It’s #NationalBreastfeedingWeek in the UK which is lovely as it marks Baby B’s almost-6 month birthday, which means he’s been breastfed for 6 months! Go boobs 🙌 We’ve made it through a bunch of hiccups and I’m glad to say it’s still one of my favourite things about this wee stage of motherhood. Which is why it’s been impossible today to get the image out of my head of a mum breastfeeding her baby when she is snatched from her arms. That happened, recently, in the middle of this American border fiasco. And maybe it’s because it’s such a jarring image - something so life-giving interrupted by something so destructive - I don’t know, but it’s stuck with me all day.
What’s happening at the border is nothing short of an atrocity. Parents being told their children will be bathed, then never coming back. A baby snatched from her mother while breastfeeding. ‘Carers’ being told not to touch the children. Cries of ‘mami’ and ‘papi’. It’s reminiscent of taking babies away from slaves, of separating families in the Holocaust.
I just know that if Baby B had been taken away from me and I couldn’t get him back, I’d want people to help. I’d NEED them to. And I think they would.
Honestly, after looking into a bit more last night I just stopped and held Baby B for ages, and feared for these babies, and the world they’re growing up in. That’s not enough. We need to act. 👆DONATE to local advocacy work via @raicestexas or @aclu. 👆PUT PRESSURE on your local representative to stand up for what’s right (UK friends, that’s us too - Trump is set to visit the UK next week so there’s no better time to let your local MP know how angry you are. I’ll be emailing mine tonight.) 👆SPEAK UP and use whatever platform you have to spread the word.
Dan and I are always on the look out for beautiful prints to grace the walls of our home...we love it when they carry special meaning for us. So we were delighted to discover @mapiful who produce gorgeous customised maps of anywhere you choose (handy if you’re looking for somewhere that isn’t New York or Paris etc!) Of course, we picked #Belfast: the city we met, fell in love and got married in. It’s also where Baby B was born, so it’ll always have a special place in our hearts! Ordering from Maplin was super fun: we got to zoom into our favourite area, and choose the style and font of our print - great for font-sticklers like ourselves! I’m plotting our next one...(Not an ad, I’m just very enthusiastic about prints!)
So I probably don’t need to tell you that, as an Irish girl, potatoes feature on my menu board a lot - in summer just as often as in winter! They’re an excellent natural, fat-free source of potassium and fibre, and I love that it’s so easy to find locally grown potatoes, too. Anyway, I created a super easy baby potato & chickpea salad that is giving me LIFE! It’s perfect for a quick midweek meal that is nutritious AND delicious. * Roast potatoes for 30 minutes and chickpeas for 5, both in olive oil, paprika, salt and pepper. * Dress with a mix of one tbsp soy sauce, one tsp honey and the juice of half a lime. * Sprinkle with fresh coriander, serve on a bed of leaves and voila! I’ve added in some tomato and mozzarella I had in the fridge for extra colour today.
Enjoy!
@potatoes_morethanabitontheside #ad #TastyPotatoes
I’m a day late but wanted to mark #WorldEnvironmentDay by telling you about Anastasia. We met in Rwanda last year. She’s a mum of four who makes a living by farming. @hazelthompsonphoto & I got to spend an afternoon with her and watched as she showed us around her crops and animals. She was so proud when she told us about how she could afford heath insurance for her kids thanks to her work, and about how chuffed she was she’d put on weight because she could eat better than before. The area she lives in looked so dry: beige and crisp. I asked her about it. “The weather has changed,” she said. There was talk of new irrigation methods, of branching out...if that failed, of having to displace her family. In that moment it clicked - Anastasia wasn’t trying to make a political or controversial point about #climatechange...it was simply (but profoundly) her reality. I realised then that my habits - my eating and drinking, shopping and travelling, my choices - had a direct impact on the lives of people like Anastasia who have to face a changing and hostile environment head on. I didn’t have a big eureka moment in which all my habits changed, but the day I met Anastasia marks the day looking after the environment became a human imperative, something I had to do - a life and death issue. There is still so much to do, but small, daily choices are the only way we’ll get anywhere and avoid catastrophe in Anastasia’s life. Recycling, buying a sustainable water bottle or toothbrush, asking your supermarket to use less plastic, buying better but less, washing your clothes at a lower temperature, sharing a lift...it will help. Slowly, but it will. It’s all we can do. And really, we can’t not. On campaigning and to help people like Anastasia, follow @tearfund. On eco-living, follow @melwiggins @doyourbit.uk @mamalinauk. For sustainable fashion, follow @kindredbyamy @saraoneillstylist. For some fab sustainable shopping, follow @ekoearth @thekindstoreuk.
