Happy Earth Day! Earth day tips?
Today is earth day and there is no better day to try and minimize your negative impact on the earth. How to you celebrate earth day? Do you plant something or maybe you pick up litter along the highway near your home.
Every effort is helpful whether you are making it on for one day or if you are setting out to try and do something differently for the entire year. Some of the things we are doing year round are rain water harvesting and grey water harvesting. I take baths often and am always feeling bad about sending the perfectly good water down the drain afterwards. Since I use biodegradable shampoo and soap I have been eager to siphon my bath water out into the garden. We life in the desert so sometimes rain water is limited.. If I can take my bath water and store it for use in the garden that would reduce the amount of water we waste and it is good for the plants! We rigged up our low tech bath water harvesting system yesterday and it worked well last night!
We also have a compost bin and are able to greatly reduce the amount of waste we contribute to the landfill by composting and recycling our waste. Our compost goes right back into the soil to replenish it and provide nutrients and our recycled stuff gets reused also.
What things do you do to tread lighter on the earth?
Anther great way to celebrate earth day is with the kiddies. After all one day tis earth will be theirs and we need to teach them to respect and value it. Crafts are great ways to teach kids things with a hands on approach. Consider doing some earth day crafts with your kids today if you can, it is a great opportunity to bond with them and teach them. Here are some ideas for parents who want to craft with their kids:
Making Earth Day meaningful for children of all ages
Recycling craft ideas
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How charting your temperature can give insight about your hormones.
Fertility awareness combines charting of your waking temperatures, and other signs of fertility to track, monitor and understand what is happening with your body reproductively speaking. People who are into doing things the natural way, those who are having trouble conceiving a child and those who are religious often learn the fertility awareness method. It allows you to conceive or prevent conception of children during your fertile years.
Today I am outlining the two reproductive hormones Estrogen and Progesterone that are naturally produced by our bodies and how your waking temperature (BBT) provides information about your bodies production of these hormones.
Obviously your waking temperatures can be inaccurately influenced by sickness, fever, the time you take your temperature from day to day, alcohol consumption and many other factors but if you are thorough in noting these occurrence and inconsistencies you will be able to make sense of your bodies function through these temperatures.
Basically estrogen typically results in cool waking temperatures, progesterone results in warmer temperatures. A normal reproductive cycle (from the end of menstruation to the next menstruation period) looks like this:
- A period of lower waking temperatures/ estrogen is present.
- Then a temperature dip followed by an increase in temperature/ progesterone is present.
- After 3 consecutive days of elevated temperature you can confirm that ovulation occurred.
- Sometimes dip in temperature during the high temperature days is noted anywhere from 5-12 days past ovulation (DPO) and this is often referred to as “the implantation dip” which means the woman may have become pregnant.
- The high temperature days (DPO) typically last from 11-15 days and are followed by a decline in temperature (which also means a decline in progesterone) that leads to menstruation.
Some notes about pregnancy and your temperature chart:
If your temperature does not decline after 18 days you are likely to be pregnant. Taking a pregnancy test is recommended if you note 18 days of high temperatures after ovulation.
The two weeks between ovulation and the day you expect to get your period is often referred to by women trying to conceive as “the 2 week wait” because If you had intercourse around your ovulation time you will not know if you are pregnant till the 2 week period has passed.
Taking a pregnancy test during this 2 week period is not recommended, it will often render inaccurate results because the HCG hormone that the tests detect will not be produced until after implantation has occurred and the hormone has had a chance to build up in your body. Implantation can happen anywhere from 5-10 days after ovulation, it does not happen immediately.
A sample chart is available for your to view here. If you are interested in getting an electronic chart like it or want to find out more about charting your fertility I would encourage you to use the sign up link at the top of the chart.
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Did you know?
- Excessive creamy cervical fluid is noted in pregnant women and it often concerns women because they don’t know it is normal and common.
- High temperatures during menses (your period) is normal.
- Not all women experience a temperature dip before ovulation, this is normal.
- The only way to predict future ovulation is by observing your cervical fluid. Eggwhite, stretchy cervical fluid means ovulation.
- Charting your fertility signs will help you to know what is going on with your hormones and it can help your doctor diagnose any hormone imbalances. Charting is beneficial for those trying to prevent pregnancy, achieve pregnancy and it is even beneficial for those who are approaching or experiencing menopause.
Did we conceive? My NFP-FAM charting and ovulation.
Oh boy, looks like our chances for getting pregnant were good back on Monday & Tuesday. Using natural family planing/ the fertility awareness method I was just able to confirm past ovulation that was within a 1 day window from the time of intercourse.
Now I just need to wait 2 weeks before I can take a pregnancy test and confirm with my waking temperatures whether or not we conceived. Conveniently enough I have the “woman doctor” appointment in 2 weeks. Oh, the suspense is killing me!
If you are trying to get pregnant or even if you are trying to avoid pregnancy you should consider learning the fertility awareness method, it offers great insight about how your body works and gives you much more control over your fertility!
I bought the book taking charge of your fertility
Don’t Forget!! Participate- Earth Hour
We are going to participate, are you?
[youtube mxu3MluKl8A Earth Hour]
It’s a stormy weekend day, perfect lazy weather!
Today is a lazy day! I am crampy, achy and beat again and it is snowing so I started the laundry, folded a dry load and now am sitting in my bed writing this post. I can see the snow falling from where I sit and it’s so warm and toasty here.
My students did well yesterday. They got 7th place (out of 11) which is great considering they are all newbies except for one! They have much work to do (as do I) to get the show looking better for the next competition in 2 weeks. They did a great job though, we have 5 more weeks to work on and perfect the show be fore championships.
Tomorrow marks the start of spring break for our schools so I will have a low key first part of the week and I will try doing something interesting for my birthday towards the end of the week. I still have no plans or ideas about what I might like to do, is that bad?
Oh, I did get some new information today about my body temperature chart and my period. I joined this group called NFP-FAM over on yahoo groups and fellow members have give me their opinions about my own chart. Basically I was told that my thermal shift (when my temperature jumped about 7 10ths of a degree) indicated that I had ovulated, I am still getting the hang of all this. So, it looks like my period should be on the way in about 1-2 weeks.
I am learning so much about natural family planning right now and think it is so cool to be able to chart your signs of fertility and find out so much about your body. I bought the book Taking Charge of Your Fertility
I was surprised to learn that many women become pregnant and miscarry all without knowing it because it looks just like a period and these women never even suspected pregnancy in the first place. Charting your body temperature and other fertility signs is a great way to “keep tabs” on what is going on with your body and it is a natural way to become pregnant or to prevent becoming pregnant and it is free!
