Mama Renew

1. Please please please go to this website & cast your vote for Mama Renew & Dancing Star Birth as the 2010 SavvyMom Top Mom Entrepreneur.

2. Note: You must have a Canadian postal code to register to vote.  You can opt out of receiving any mailings.

3. We encourage you to leave a comment when you vote to help build momentum.

Why We Need Your Vote:

1. We have a very good chance of winning! – if you take just a moment to vote for us.  If you or someone you know has been touched by our programs, please take this moment to support us!

2. Dancing Star Birth & Mama Renew have supported almost 4000 parents with prenatal classes and moms groups since 2003.  We have grown to a team of 12 women offering groups around British Columbia, and our blog and facebook page support women from around the world.  All this with no business training….imagine what we could do with the support this award offers!

What Winning Would Mean for Us:

The SavvyMom Top Mom Entrepreneur will receive a grand prize package worth $22,000.  Here’s what we would do with the prizes: 

Full Year of Business Mentorship: There is perhaps no greater gift than having an experienced business professional serve as a mentor, in this case the 2009 winner Shirley Broback, founder of Vancouver Island Baby Fair. 

Cash Prize of $5000: This would allow us to invest in high quality videos and podcasts to support our existing programs and build a foundation for extending our suupport with online offerings for families around North America.

Workplace Productivity Assessment: While I do have a very detailed “to do” list, I am the first to admit that I am not nearly as focused or efficient as I could be.  As I strive to maintain a healthy balance between work & family time, this support would be invaluable.

Search Engine Optimization: While we have very strong word of mouth in our local region, the key to reaching families around North America is having a strong online presence. 

Brand Make-Over: When I began in 2003 I had no idea how the business would grow… A branding make-over as we expand our services is an essential component.

Public Relations Package: While I have cultivated many new business skills over the years, PR still feels like a beast I’m not sure how to tame.  Imagine what we could do if we actually had some online and print media coverage!

Social Media Program: We’ve made big steps in social media this year, building strong facebook pages & a presence on Twitter and transforming The advent of social media has transformed how we are able to interact with our wide community.

Thank you all for your support over the years, as clients & colleagues.  Whether or not we win this award, we promise to do our best to serve our community of families with quality programs and continued innovation and growth in the years to come.

Blessings,

Sarah & all the wonderful women of Dancing Star Birth & 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.

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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

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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

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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

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Having just completed a 3 day intensive workshop on Regenerative Nutrition with the wondrous Nadine Ijaz, Clinical Nutritionist and Registered Herbalist, I am going through our kitchen with all the fervor of a convert.  Testing grains and oils for rancidity, reading ingredient labels, checking for grain moths, questioning the role of Peanut Butter in our family life…

Seven women, one experimental kitchen, and three full days of talking about food – good food, bad food, and good food gone bad.  All the things I kind of understood, I now know with a new depth of comprehension and commitment.  Fats and oils, sugars, grains, dairy… each element of our family diet has been deconstructed and examined.

I admit to feeling an odd mix of excitement and terror going to this workshop.  Sometimes it’s easier just not knowing.  Still, for every moment of resistance there were two more of revelation and integration. I’m ridiculously excited to be soaking grains, baking sourdough bread, and making beet kvass.

I am, of course, in the midst of the classic transition from “retreat” back to “real life”, and am not entirely sure how to make these grandiose plans work within our busy life as a family.  I also am a firm believer in the 80/20 principle, and have in no way said a permanent goodbye to white sugar.  Time will tell what form these new ideas and practices will take within our life as a family.

Still, I feel like I have taken some significant steps towards a new way of eating, and my primary motivation right now is one of pure discovery.   I figure as long as I’m having fun and feeling creative in the kitchen, I’m on the right path!  Here’s a recipe to get you started:

Toasted Nuts

Soak 2 C raw nuts in water with 1/2 tsp sea salt for 7 – 12 hours.  Drain and place in warm oven (no more than 150 degrees) on a cookie tray until dry & crispy (12-24 hours).

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Yesterday on our Mama Renew facebook page we posted the query:

What’s YOUR favourite phrase or mantra to keep you going? C’mon, share the encouragement!!

I don’t want your responses to be lost in facebook land so here are just a few of your wonderful mantras:

Live Strong

Good is Good Enough

There is enough time, and every moment counts…

I had a baby…I’m pretty sure I can do this.

Let it Go.

Bedtime and wine time always comes….

“I think I can, I think I can, I think I can”

If it’s not a good time, it’s a good story.

& one of my favourites….

Everything is going to be alright.

Many (many) years ago I had the joy of playing Mary Magdalene in a production of Jesus Christ Superstar in Lusaka, Zambia (!!)  Mary’s opening song “Everything’s Alright” has become a source of great soothing to me.  My husband sings it when I’m sick,  I sing it to our boys,  I sing it to myself…

I think in the end this is what it is all about. At the core, we know that we have what we need to move through this. “Alright” may look very very different from our ideal world, but it is indeed alright, and we can be fully present and responsive to what the moment demands of us (sounds a lot like birth, yes?).

Here’s a clip from the 1973 movie – enjoy!

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Have you seen our articles about asking for help?

Now it’s our turn! 

Please help us win the 2010 SavvyMom Top Mom Entrepreneur Award.

From my beginning as a stay-at-home mom teaching the occasional class, to our present team of 14 fabulous women & seven locations, I am in awe of what the past seven years of growth have brought us, and the potential for what lays ahead.

In recent years we have witnessed dramatic changes to the landscape of childbirth and family support.  The advent of social media has transformed how we as a business are able to interact with our wider community.  We have big dreams for Mama Renew & Dancing Star Birth – and this award will allow us to take big steps forward in the realm of online education and support.

If each and every one of you casts just one vote, we have a very real chance of winning.  If you have a friend or partner who could vote as well, invite them to join you!   So please, take just a few minutes to cast a vote for us, and on behalf of all the families we dream of supporting in the years to come.

THANK YOU!

click on the image above, or here to cast your vote.

To vote you will be asked to join SavvyMom.  They have great resources for you to enjoy, or you can easily unsubscribe after voting.

www.dancingstarbirth.ca & www.mamarenew.ca

I’m feeling shy. This isn’t new – on the Meyers-Brigg scale I teeter just beyond the big I for introvert. I thrive with lots of alone time and in small groups, and struggle with larger groups.   Yet here I am, with a business that demands engagement, a blog that invites self-reflection and vulnerable sharing, and an ever expanding community of women who are sharing in this journey.

Our Virtual Mama Renew Retreat at the end of May was wildly successful – we received over 500 comments  in response to posts that invited reflection and intention-setting.  Our community of facebook page members also doubled in just a two week period. Amazing!  I am so overwhelmed by the response, and more than ever, excited by the potential for Mama Renew to create an authentic community of mothers.

Ok, overwhelmed – and shy.

I find myself not knowing where to begin with so many new women

(which is why I’m starting here…).

The sharing we enjoyed during the Virtual Retreat was exactly what I have been envisioning for Mama Renew.  I want this to be something we all feel a part of.

Please, please, please share your experience on these pages.  Your comment helps each of us feel a part of something larger.

Your words may just spark something in another woman, serving as a reminder or an inspiration. I look forward to learning from you

p.s. We’re in the running for SavvyMom Entrepreneur of the Year Award! If you like what we do, please vote for us – we have big dreams & the support this award offers will make all the difference.  You can VOTE FOR US HERE - each and every vote makes a difference.  We want to win this thing!

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click here to comment!

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Keep a list of everything that interests and excites you, no matter how insignificant.

Remind yourself that these are indicators or clues

that both the talent & the necessary Spirit assistance exist to bring them into your reality.

- Wayne Dyer

What sparks you?  We all have a mental list, some high priority and some all but forgotten.  On any given ordinary day we may come across something new for our list, catching us by surprise.

I, for example, have recently grown very intrigued by the idea of growing & wild harvesting mushrooms.  I know this is likely not high on most of your lists, but I really really want to learn.  I haven’t yet truly made the space to learn, and it may be a few more years before it happens, but it’s on my list.  Each time I hear about it I get these ridiculous flutters of excitement – about fungus!   I know the day will come.

At the retreat we did a fun sharing of all the things that interest or excite us that are not yet part of our reality. We went around the circle maybe 5 times, a marvelous discovery of the diversity of women in the room. Turns out we are interested and excited by some very cool things – and somehow just saying them out loud helped each of us feel that they are indeed possible.

Turns out we are interested and excited by some very cool things – and somehow just saying them out loud helped each of us feel that they are indeed possible.  There’s a reason that mushrooms excite me, along with quilting, weaving, sourdough, silversmithing, and a few more that I won’t mention in this very public venue

While part of what holds me back is certainly time, there is also a threshold or line that needs to be intentionally stepped over for each. Sourdough is my newest love to enter my daily life, and now that I have begun & gained confidence in it there is an ease to baking our family bread & the beautiful sourdough pancakes I made this morning.  There is real truth in the slogan “Just do it,”  and once we’re on the other side of that threshold the way seems to open.

What’s on your list?

This is no bucket list, friends, this is a list for Now.  What do you crave?

It’s the day after and Life is back to normal.  My husband has a cold.  The kids are back from school.  The garden needs a good weeding.  It is always a striking contrast to step back into our normal reality after such a step away.

We found ourselves musing on the nature of the retreat yesterday – why was it so special?  Time away, of course, is always a treat.  The open dialogue & heartfelt exchange that began from our very first evening together was extraordinary. The nature that surrounded us surely helped us feel held & nurtured.

What really made the difference, however, were the unexpected small things:

1.  Permission to make a mess. With a basket of fabric, threads & beads available 24 hours a day we reveled in the opportunity to begin a project and leave it out without worrying about the mess or our children playing with the needles.

2.  A sense of completion. We finished our tea, our baths, our walks, our creative projects, our meals…no interruptions & all the space we needed.

3.  No Responsibility. Hollyhock staff picked us up at the ferry, carried our luggage to our rooms, fed us nourishing and scrumptious meals, washed all the dishes, and made us feel like queens for 4 days.  All we had to do was enjoy.

4. Oysters on the Beach. On Saturday night we enjoyed the Hollyhock tradition of grilled & raw oysters on the beach.  The first time for a few of us, and well worth the bravery.  They were amazing, especially with their secret recipe topping which I would Love a recipe for.

5. The Tea Nook. So simple, and yet it offered us a beautiful sense of being held.  Water always hot.  A bowl of chamomile flowers & mint leaves to float in our cups.  An array of beautiful teas to choose from.

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Comment here & on our facebook page to win one of our fabulous prizes!

Welcome to all of you who are new to Mama Renew and our Virtual Retreat.  Over 100 of you have joined in the past 24 hours, a total of 510 women.  Hosting the virtual retreat was a last minute inspiration, and I didn’t anticipate the way in the wider circle of you enjoying the Virtual Retreat would affect our own experience for the 8 of us here on retreat at Hollyhock.

While we are growing & learning, a wider circle of you are finding creative ways to bring the Mama Renew spirit into your daily lives.  It is helping us know that the conversation will continue once we return home, and perhaps helping you to envision the day when you will be one of the lucky women to join us here.  In an unexpected way, we are feeling your presence holding us – thank you.

If you’ve just joined us and aren’t sure how this works, here are the basics:

1. Enjoy our posts this weekend featuring Virtual Retreat activites to help you have a taste of what we’re doing here.

2. Comment on our blog or facebook page to be entered to win one of our fabulous prizes listed below (contest ends Monday, May 30th at 10 pm).

2. Multiple comments = More chances to win!

3.If you share this post on your facebook page let us know at info@mamarenew.ca and you’ll receive five bonus entries.

Lucky Mama Prize Package

Create your own retreat with one complimentary night’s stay for two at Ocean Light Cottage & Spa where you will enjoy the best of Bowen Island’s beauty and abundance.  Includes an organic continental breakfast and an infrared sauna session! Value $200.

Beautiful Mama Prize Package

Celebrate your beauty with a modern portrait by acclaimed photographer Kyrani Kanavaros of Klik Photographic. Kyrani’s portraits are a personal reflection of the essence of the self, captured in a moment, and treasured forever.  Value $495 includes one hour photo shoot, online proofing gallery & a CD of 4×6 jpg photos.

Nourished Mama Prize Package

Nourish yourself with a personalized plan from Holistic Nutritionist Meghan Rathwell.  She will help you meet your wellness goals – renewing energy and creating ease in the kitchen (It’s possible, we promise!)  A 75 minute personal consultation can be done by phone or in person.  Value $95.

Nurture yourself with this luscious calming package from Mama Goddess Birth Shop, your online resource & store for birthing and growing families.  Submerse yourself in Mama Goddess Calming Bath Salts.  Revisit your serenity anywhere & anytime with the Calming Mama Spritzer.  Soothe your body and soul with a warm cup of Calming Mama Tea.  Dim the lights and relax with the glow of an all natural Hummingbird Beeswax Candle & Votives.  Value $75.

As we went around the circle introducing ourselves last night each mother shared a bit about herself & her family.  We passed around photos of our children, and they now are resting on a table in the corner, there to see when we need a reminder, and acknowledged as core to our journey as women.

Then I shared the groundrules.  One of our core rules in Mama Renew groups is no talking about our children.   Now this is hard.  Sometimes it’s really hard.    Another ground rule is to not “mother” other women in the circle.  This means no passing kleenex, no saying comforting things, no suggestions of how to make it better…  Simply holding one another where we need to be.

I went to a Birthing From Within retreat years ago with brilliant writer & visionary Pam England.  At the time I was a relatively new mother – my first born (now was just 18 months old and I was there pumping & praying that my milk supply would make it through and missing him terribly.  That very first night as we began to introduce ourselves “through” our children (I am mother to X and Y and Z…) she stopped us.  We were not there as mothers.  We were there for ourselves, to grow in our Birthing From Within practice.

Having been so immersed in the intensity of new motherhood for the past year and a half I found this to be crushing.  Without identifying myself as Galen’s mother I wasn’t sure who I was, or even what I had to contribute.  I had allowed myself to be consumed by one aspect of myself without nourishing the whole.

Are we mothers?  Absolutely.  We are here because we are mothers. In this time & space, however, we are here as women.

There are other capable and loving people caring for our children.

We do not need to mother them in this moment.  We do not need to mother one another.  We only need to “mother” ourselves.

Hard?  Absolutely.  Essential?  You know it.

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Comment here & on our facebook page to win one of our fabulous prizes!

On the top of the How to Get to Hollyhock guide we’ll be following today it says

“Some Say It’s All About the Journey.”

In the case of Hollyhock either it’s true, or we’re a bit mad to be taking a total of 3 ferries and two taxis to get to Cortes Island.

I love road trips.  I don’t love the driving or gas station bathrooms.  I do, however, love that suspended from reality feeling I get on a road trip.  The feeling of being unknown, unneeded, inbetween worlds & responsibilities. I’m simply on the journey.

While I’ve always loved the feeling of the journey (I travelled through latin america & africa in life before children), it has become even more of a delight as a mother.  I find myself particularly struck by the simple fact that others I meet don’t even know I’m a mom.  Sometimes I find myself deliberately bringing them up in casual conversation, missing the way in which they shape who I am & how others see me.  Other times I revel in being an unknown quantity, able to define myself without my children shaping others perception of me.

We’re off this morning.  You won’t hear from us again until late afternoon when we arrive on Cortes.

Your first Virtual Retreat activity?  Road Trip!
Find some way to create a journey in your day.  Driving kids to school/lessons/sports?  Put on some favourite music & crank it up after they leave the car.

Have an hour to yourself?  Go somewhere new and give yourself a taste of discovery & anonymity.

Want to win one of our fabulous Virtual Retreat prizes?

Comment on road trips here or on our facebook page and be entered to win one of our great prizes!

We thought we’d offer something special for all you wonderful women who will not be able to join us at Hollyhock this weekend for Renewal:  A Retreat for Mothers. Instead you can enjoy our unique virtual retreat and have the opportunity to win one of the fabulous prizes below!

Want to enjoy our Virtual Retreat? All you need to do is be a member of our Mama Renew Facebook Page – sweet & simple. You will enjoy daily facebook posts with inspiring quotes & creative ideas to bring the Mama Renew spirit into your weekend.   All those attending our virtual retreat will have the opportunity to enter one of four fabulous prize packages designed to nurture & nourish you as a woman and mother.

How to Enter?

First, join our facebook page.  You receive one entry each time you leave a comment on any post on our blog or facebook page between now and Monday, May 30th 2010 at 10 p.m. (multiple entries allowed!).

Lucky Mama Prize Package

Create your own retreat with one complimentary night’s stay for two at Ocean Light Cottage & Spa where you will enjoy the best of Bowen Island’s beauty and abundance.  Includes an organic continental breakfast and an infrared sauna session! Value $200.

Beautiful Mama Prize Package

Celebrate your beauty with a modern portrait by acclaimed photographer Kyrani Kanavaros of Klik Photographic. Kyrani’s portraits are a personal reflection of the essence of the self, captured in a moment, and treasured forever.  Value $495 includes one hour photo shoot, online proofing gallery & a CD of 4×6 jpg photos.

Nourished Mama Prize Package

Nourish yourself with a personalized plan from Holistic Nutritionist Meghan Rathwell.  She will help you meet your wellness goals – renewing energy and creating ease in the kitchen (It’s possible, we promise!)  A 75 minute personal consultation can be done by phone or in person.  Value $95.

Nurture yourself with this luscious calming package from Mama Goddess Birth Shop, your online resource & store for birthing and growing families.  Submerse yourself in Mama Goddess Calming Bath Salts.  Revisit your serenity anywhere & anytime with the Calming Mama Spritzer.  Soothe your body and soul with a warm cup of Calming Mama Tea.  Dim the lights and relax with the glow of an all natural Hummingbird Beeswax Candle & Votives.  Value $75.

Just two weeks to go until our retreat

May 27th – 30th 2010 at glorious Hollyhock on Cortes Island…

and if you want to come, but don’t think you can afford it, I’ve got a special offer for you.

Please do call me at 604 254 1100

& I will do my very best to make it possible for you to enjoy this amazing retreat.