The Howe Family

I am forever grateful that I can stay home with my boys. Their giggles, smiles, discoveries, and freshness truly fill me. Here are a few shots for the grandparents. Come out to Fort Morgan so you can too see Phin defy gravity! (While Eli sleeps in the wagon…)

My Dad taught me a valuable concept when I was in high school. He would always ask me, “are you surviving or thriving?” I now think about the difference between these two consistently. When I am not thriving- I figure out how to get there.

We have been in Fort Morgan for one year officially. I am happy to say that we are thriving. (However, some days are definitely ‘survival-days.’)

Some highlights of Fort Morgan:

• Our neighbors love our boys
• The librarians know us by name
• We buy farm fresh eggs
• Exceptional outdoor community pool
• Everyone has a garden, so I have thousands of people to ask advice and swap vegetables with
• Our favorite grocery store, Edwards, has the friendliest employees on the planet. The bagger always walks me out to the car to help load my bags. always!  (The WalMart employees are also incredibly friendly- and there is NEVER a long wait in the checkout line.)
• We are gaining an agricultural education
• Phin is accustomed to being around livestock, chickens, and other barn-like creatures.
• The school district still likes Nate.

I am working really hard to keep this post ONLY positive. So I am going to end it here. Thanks to everyone who helped me see the silver lining in this move. It has been a good exercise in trying to thrive in the most unlikely places. Here’s to another year!

Just in case you were wondering…I did decide on a domain name: www.dontpanicmom.com

I think it is absolutely perfect. I still need to design the perfect logo and header, but that will be my project during naps this coming week. I seriously appreciate your feedback. It really helped me decide on a specific angle for content.

I want to help Mom’s decrease their panic level on anxiety-inducing health topics (immunization safety, current pertussis epidemic in California, e. coli contamination in pre-packaged foods, are transfats really that bad?, etc.). Thus the name: Don’t Panic, Mom!

I even have some great professionals lined up to answer these timely questions.

Thanks for the help!

I was talking to Nate about how I needed to “give back into the internet.”  You see, I benefit from friend blogs, crafty blogs, pediatric nutrition and medical websites, etc. I take a lot from the internet. I view my relationship with the internet as any relationship- you have to take and give. I provide too much positive content at the moment- but I am going to begin soon to have a Public Health Mom blog. I will answer questions that are relevant to public health and raising children. There are plenty of legitimate sources for health information. However, most of them are looking for an extra buck. They will pick and choose according to the wealthiest sponsor or donor.  Also, many typical news sources aren’t staffed to interpret medical studies or understand the impact of public health programs on a “mom-level.”

I want to give medically accurate and current information on public health topics from a Mom’s perspective. We all have questions and concerns about:

• Breastfeeding,
• Medical Legislation,
• Immunizations,
• City Water Fluoridation Programs,
• SARS,
• International Health,
• Childhood Obesity,
• Prenatal Health,
• E. Coli… in my Spinach?
• Cancer prevention
• Etc.

I will also invite Momperts (expert moms) in specific fields to guest blog.

Domain names are hard to come by these days. All of the normal-legitimate-professional sounding ones are taken. Will you help me figure out a good one? Thanks!

Publichealthmother.com is available as of this afternoon… is that too boring? (Publichealthmom.com is taken, a decent, but not active blog)

How about Meandpublichealth.com?

Or… myfamilyandpublichealth.com?

Thanks in advance for your brainstorming help. It will be up and running soon! Wo Hoo!

I couldn’t resist a picture. Here is Eli helping me water the front yard. There’s nothing better than a chubby baby (95th Percentile!) chasing after you in nothing but a diaper.

We recently returned from an awesome road trip through Utah.  We decided to leave on a Tuesday night after Nate was dismissed from jury duty. (Driving through the night is really our only option with a two year old and a baby.) With the assistance of gummy worms and my rambling, Nate drove the whole way through the night.

We started in the southern part of the state and visited my grandma, an auntie, and an uncle. Below are some pics of Eli meeting Grandma Donna for the first time. There is also a shot of Phin with the calves at my family’s dairy farm.

We also visited friends in Provo and Salt Lake. We had a blast in Downtown Salt Lake City. We rode the train in the “free zone” and played in an amazing splash park in the Gateway. We went to Temple Square and took Phin to see the beautiful statue of Christ. It is called the Christus, and is actually a replica of one by the Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldse. Phin kept telling us that, “That isn’t Jesus, that’s a statue!”

(Small Rant: It made me a little depressed to return to Fort Morgan after enjoying a real city. But I am resolved to enjoy our local resources for families… like the beef processing plant and train tracks. Sadly, I’m serious, Phin loves to see the cows unloaded. I’m even frank with him and say they are going to die and become hamburgers. He also loves to go over the train tracks in the jogging stroller and look for trains. When the trains aren’t coming Phin says they are “on a lunch break.”)

Next, we stayed in Bountiful with my aunt. We swam in her pool- thus all of the pool pictures. We finished the trip in Riverside. Which is even smaller than Fort Morgan. We went on a double date with Nate’s brother and his wife. It is always a challenge to learn how to talk to adults again. Even if the adults are family. I am always struggling to find topics other than diapers. Or I am so excited to talk to adults, that I jump to all of the controversial topics that make Nate blush. My new trick is to find a topic related to my kids that is also related to their profession.

After a whirlwind tour (including a trip to IKEA) we were ready to head home to Fort Morgan. Wo hoo for roadtrips.

We took the boys to Pike National Forrest during the 4th of July weekend. More specifically, we went to Camp Firewalker. It is an amazing place nestled beside Lake Wellington. I worked there for two summers during college and my brother met his wife while working there.  When I go there it is like going home.  I almost forgot to post these pics… anyway, it was a fabulous time. However, after a really bad night and bears, we decided to go home one night early.

Phin and Eli had their first canoe ride. First s’mores. First outdoor sacrament meeting. First bear scare. First climbing harness (for Phin at least). We can’t wait to go back next summer.

During college, my roommate and I would joke about a barefoot revolution. It’s not that we didn’t appreciate cute shoes. Or that we wanted to start any foot-borne public health epidemics. We just preferred to be barefooted. The moment I’m home (or in the car) I kick off my shoes. The summer makes this really simple because of sandals. Now that we have our own garden, this barefoot revolution is getting to be tricky. I really hate stopping to put shoes on before I enter the garden. But the manure and other composty goodness in our soil is so squishy. And mixed with our clay-like soil it becomes an impenetrable sludge that is even difficult for my hose to spray off. So, I confess, that I have begun wearing sandals in the garden. It is really difficult to remember this. Seriously hard.

Here are some pictures featuring our homegrown produce. Today we even enjoyed fresh rainbow chard with our baked potatoes.

Summer is in full swing at our house. The boys are delightfully covered in bug bites. My shoulders are peeling from a recent burn. I ate a salad today with bibb lettuce from the garden. Nate is home. These are the best days.

Here are some recent photos of our happy summer:

Phin and Eil are officially friends. They light up when they realize that the other has finally awoken from their nap. They squeal and growl back and forth until one of them laughs. Phin will crawl around on the floor with Eli and attempt to carry him. Today he was lifting him and thoughtfully looks at me and said, “Mama, is Eli heavy?” (He is a very sturdy boy, about 19 lbs.) Phin gives him kisses and asks for kisses in return. When Eli slobbers on him, Phin informs me that it was a kiss, then wipes away the sweet brother slobber. I am so excited to see this dynamic in our family, the Sibling Love.

Eli has started crawling, crawling UP the stairs, and pulling himself up on ANYTHING. He prefers to stand, but will gladly chase me around the house on all-fours. I expect him to be walking well before his first birthday.

Phin is pictured here with a chocolate gelato goatee. We spent a day with family in Boulder, Colorado. Phin thoroughly enjoyed the public buses, street performers, water splash fountains, and gelato. He was amazingly well-behaved on the bus. (It got me fantasizing about how much fun it would be to live in a giant city and take public transport every where.)

I am seriously thrilled to have discovered gardening for myself. I would help out in the garden during my childhood- but I never saw the beauty in the process. Now I am completely hooked! I will post pics soon of our vegetable paradise soon.

LOVE YOU ALL!