Category Archives: Music

Lost in 120 Hours

Posted on August 16, 2012 by juliebyers

It’s been quiet around here. Any guesses why?

a). I’m terrifically bored and lack anything interesting to say.

b). The kids are slave drivers and keep me too busy to blog.

c). As the only people on the planet who never watched Lost, my husband and I (stupidly) decided to watch the entire show from episode 1 to episode [gulp] 120.

The answer is (c).

Crazy, right? Believe me, we have regrets but we can only move forward at this point and make the best of it by consuming good popcorn and excellent beer. This Lost madness has left little time for late night blogging. *

Truly, this admission is the most pathetic thing I’ve ever written on this blog! Readers are leaving in droves now.

To woo you into remaining and to force myself to follow through, here are some upcoming posts:

When your doula is not invited
Hiring a doula as protection
A review of the Grovia trainer
Cedar turns three
“I will not have a homebirth.” Oops.
My continuing refusal to be a homeschooler

I’m certain you’re all on the edge of your seats.

Meanwhile, my old fallback:

Adoring: Cedar’s lisp. Especially when she says, “Smell these flowers, mom.” Flowers sounds like flylersh.

Listening to: A mix of broadway and I-don’t-know-how-to-categorize Trampled by Turtles. Norah fancies the first. Especially Cats. Cedar will dance and bellow for hours to the second.

Seriously. Watch that clip. It makes me fret that the fiddler is going to collapse.

Proud of: Norah’s art. She draws constantly. She still isn’t very interested in reading but her sketches are amazing.

Never Leaving Home Without: Hmmm, I don’t have many necessities lately. A map app? I’ve had some prenatals in unknown territories.

Learning: for the 15th time, how to thread my sewing machine. It is pitiful, really. I only use it to sew rice socks. Meanwhile, why are sewing machines so complicated? We progressed beyond the printing press and the butter churn. Why is the sewing machine still so complicated! Also, I need to learn to knit again. I was at a birth recently that very much needed knitting. Remember, I never produce anything. I only knit in circles. Perhaps someone could cast on and get me started again?

Appreciating: an amazing massage I received from Blissful Massage Therapy last week. Hot stones, loving hands, and a listening ear. My body and soul felt serene. And I felt somewhat selfish when I left as if she had taken some of my stress into her hands.

Nostalgic about: Autumn. I realize it will come again soon. Still I’ve missed it. And each Autumn, I remember skipping school to drive to Highlands, NC with my boyfriend. We would drink fancy hot chocolate, window shop, and dream. We still return each year to buy a single Christmas ornament but it is different now. And the hot chocolate shop is gone which has left a hole in our lives.

Reading: The Birth House, The Happiness Project, Stalking the Wild Asparagus, “I Love You” Rituals, Rootabaga Stories, and a bazillion old books for Norah.

Buying: building materials for Scott’s workshop remodel. Wow, wood is expensive!

Drinking: coffee, of course.

Working on: organizational structuring and plans for Upstate BirthNetwork. Norah will be attending a fine arts program which will give me a weekly day in the UBN office to work. If I could work it out so Natalie would be there, too, then Cedar and Naima will play while the mamas work.

Wishing: for a shorter commute for Scott. Miles and miles he drives now that his office has moved to Mauldin.

Giddy about: my friend who is soon welcoming her Airman home!!

Feeling: a familiar dissatisfied tug. A feeling of impending change. Go back to outside-of-home work? Sell the house? Buy a yurt and move to an intentional community? Go paleo? Adopt a pygmy hippo? Exercise? Paint my toenails? Put the kids in school? Try a new recipe?

Missing: oh, my sister, my baby sister. I hate when she’s sick and I can’t be there. It makes me walk about distracted and irritable. And my nephew turned TWO! And also, they are healing at that lovely spot in Thailand. Really, I need to go take care of them. And eat yummy Thai food.

Grumpy that: I say “yes” much too much.

*NO LOST SPOILERS! That would be cruel and too awful to comprehend.

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Cozying up with Little Women

Posted on April 16, 2012 by juliebyers

Last night I took Norah and her two friends to the theater. We saw “Little Women”, the musical. I wanted to do something special for her friends since I knew their dad was deploying the week of the show.

As Norah and I pulled into their neighborhood, Norah said, “You know, Mom, the girls in Little Women are a lot like my friends’ dad. Both of the dads are gone to war.”

I had to pull over for a second. I hadn’t made the connection at all. Quickly, I ran through the story in my head. Would it be ok to take these girls to see it?

I pulled the girls’ mom aside as they loaded up and asked her thoughts. She looked as surprised as I had been. I can’t believe we didn’t think about it! She hurriedly took her youngest daughter aside and told her that the story tonight would be about a different war. One fought a long time ago.

I’m mentally kicking myself.

I’ve read Little Women umpteen times. Somehow, reading it and watching even the musical version at this time in my life has been powerful.

Reading it, I’m intrigued by Marmee as a mother. Her candid talk. Especially when she admits, “I am angry nearly every day of my life.” Mostly, Marmee makes me feel inadequate in every way. It is no wonder I latch on to this one revelation.

The musical was brilliant. Fifteen minutes into it, I stopped biting my nails and fretting over the girls. I got caught up in the story. The first moment that hit me was Marmee’s scene in which she tries to write her absent husband a letter. She wants to tell him how hard the days are and how alone she feels. And how she fears she is failing as a mother. But she can only write chipper words of encouragement. I ached for my friend who said the same thing about when she tried to write a letter to her deployed husband.

And then came Marmee’s song, “Days of Plenty” which begins after Jo asks, “How do you do it? How do you go on?” referencing Beth’s death.

I missed the funeral of a young mother in our community to attend “Little Women”. It wasn’t an easy decision. Images of my grieving friends and this mother’s small children were always in my thoughts. I wanted to be there to support them.

And then this song.

I refused to feel tragic,
I am aching for more than pain and grief.
There has got to be meaning,
Most of all when a life has been so brief.
I have got to learn something,
How can I give her any less?
I want life to go on.
I want Days of Plenty

You have to Believe,
There is reason for Hope.
You have to Believe
That the answers will come.
You can’t let this defeat you.
I won’t let this defeat you.
You must fight to keep her there,
Within you!

So Believe that she matters!
And Believe that she always will!
She will always be with you!
She’ll be part of the days you’ve yet to feel!
She will live in your bounty!
She will live as you carry on your life!

So carry on,
Full of Hope,
She’ll be there,

For all your Days of Plenty

I love that line, “She will live in your bounty.”

I didn’t know Eileen well. I knew her as a mom in the playgroup. Our conversations were rarely more than surface level mom stuff. She had sparkly eyes and a humongous spirit. I remember once when she spontaneously led the older kids in yoga poses during a babywearing group. They followed her like the pied piper.

Many of my friends knew her deeply and loved her deeply. And as I sat in the theater with tears falling off the tip of my nose, listening to a musical (a musical!!), I knew that I was hearing Truth.

She’ll be part of the days you’ve yet to feel. She will live in your bounty. She will live as you carry on your life.

My time with Little Women has been unexpectedly raw and revealing. And I have to believe there is reason for absorbing it at this time and place.

Of deployed husbands and fathers.

Of angry marmees.

Of grieving friends.

May we carry on full of Hope.

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Posted in Beauty, Friends, Music. Bookmark the permalink.

Lately

Posted on April 4, 2012 by juliebyers

I haven’t done one of these in awhile.

Adoring: my May clients. Two beautiful families. Their births will be extraordinary.

Listening to:

Proud of: my students and the amazing, outside-the-norm births they experience!

Never Leaving Home Without: My LifeFactory bottle filled with coconut water, chlorophyll, and lemons.

Appreciating: coffee

Nostalgic about: gluten. Oh how I miss it. I’ve been gluten-free for four whole days.

Reading: Little Women with Norah. The Easter Bunny is bringing her tickets to the musical.

Buying: Vitamins and herbs. This family is consuming some serious supplements of late.

Drinking: green tea. Trying to get three cups a day.

Working on: A new blog look. This one has long grown stagnant.

Wishing: Cedar would decide to poop on the potty. I threw away a cloth diaper the other day because I just couldn’t make myself clean it. Shhhhh…don’t tell anyone.

Giddy about: hmmm. I can’t think of anything. I need more giddy in my life of late.

Feeling: Heavy for my dear friend who will be sending off her Airman to faraway places.

Missing: my computer. It crashed last night. As much as I would like to say the iPad satisfies, it falls short in areas like blogging, creating Facebook events, creating documents, working with media files. I would like to insert a picture in this post. Alas, I don’t know how.

Grumpy that: my poor missionary sister in Cambodia gets to see Hunger Games before I do.

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Posted in Birth, Family, Hypnobabies, Music, Products and Gear, Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

Lately Preparing for Christmas With

Posted on December 5, 2011 by juliebyers

Come, Thou Fount of every blessing

Tune my heart to sing Thy grace

Streams of mercy, never ceasing

Call for songs of loudest praise

Teach me some melodious sonnet

Sung by flaming tongues above

Praise the mount, I’m fixed upon it

Mount of Thy unchanging love

Here I raise my Ebenezer

Here there by Thy great help Ive come

And I hope, by Thy good pleasure

Safely to arrive at home

Jesus sought me when a stranger

Wandering from the fold of God

He, to rescue me from danger

Interposed His precious blood

O to grace how great a debtor

Daily Im constrained to be

Let that grace now, like a fetter

Bind my wandering heart to Thee

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it

Prone to leave the God I love

Heres my heart, oh, take and seal it

Seal it for Thy courts above

Come, Thou Fount of every blessing

Tune my heart to sing Thy grace

Streams of mercy, never ceasing

Call for songs of loudest praise

Teach me some melodious sonnet

Sung by flaming tongues above

Praise the mount, Im fixed upon it

Mount of Thy unchanging love

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Posted in Beauty, Music, Prayer. Bookmark the permalink.

39 seconds

Posted on October 20, 2011 by juliebyers

After the last post, I better placate the people who read my blog for reasons other than birthy things.

And so, enjoy 39 seconds of Cedar ~~tormenting~~ entertaining Arlo, the puppy. He is in his crate. I’ll share his cuteness another time.

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Posted in Family, Music. Bookmark the permalink.

A Saturday morning with coffee and this

Posted on February 19, 2011 by juliebyers

Enjoy.

Mood Music

Posted on November 5, 2010 by juliebyers

Over the years, I’ve been privy to many birth playlists. Call me a birth music connoisseur.

I realize that birth music is a personal thing. However, I’ve noticed a few common features.

It is music that makes the mama sway, rock, dance.
It loosens her body–relaxes her jaw and releases her shoulders.
It is the same music she would pick for a romantic rendezvous.
She usually knows all the words (if there are any words).
And for whatever reason, this guy almost always shows up!

Lately I’m hearing Bon Iver, The Avett Brothers, Sigur Ros, Ray LaMontagne. And Norah Jones, Celine Dion, and Chris Tomlin show up pretty frequently. Many times, the mama picks songs with nostalgia from childhood lullabies to the high school prom.

What was/is on your birth playlist?

Now, my personal pick for the perfect labor song is this one: