Special Beginnings

Matt and I have been tossing around the idea of trying for a baby at some point, and considering my complete objection to a hospital birth unless something dire were to happen, we've been researching other options. I'm most partial to a homebirth, but I've found it rather difficult to find a homebirth midwife in my area, so we've been searching around for birth centers.

One of them is about 30 minutes from our house: Special Beginnings in Arnold. We learned that they had guided Motherhood Experience tours, so we decided, well... why not! Better to plan now than later, right?

Our tour was at 7pm, and we thought we would be the only ones there. To our surprise, the waiting room (then the classroom) was packed! Most were already expecting, but Matt and I were there just to explore our options. A bit after 7pm, a nurse midwife, David, came in and talked to us a bit about what the birth center does, his philosophies on pregnancy and birth, and how "labor day" would go.

I should probably warn you right now -- as if you didn't already know! ;) -- that I'm a rather crunchy person, especially when it comes to labor and childbirth. I'm pro-natural birth, pro-breastfeeding, pro-homebirth, pro-birth center, pro-cloth diapering, pro-attachment parenting, pro-cosleeping... pretty much the whole nine yards.

But these are my decisions, and I would never, ever say that my decisions are any better than or superior to those of another woman. Like in many other ways, I'm pro-empowerment, so whatever way you want to do it, I'm absolutely down for that.

Anyway! Down off my soapbox and back to the babies!

That all being said, I really appreciated what David was saying and how the birth center operates. They encourage laboring at home until contractions are about 5 minutes apart for an hour, then have you(r partner!) drive to the center. There, you're greeted at the door and led to one of three birthing rooms of your choosing, which are all done up to look like actual bedrooms instead of hospital rooms. Baby blankets are warmed, tubs are filled if wanted, and you can bring your own music, food, and other stuff to make yourself comfortable while there.



Then... the fun starts! They have several options for laboring, from birthing tubs to jacuzzis, birthing stools to balls, and of course, a bed (that doesn't come apart! It's an actual bed!) at your disposal. You can labor as long as you need, cervical checks are rare, and a midwife will come in every 30 minutes or so to check on the baby's heart rate with a doppler. Otherwise, you're pretty much left alone.

They hold very strong stances on skin-to-skin, not taking the baby away from the momma for at least two hours, breastfeeding, and other "crunchy" stuff... all of which I absolutely want to achieve with our eventual baby. I also really loved his demeanor -- I would not be at all disappointed if David one day ended up being my midwife!

And of course, they're not even 5 minutes away from Anne Arundel Medical Center, so if anything does go wrong (and it very rarely does in the case of low-risk pregnancies), they're just a short drive away.

AAMC, by the way, has some abysmal cesarean rates for 2008-2009: 38.4%! While not the worst in Maryland -- that honor goes to GBMC with 44.8% in 2008-2009 -- it's ridiculous compared to the birth center, which has a very low rate of emergency cesareans: "Extremely rare" according to their website, and 8% according to David.

That is one of the main reasons why I don't want to go to a hospital. Aside from the whole "I fucking hate hospitals" thing, I'm incredibly nervous about interventions of any and every sort. That nervousness would turn into anxiety, which is very likely to turn into a panic attack... so if I can avoid that, then that's obviously for the better!

Not to mention that cesareans are major abdominal surgery, and it would only be a consideration for me in case of an emergency (and I'm not stupid -- it IS on the table, but only in that situation). That plus the facts that cesareans are on the rise and that one in three babies are already delivered via cesarean, makes me incredibly wary of hospitals.

I wouldn't be sick, yo.

Oh god, more soapboxing! ANYWAY.

We ended up learning a lot from that one visit, and the brief tour we had also made me think that it might not be so bad to give birth there after all. I mean, I would strongly prefer at home over every other option, and I'm going to continue searching for a midwife in the area who will do a homebirth... but if it came down to a birth center? I'd actually clamor for Special Beginnings. :)



Oh, and why the hell not. ;)

Fox Family Thanksgiving

We hosted Thanksgiving at our home this year, and I admit it was an absolute madhouse! My cousin and his family (six people total), Matt's coworker and his wife, and our former neighbor and his daughter all came over, so we had 12 people to cook for.

And boy, did we cook!

I wish I had captured pictures of everything we made, but I only got a few before people started to arrive and the insanity kicked into full gear. In total, Matt made a turkey, vegetarian stuffing, mushroom gravy, and roasted carrots, and I made cranberry-pomegranate sauce, green bean casserole, pumpkin bread, and stuffed acorn squash:

[caption id="attachment_740" align="aligncenter" width="374" caption="The filling for the acorn squash."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_745" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="The actual stuffed squash!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_743" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Matt messing around with the turkey."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_744" align="aligncenter" width="374" caption="Rosemary butter sauce for said turkey."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_741" align="aligncenter" width="501" caption="The cranberry-pomegranate sauce, pre-chilling!"][/caption]

... we were also 4-year-olds and made construction paper turkeys:

[caption id="attachment_739" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Guess which one is Matt's. ;) We lovingly call him Derpey."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_742" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="And of course, Florida-specific derpeys... a Marlin and a Dolphin!"][/caption]

We had a great time visiting with everyone, but admittedly, if we were to do it again... I'd want a smaller, more intimate gathering. Having so many people was more a challenge when it came to really sitting down and chatting than it did the food!

Speaking of the food... here are recipes for just a couple things that we made this year. The rest of it were either from tried-and-true recipes (like the green bean casserole) or from wingin' it (like the, uh... turkey, lol ;)).

 

 

Cranberry-Pomegranate Sauce

This one was actually from Pioneer Woman. I admit to adding more sugar to mine and using pomegranate juice concentrate rather than plain ol' pomegranate juice, and it still turned out yummy!

I also want to preface this with the same warning I gave Matt: Prior to this, I had never had cranberry sauce. I know, strip me of my US citizenship, why don't'cha! Fortunately, Matt had a few times before, so he taste-tested it. As did our guests. And I heard compliments, so it must be good.

Ingredients

* 16 oz fresh cranberries
* 14 oz water
* 2 oz pomegranate juice concentrate
* 1 cup sugar (and more if preferred)

As before, pomegranate juice was used in Pioneer Woman's recipe. Hers calls for 16 oz pomegranate juice; the ingredients up there create 16 oz from concentrate.

Method

1. Combine all ingredients in a medium saucepan over medium heat. When concoction starts boiling, turn down heat to medium-low and simmer for about 20 minutes.

2. Sauce will thicken as the 20 minutes goes by; adjust time to allow thickening to occur. Note that it will thicken even more in the fridge.

3. Have significant other(s) taste-test. If all set, pop in the fridge and serve a couple hours later with all your other nommables!

 

Pumpkin Bread

I'm gonna cheat on this one. Just visit here. ;)

 

Fig and Pumpkin Seed-Stuffed Roasted Acorn Squash

Now THIS one was a huge hit! For those of us who enjoy side items more than the turkey, but who may also want something of substance so it still feels like you're eating a main dish (because you are!), this acorn squash recipe is just as delicious as it looks. And it's vegan!

(Adapted from this recipe, as I have a tree nut allergy. Also, they call it a side, to which I say... PSHAW!)

Ingredients

* two (2) acorn squashes, halved lengthwise and seeded (you can save the seeds for baking!)
* 1 tbsp olive oil
* salt and pepper to taste
* 1/3 cups agave nectar
* 3/4 cups dried, de-stemmed Calimyra figs, chopped
* 12 oz baby spinach, slightly wilted in a saucepan with a touch of olive oil
* a handful of toasted pumpkin seeds (de-shelled)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Drizzle the insides of the acorn squash halves with olive oil, using a brush to get into all the nooks. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, then turn upside down on a foil-lined broiling pan (to get some nice grill lines!) and bake for 45 minutes.

3. Mix the remaining ingredients in a medium bowl and mix until well incorporated. Remove squash from the oven and turn right-side up, then fill each half with the fig mixture. Bake for about 25-30 minutes until the filling is soft and bubbly.

4. Cool for about 10 minutes before serving, then dig in! You can use the squash rind as a bowl or eat that as well.

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving, too! Now to move on to plans for ChristmaChanuYulekah... ;)

Samhain in Salem: The House of Seven Gables and Nathaniel Hawthorne's birthplace

This was probably my favorite part of the whole trip. I’m trying to remember as much as humanly possible from our tour; there was just so much information! I hope y’all enjoy this virtual tour through the home and are someday able to see for yourselves. :)

The House of Seven Gables was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne (as you’ll remember, the namesake for the hotel at which we stayed!) and was based off the very home we toured. Built in 1668 by Salem sea captain and merchant John Turner, three generations of the Turner family lived in that very home until it was sold to Captain Samuel Ingersoll in 1782. When Ingersoll died at sea, his property was left to his daughter Susannah, one of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s cousin. Since Susannah never married, the home and other inheritances from her father’s death were solely hers.

In 1908, the home was bought by Caroline Emmerton, a Salem native and philanthropist/preservationist, who restored the Turner-Ingersoll mansion and turned it into a museum to assist immigrant families settling in Salem. The gables after which the book was named were not all intact when Emmerton bought the home; in fact, only three existed when she bought the home. With the help of architect Joseph Everett Chandler, all seven gables were restored.



Today, the House of Seven Gables serves Express Yourself (Beverly, MA), Salem Cyberspace (Salem, MA), the Plummer Home for Boys (Salem, MA), and St. Peter’s Episcopal Church’s Family Self-Sufficiency Center (Salem, MA). These organizations provide music, dance, and visual arts; educational and career opportunities; vocational training programs; and literacy, community, and social independence, respectively, and serve mostly the young Latino population in Salem.

If any of you are familiar with the book, you’ll think that the house was just as described by Hawthorne. While not the case, when Emmerton was restoring the home, she added some features, including the shop off a wing of the home and a secret staircase that we actually got to walk through (and it was SO COOL).



Not far from the House of Seven Gables sits, among other things, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s birthplace, built in the Gregorian style in 1750. The home actually used to be a few blocks over on Union Street, but was moved (yes, they moved a house!) in 1958 next door to the Turner-Ingersoll Mansion with the help of architectural historian and conservator, Abbott Lowell Cummings.

Hawthorne was born in that home on 4 July 1804 to Elizabeth and Nathaniel Hathorne. His father died on a voyage (not an uncommon occurrence in those times -- one in four women were widows who lost their husbands to sea -- when he was only five years old, leaving his mom with little wealth and three children. As a result, many of Hawthorne’s characters suffered the loss of one or both parents and are dependent on the good will of others for support.



You’ll notice that Hawthorne’s last name differs from his father’s, Hathorne. His ancestor, great-great-grandfather John Hathorne, was an executor in the Salem Witch Trials and the only one who never repented for his actions. It is believed that, in order to dissociate himself from his ancestor (who, as you can imagine, went to his death amidst must jubilation at that time after the Witch Trials came to a complete stop). However, Hawthorne did publish several works in 1830 under his original surname, so the reason why he changed it is up for debate.

More pictures from this tour! Unfortunately, there are no indoor shots of either home as photography was strictly prohibited.

[caption id="attachment_714" align="aligncenter" width="361" caption="If you couldn't tell, our tour was at 3:45pm."][/caption]

Samhain in Salem: The Historic Hawthorne Hotel

[caption id="attachment_681" align="aligncenter" width="452" caption="via..."][/caption]

All right, chugging right along! Maybe stalled at the station a bit, but hey, that’s how life goes.

After a day of frolicking about Salem, taking in all the sights and the history and the revelry, we crashed at the Hawthorne Hotel, noted as one of the more haunted hotels in the city. Its 93 rooms were full the entire weekend we stayed there, and for good reason; the hotel is smack in the middle of all the excitement!

[caption id="attachment_686" align="aligncenter" width="269" caption="Our room, 310! I enthusiastically approve."][/caption]

Named for one of Salem’s former residents, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Hawthorne Hotel opened for business in late July of 1925. Parades were held in celebration of its opening, and it became a landmark in short time. Today, it is home to two restaurants, a tavern, and a ballroom where many wedding receptions. It should come as no surprise that the weddings held there tend to have a Halloween theme. ;)



The site where the hotel stands today became the meeting place for the Salem Marine Society, a group whose goal was to aid disabled mariners and their families in the case of injury or death, and to improve the local navigation and safety of the vessels traveling in New England. They made a deal when the hotel was constructed that their original structure could be torn down so long as they could continue their meetings in a new room built on the top of the hotel (which is, sadly, not open to the public). The group is still active today and still holds its meetings in that very room.



If you didn’t already know, part of the show Bewitched was actually filmed there! In 1970, a fire at the soundstage where the show was initially filmed meant they had to produce somewhere else, and a series of episodes were set in and near Salem. The cast and crew all bunked at the Hawthorne during the shooting, and it’s rumored that stars Elizabeth Montgomery and William Asher stayed in room 512. When one scene featured the hotel itself, it was named the Hawthorne Motor Hotel and showcased the mail chute between the hotel’s two main elevators.



As you can imagine, being a notable hotel in the Witch City, the Hawthorne is credited with many a ghost story. One is that an apple orchard owned by Bridget Bishop (the first person hanged at Gallow’s Hill during the Salem Witch Trials) once stood where the Hawthorne currently is, and some report that apples could be smelled in the hotel. (The same story revolves around 43 Church Street, a restaurant not too far from Hawthorne and formerly known as the Lyceum Restaurant; there are reports of smelling apples while walking the brick courtyard behind the restaurant.)



Certain rooms are also said to be haunted:

• Room 325, where guests have reported the water and lights turning on by themselves


• Suite 612, where guests have reported an apparition in the form of a woman wandering the hallway just outside the room


• The “Lower Deck” or Library, where a hotel employee refused to work nights in the room after he set up the furniture, only to have it moved into new positions upon his return

(I have to admit here that Matt and I experienced some strange feelings while walking about the hotel on Samhain. The first was a very particular feeling of beings moving all around us while we were alone in the Library; the second was having hot, clammy hands [when the rooms themselves were very cold!] upon entering The Skylark Room on the second floor. Very creepy, but in my opinion, incredibly cool!)



While the hotel itself can feel a little creepy, even if you’re just staying in the area for a vacation, I urge you to check it out! The Paranormal aside, the Hawthorne itself has a very rich history and a very long list of celebrity stays, so it’s well worth checking out and, if you’re brave enough, staying at. Though I must warn you, if you’re looking to go during the Halloween season, book far in advance! Those rooms fill up 9 to 12 months in advance.

Happy hauntings! :)

Samhain in Salem: Saturday Fright Fever at the Hawthorne Hotel

I know that I let Samhain in a Week kind of slide away from me up to and through Samhain itself, and for that, I apologize. There was so much great information I wanted to share with you all that I didn't get the chance to. Fortunately, the wheel turns and a new year will come, so before you know it, I'll have another series and so much more delicious info for you!

My absence was for a really good reason, though.

I mean, come on. SAMHAIN IN SALEM. The Witch City! For one of the biggest holidays of the year! (Well, maybe in my own mind, but I freakin' love Halloween, dammit.)

After not even having been married a month -- we got married on Samhain 2010 -- my husband asked if I wanted to go to Salem for our anniversary. I think I was struck dumb for a good five minutes, mouth hanging open and eyes all wide, and I managed to wipe some drool from my lower lip before nodding slowly. As the life came back to me, I jumped up, squeed, and pummeled him with hugs and kisses and YES PLEASE I'D LOVE TO GO.

Well, the weekend of our first wedding anniversary came (a lot faster than we had anticipated, actually), and we celebrated by spending four whole days in Salem! As a result, instead of finishing out my Samhain in a Week series, I'm instead bringing you Samhain in Salem, chock full of our adventures, tons of photos, and some amazing history about both the Witch City and its infamous Witch Trials.

So let's kick it off! The main reason we were in Salem in the first place was to celebrate our anniversary as only us Halloween freaks could think: Staying at the historic Hawthorne Hotel (more about this place in a later post) and attending its annual witches' ball, this year named Saturday Fright Fever!

[caption id="attachment_665" align="aligncenter" width="491" caption="Lookie what I found here! Waldo and Wenda were spotted multiple times at the Ball -- people were better at that game than we thought -- and they even became famous (probably for having the most lighthearted costumes at the ball, lol), having been approached for the next couple days with, "Were you the Waldos?" Why yes. Yes, we were."][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="451" caption="The ballroom was absolutely PACKED with revelers and rogues... and this was only one floor! The Ball spanned over three different floors, each with a different theme. You might even find another Waldo lurking around..."][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="604" caption="The fabulous band was -- sorry in advance for the pun -- out of this world! And as a (newly-minted) Trekkie, I appreciated their costumes. ;)"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="361" caption="Spotted another one of us! Waldos unite!!"][/caption]

Like I said before, there were three floors dedicated to the Ball, each with a different theme or layout. Below are some photos from each room:

Main floor! This one was dedicated to the "prom night" idea, with balloons formed into creatures and undead prom dates both as props and roaming the dance floor.

















Second Floor! Sadly, there wasn't a lot up here, mainly a photo booth-type area and a balcony where you could see down to the main floor (which is how I got that overhead shot!). There were, however, some cops upstairs sporting their Salem Witch City badges:

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="604" caption="Costumed or not, these guys were awesome! And good sports, too, lol."][/caption]

Basement! Now THIS was a cool room. I don't have more than the one photo because it was dark, but they had some disco music going and a dance floor lit up with strobe lights and laser light shows. Despite the lack of pictures, we ended up hanging out down here for a while!



COSTUMES! Now the part I'm sure y'all were excited about: The costumes everyone wore! There were some that just blew us out of the water.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="361" caption="Coneheads!! That headgear, seriously... "WHERE DID YOU GET THOSE?!" (Under your bed...!)"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="361" caption="This guy got so much attention that he got a bi... well, I think you know where I'm going with this."][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="604" caption="These guys had a sign on their backs that simply said "WTF." WTF, indeed!"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="361" caption="I TOTALLY got a photo with Edward Scissorhands, and was starstruck the whole night! (Looks like the real thing, doesn't he?!)"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="451" caption="Speaking of starstruck, Matt was on pins and needles to meet these guys! (Haaaaa, hahaha...)"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="451" caption="What is this I don't even. They were even freakier in real life."][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="604" caption="OMG the three sisters from Hocus Pocus!! <3 One was even carrying the book with that creepy eye in it... it was AWESOME!"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="451" caption="And apparently, no matter what state you're in (or how cold it is), there's always got to be a "sexy [insert costume here"]". Nice ass, though, at least!"]"[/caption]All in all, it was an absolutely AMAZING time, and we're so glad we had the chance to do this!

Coming up in future posts: The history of the Hawthorne Hotel (including hauntings), the Hawthorne house, the history of the Salem Witch Trials, local food and treats (come on, y'all, this is partially a food blog. ;)), and much more from our trip!