We're tired. And it's not because of a lack of food.
I was a skinny kid. I can't find any photos, so you'll have to trust me on that.
That lasted through college. Perhaps it was all the walking I did in school (no car), or maybe it was the crappy food. But I never really gained the freshman fifteen, even though I probably could have used it. Once I graduated, though, I started to gain a little. Not a lot all at once, just five pounds or so a year. By the time I hit 30, I was more than 50 pounds heavier than I'd been when I graduated from high school. (Hmm...no photos of this era, either. Go figure.) But in the summer of 2004, after needing to buy size 16 shorts, and after seeing my sister eat Oreos while on Weight Watchers (more on her later), I decided it was time to lose some weight. I figured if I could eat Oreos while on a diet, that was the diet for me.
Six months later, I had lost 40 pounds and bought a size 6 wedding dress off the rack. I looked great, and I felt great.
So naturally, I turned back to Weight Watchers after both my pregnancies. I gained nearly 60 pounds when I was pregnant with Jonah, and lost all of it before he was a year old. I kept it off for a few months, but my weight started to creep back up when we decided to start trying for #2. (I treated both my pregnancies as my last opportunity to eat whatever I want, and once the decision was made, I guess I started a little early.) I only gained about 40 pounds with Ava, but I started fifteen pounds heavier. Weight Watchers has once again been my savior, though. She's five months old, and I've been below my pre-pregnancy weight for nearly a month. And that's with hardly any exercise. Now I just need to lose 10-15 more pounds and I'll be at my goal.
(Warning: here's the part where I go all WW cheerleader on y'all.)
The great thing about Weight Watchers is learning tips for a new lifestyle. This is not just a diet, it's a new way of life. I've made a lot of small changes in my eating habits that have really added up when it comes to weight loss. Best of all, I'm setting an example for my kids. I'm sure they'll inherit good genes—neither Matt nor I have ever been grossly overweight—but they'll also inherit good eating habits. (I hope. Jonah's a picky eater, but at least we're keeping him away from junk food.)
But don't take my word for it. Here's a photo of my sister from two years ago.
We were all pretty worried about her. She did not inherit the best genes, and her risk for things like diabetes and heart disease were only exacerbated by her weight.
Katie and Ava, spring 2009
Katie and Jonah, summer 2008Masters of Science in Accounting.
Lots of people have been asking about it, so I thought I'd write a bit about it. Yes, I'm going back to school to get a degree in accounting. Yes, I already have a graduate degree in social work, perhaps the 180 degree opposite of accounting. Sometimes I think I'm a bit nuts. Sometimes, when I say it, I feel like I have to hang my head in shame, like I'm some sort of traitor or defector. My favorite grad school professor wrote me a recommendation, and when I first asked him to do it, he told me he'd be happy to write a rec for a job in social work, but that he didn't think he was the right person to write this. (I talked him into writing it, since they ask for my aptitude for graduate study in general and not accounting or business specifically.)
It started in April, when I was working on our taxes. Now granted, I was just entering numbers into TurboTax, not really doing any real accounting. But two things occurred to me while I was doing it. First, I really liked working with those numbers. My jobs since getting my MSW have been all about working with people. (Well, duh.) I think I'm a little burned out on people. I realize that there will be people involved in an accounting career, but I like the idea of focusing on those numbers. In addition, I've done some accounting and financial management for the EMA Fund, so I have a little bit of an idea of what I might be in for. And I'm not a clinical social worker. I concentrated in management and community practice. So I've never been interested in being a therapist.
The second thing that occurred to me while I was working on our taxes was that I really need to earn more money. Don't get me wrong - I'm eight years past my masters degree, and I earn plenty of money. For someone who lives, well, pretty much anywhere other than Boston. But childcare for two kids is eating up my entire salary (and it would even if I were working full-time – remember, full-time work requires full-time childcare). Once Jonah starts preschool in the fall, it will eat up more than my entire salary. We can swing it, but it would be nice to minimize that financial hit by creating opportunities for higher earnings in the future.
I don't want to be a CPA, so don't start signing up to have me do your taxes. Instead, I'd like to be a private accountant, keeping track of some company's money. Down the road, if the day comes that we can manage with me making a lower salary, I'd love to work for a nonprofit again. In the meantime, though, perhaps I can do some pro bono accounting work to fill my need to repair the world. (EMA is first on my list, of course!)
To write this blog post, I did a google search on "What is accounting?" The first definition I found read:
Quite simply, accounting is a language: a language that provides information about the financial position of an organization. When you study accounting you are essentially learning this specialized language. By learning this language you can communicate and understand the financial operations of any and all types of organizations.
(Source: http://www.moneyinstructor.com/lesson/accountingintro.asp)I've always been good at languages. And also math. I almost majored in math. So you can see why this field might be appealing to me. I like how accounting is so...concrete.
I've gotten some super-cute shots of the kids lately. This contest (follow me! twitter.com/Mom_04) has really been good for my photo-taking. Jonah has started to pay more attention to Ava, and Ava has discovered her feet. So without further ado, here are some of the best:
My Miracle Blankets arrived yesterday. It's so ironic that this happened now. As longtime readers (hi Mom!) know, I recently stopped swaddling Ava. It's not that I don't have love for the swaddle. When I was in the hospital after she was born, one of the things I most looked forward to about going home was swaddling her with the technique I learned for Jonah (the Super Swaddle) in our own stretchy blankets. I don't remember exactly when we stopped swaddling Jonah, but I think he was at least 5 1/2 months old.
But Ava wriggled her way out of the swaddle with considerably more ease than he did. When it was clear that the Super Swaddle was no longer enough to contain Ava, I was at a crossroads. One path was to stop swaddling. The other was to try the Miracle Blanket. But I didn't want to shell out when I had no idea if it would work (and when she'd only be swaddled for a few more weeks or months anyway), so when we implemented the Great Baby Move of 2009, we stopped swaddling her, thinking we'd do all the sleep transitions at once.
I can remember almost the exact moment I went from being sort of wishy-washy, noncommittal pro-choice to knowing without question what choice I would make in that situation. It was my senior year in high school, I had had sex (for the first time!) without using birth control, and my period was late. My first thought was, "How much does an abortion cost, and where will I get the money for it?"
As it turned out, I was not pregnant, and I have never had to make that choice. G-d willing, I will never have to. But I have since counseled numerous women about their choices and helped scores of women who chose abortion to come up with the money they needed to pay for the procedure (through my paid work at PPLM and my volunteer work with the EMA Fund), and I've witnessed the range of emotions that women have expressed at that time in their lives.
When I learned yesterday of Dr. George Tiller’s murder, I was holding Ava in my arms, surfing the web while rocking her to sleep. As the tears welled up in my eyes and I cried out, "Oh my G-d, no, no, no!" she woke up. I quickly shushed her back to sleep and put her down, sick with grief for this man I had never met, but who was a hero to me and, I daresay, thousands of women across the country.
A staff member from Dr. Tiller's clinic came to speak to us at PPLM while I worked there. She told us about the protocols they used with their late-term patients. I remember being overwhelmed by the care and compassion they had for their patients. The women they served were often in the worst of circumstances. I always knew that when I referred a patient to Dr. Tiller, she would be receiving wonderful care, both physically and emotionally. And now that he's gone, I wonder what will happen to these most desperate of women. Who will they turn to?
Ava and I will be attending a vigil for Dr. Tiller tonight. It's important to me that she be there. I want to be able to tell her that she was a part of this fight from the beginning. And if we’re still fighting it in 20 years, I want to be able to show her why it's such a crucial, vital, essential fight. If any of us felt that we could become complacent now that a pro-choice president is in office, Dr. Tiller's murder has shown us just how wrong we are.
God bless you, Dr. Tiller. You will be missed.
Please consider a donation to the EMA Fund in Dr. Tiller's memory.
