simple task.  Most of us enjoy many, many long discussions full of questions and worries and that wonderful query “What if…?” In a post last May we wrote:

And yet every once in a while, we ourselves, or someone we love, takes the leap and says Yes, somehow moving beyond the world of being sensible.

What is it that allows us to move from “what if…” to “I can”?  As mothers I suspect that the patience for clarity is sometimes harder.  We cannot separate our own life decisions from those of our life as a family, and this can create some considerably thick mud to wade through!

Eventually, however, there is indeed a moment of clarity, and it is very much this feeling of the mud and the muck and the questions and worries and doubts all settling to the ground (even if for only a few moments) and everything is crystal clear.  It is not a moment we can create or plan for.  Clarity simply arrives, often in a profoundly understated and simple way. And then we take the first new and exciting steps forward

**************

We’d love to hear from some of you – How do you know when something is right?  Where do you feel it in your body?  What would you like to say Yes to?

click here to comment!

Subscribe to RENEW •  Follow us on Twitter • Join our Facebook Page

Many thanks to Martha of Laughing Volcano Art for the use of her beautiful Blue Girl Leap of Faith image.



Did you know we have a weekly Mama Renew post on Mothering.com?  Here is this weeks’ offering:

In honour of World Breastfeeding Week I want to explore a bit the emotional landscape of breastfeeding challenges.

In a story I have seen repeated all too often, my early months of breastfeeding featured an achingly low milk supply, conflicting professional advice, and well-meaning but deeply hurtful commentary.  This blessed time in my life also included a not-so-nice dose of postpartum depression, a rented scale to measure intake, a supplementary nursing system, formula, goats milk, a variety of herbs and medications, and the requisite hospital grade pump that became a good friend.

It was hard.  Hard,yes, to wake up every 2- 3 hours for a pre-feed-weigh-in, breastfeed, supplemental feed, pump, post-weigh-in, and diaper change.  That was hard.  I ached for the simplicity of putting my babe to breast and simply knowing that he was being amply nourished.

Harder, however, was the emotional journey of acceptance that this was my reality…

Click Here to Read the rest at Mothering.com

******

Subscribe to RENEW •  Follow us on Twitter • Join our Facebook Page