All I Have to Give

I was born and raised on country music, rockabilly, rock and roll, etc. I actually don't think you can be raised in Tennessee without developing at least an appreciation for all the music genres that call Tennessee home! One song I have always identified with is Me by Faith Hill. These are the lyrics for the chorus:

Me, that's all I have to give
What you see is what you see
No second guessing, no pretending
With you, all I ever have to be is me

I have always felt comfortable being "me." I never felt like I needed to pretend to be somebody else. I figured if people didn't like "me," then that was their problem. This did obviously lead to some bruised feelings on my part, but I never felt that I should be any different than who I am. Anytime you put a part of yourself out there by trying to make new friends, speaking to a group of people, blogging, etc, you risk rejection, or at the very least misunderstanding. I have been very fortunate not to have negative comments on this blog so far. However, I am aware of several places that have blocked my blog for questionable content (probably due to the posts on breastfeeding, feminine hygeine, hormone imbalances, etc).

I wanted to take a moment to share with my blog followers (and blog stalkers....I know you are out there...) why I chose to write those types of posts on my blog and why I intend to leave them for all to see. First and foremost, I believe it is better to be real, than to give people what they want and be fake. Secondly and perhaps most importantly, the kinds of information I post to this blog, are oftentimes things that people don't know much about.

Lets take breastfeeding for example, nutrition experts will now tell you that infants need to be fed only breastmilk or formula for the first 6 months of life. Less than 30% of parents in the United States feed their children exculsively breastmilk or formula. Significantly fewer of those parents exculsively breastfeed. Now, I am NOT trying to say that moms who don't breastfeed or add cereal to formula are inferior. That would be ridiculous. If you love your child, then you are doing a heck of a better job than a lot of parents out there. However, that does mean that there is significantly less support and knowledge available for exclusively breastfeeding moms versus the overwhelming majority (and lets face it....some of the knowledge that is out there is crap).

God made breasts so that mothers could feed their babies, and I have no problem talking about how it works, problems that might come up, etc. Likewise, God gave women their reproductive tracts and cycles, and I have no problem talking about that either. Especially in light of the fact that if you leave a commercially produced tampon in for too long it can kill you, I think that is a very important product to discuss. I understand that different amounts of information are appropriate at different ages, and I do try to keep the information I do present factual and tasteful. However, this has made me wonder.....could it be that some of the problems we are seeing: teen pregnancies, lack of responsibility, etc, could be related to the fact that we shield children from the facts and responsibilities of life for too long? I don't know the answer, but I do know that if Jessica were to ask about anything in the next year or two that I have posted on here, I would be completely comfortable explaining it to her: "Well, when girls grow up, they bleed sometimes. It's normal." "Well, when you become a mommy, you make milk to feed the baby." "Daddies don't make milk because God didn't make them that way, but daddies do sometimes help."

I am sorry if I ever make anyone uncomfortable. It is not intentional. However, I do not appologize for the content of this blog and do not intend to change it. I write about real life and how to live it in a frugal, healthy, and self-sufficient way. If you ever have a personal or regional crisis, this is the kind of information that will help you make it through the tough times, and you just might discover that some of the things our grandparents used to do aren't really so arcaic after all.