Busy Families Media Tour

Off on another whirlwind media tour beginning Sunday Sept. 27th. I am headed to:

Week 1:
9/28- Phoenix, AZ. ABC Channel 15; Sonoran Living Live.
9/29- San Antonio, TX. FOX Channel 29.
9/30- Albuquerque, NM. NBC- Good Day New Mexico.
10/1- Miami, FL. NBC Channel 6; South Florida Today.

Week 2:
10/5- Nashville, TN. FOX Channel 17; Tennessee Mornings.
10/6- St. Louis, MO. CBS Channel 4; Great Day St. Louis.
10/7- Milwaukee, WI. NBC Channel 4; The Morning Blend.
10/8- Grand Rapids, MI. FOX Morning Show.

Week 3: Tentative
San Diego and Dallas.

Will be back online again in three weeks!

Freedom or Vaccinations?

I had intended to write a post about how to encourage your kids to do their homework this week (for themselves and not for the parent), but in reading so many things lately about this H1N1 vaccine, I felt frustrated enough to voice my opinions about this first.

To start, I have NEVER been an advocate for the flu vaccine. I will not allow myself or my children to have it (nor does my husband). I had the shot one time many years ago and I became ill. By the way, I don't get the flu to begin with.

This morning on facebook, I saw this post by a friend- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C89dvM897yc, They are talking about potentially requiring the flu vaccination become mandatory in Massachusetts (or forcing; there really isn't a choice if you require someone to do something which in my mind becomes force). Are you kidding me? Do we live in a free country or closer to the fascist state talked about by many (including Mary in the book- Choosing Honor)? Since when have we given the government or better yet pharmaceutical companies control of our bodies and when will this be stopped? After they have injected our children with poison that will most surely affect the wellbeing of several children's lives forever???

Wake up people. Basically what these bureaucrats are telling you is that you're too stupid to make the decision for yourself and your child about what goes into your body. We aren't talking about government bozos spying on us or questioning us in airport security lines. We aren't talking about phone taps and profiling. We are talking about control of our body being given to the people who control the MONEY in this country (the world essentially). This is misuse and abuse of power on so many levels, if we don't stand up against this and fight these potential laws being put into practice we are failing both ourselves and our children.

We just recently moved back to our home state of NY. The first thing I did was begin researching the rules for vaccinations here. Talk about bureaucracy. In Virginia, a doctor's note is satisfactory to decline an immunization. Last year I declined my oldest son's DTP shot before school began, b/c his previous one was still good. My feeling was simple- why give him another shot for something that was still within the period of time the vaccine is good for? Here's the kicker. If I hadn't taken a stand and declined the vaccine last year, NY state's laws would have forced me to have the shot administered again, b/c they require the shot be within one year upon entering the state! I attempted to submit a letter from the doctor again, declining the shot (because remember he is still within the 10 year period; 6 to be exact, of the shot's effectiveness), but the school rejected it. The reason has to be in alignment with what the CDC has declared is acceptable for declining an immunization; not the fact that the one in his system is still effective. Next time I will declare religious exemption!

So to sum things up, had I been forced to give Adam the DTP shot last year combined with the mandatory force that he have it this year, he would have had the same shot 3 times in 6 years. As his parent, I don't have the right to say no thank you, because apparently I am too stupid to know what is and isn't good for my children.

Some may wonder why I didn't pursue the issue more forcefully given the way I feel. If it were any of my other children, I would have fought harder. Adam however, is both an athlete and physically strong which is a contrast to my other children who are more sensitive. Because he attends an athletic facility and is active all of the time, this shot is the one I feel okay with him having; that was the intuitive reason. He would not have been allowed to attend school (by the way the school would have been fined $2000 per day until his shot was up to date; who says the money isn't controlling this issue!); that was my practical reason. I will not back down however, with my younger children.

To date, my infant daughter has had no vaccinations. Our doctor feels very strongly that children under the age of 2 do not need immunizations. We have the shared knowing that when something has been irradicated, there is no need to vaccinate for it. If there were to be an outbreak we would need those vaccinations. With things like flu shots there is no exact match for the strain. Why then, would we inject our bodies with something that may or may not be effective? With the H1N1, have they had an adequate amount of time to test its effectiveness? Hello, I would say NO! Our bodies were designed (by a power higher than our government) to fight off illnesses by the strength of our immune system. When you inject your body with these things, you are not giving your body a chance to build a defense mechanism to combat these illnesses. Take chicken pox for example. We all had it as a childhood illness. We all survived and our immune system is better for it.

People need to pay attention to what's going on. We need to fight for the right to control what goes into our bodies. It's one thing to give up some privacy under the guise of "security;" it's one thing to be willing to pay more for things because the wealthy want to continue to line their pockets at the expense of the majority (ie. oil prices which has lead to higher gas prices); it's entirely another thing to give up the right to say no to something being injected into our bodies. We need to stop this from happening and we need to do it now!

This is where intuition becomes a vital part of our survival. I have said this before, but I will not ever claim to be an expert. If I claim to be an expert, I am asking you to give away your power to know the answers for yourself, to me. We can all seek guidance from others to support what we already feel intuitively, but in the end each of us has to find the answers for ourselves by listening to what feels right. How many people blindly accept vaccinations for their children, because their doctor says so? How many people actually do the research to find out why their kids shouldn't have a shot or even what the side effects may be? I won't claim to have done all of the research about what is contained in every immunization, but my inner voice has been very adamant about what I should allow, what I should avoid and which of my kids should and shouldn't have vaccinations. Doctors have admitted there is a small percentage of children who can develop disabilities (autism) from certain vaccines. Do you want that to be your child? I sure as heck don't.

Pay attention and ask questions. Now is the time to unite to change the rules before we have lost all of our power to do so. Take a stand!

Intuitive Thought for the Week

Do not take your child's responses or actions personally; it has nothing to do with you! Children need to be free to express their feelings so they don't hold them in and store it as baggage which will later come up in other situations. Children are people and need to be allowed to communicate what they're feeling regardless of what the parent (or adult) thinks.

If it bothers you, it's most likely your issue!

No New Intuitive Updates?

It's been a while since I last posted an article to my blog. SO much has happened and yet the intuitive nudges have seemed dull.. I guess that's what we all think until we've moved beyond them.

In early June, I discovered I had lost interest in doing much that involved my time outside of my home. At the end of July, I went on another one of my whirlwind media tours and traveled all over the place for the better part of 4 weeks. Amidst my travels, my husband and I made a huge decision that would forever alter the future of our lives. We decided to move back home! We had been living in Virginia for over 8 years; raised our boys there for most of their lives (Adam spent 2/3's of his life there and Caden all but 7 weeks), and had our two girls in Virginia. What were we thinking?

So many things had to be figured out and I was gone most of the month leading up to the big move! The decision was made whether consciously or not. Things were lining up effortlessly and all of our needs to support the transition were falling into place. I couldn't believe that after all of these years we were going to be crazy enough to move back to NY. It doesn't help that I hate cold weather, A LOT!

The funny thing about the whole decision was that it was done entirely through intuition. For many years I have been aware that as the shifts in energy intensified, we would be moved where we would need to be. Early in the spring, I could feel the edges of our world slowly being uprooted. I fought the idea b/c even considering a move, would disrupt our oldest son Adam's world of baseball. For three years he had been playing on a wonderful travel team and had shown so much progress with both talent and ability; the thought of disrupting him (not to mention he is an adolescent in middle school) was not something I would even consider doing. I shared this with a woman at a convention in May and she told me "as soon as your husband makes a decision to allow the shift, your son will follow suit." And the longing I had to go home, wasn't leaving either.

Mid July, we came back for my cousin's high school graduation. My aunt and uncle, who were visiting from Florida (whom I hadn't seen since my dad passed nearly four years ago), were here and all of our relatives. The longing continued. I knew this would be the make it or break it trip. Its one thing to want to go home from a distance, but another thing when it sticks with you after a visit. Leaving NY, I had tears, b/c I truly wanted to move my kids back to a life we grew up with; one where you spend your weekends at the lake, play flashlight tag at night, attend every Varsity football game during the season, enjoy great burgers and ice cream (let's not forget pizza...mmmm).. the list goes on and I felt my kids weren't experiencing those same things.

I slowly began to share my feelings about the move with Chris. At first he was indignant- "I am not moving back to NY." Each night on our walk, I would remind him that all of our friends and family lived there; we would have a great support system and I recalled a friend of a friend whose son played on a travel baseball team (although I wasn't sure of his age). I also brought up our friend who is suffering from a fatal illness, but who would be traveling to India for stem cell transplants and how his wife and kids would need extra support. I felt we needed to be there to offer it. He was slowly beginning to see my point, but I think the real clincher was Derek leaving for India and their need for support. Chris confirmed the cookout we had with all of our friends before we left NY was what really tugged at his heart strings. It just so happens the cookout was at Shelly and Derek's house and when I added our being there to help when he left for India, that somewhat locked in the decision. From that point on he was on board and over board...LOL.

Julie was right that when Chris made the decision, Adam would be on board, b/c when we asked him if he wanted to move back home, there was no hesitation. And if you're wondering what Caden's response was, "I want to move back mom because that's where grandpa lived."

Everything began to line up. We found the perfect house in the school district we wanted; we found Adam a travel team he made on his first tryout; everything was proving effortless (with the exception of how long it took to actually move!).

When I began this I said my intuition had felt dull, but in retrospect my intuition lead us to all of the changes we've made in less than three months. Although it took us a few weeks to adjust to being back from pure exhaustion, the kids are thriving in school and we are back home. The connection is so much deeper, even though we have been gone, than it ever was the 8 plus years we spent in Northern VA. Although I loved every moment of living in VA, I now believe we are headed back to the strongest connection we have to the planet as things continue to change and shift. The feeling is one of safety and security; the place we chose to make our entrance into the world. It's almost as though we never left and even Adam feels a stronger connection to being here.

I asked him one day if any of the kids liked the Redskins and he said "I don't know." I said well its your team b/c you're from there and he said- "no mom, I am from NY." Another good friend of mine once told me (when we were discussing what a move like this would be like for a middle schooler)her daughter had said to her at one point later in life she wished her mom had moved her into another school when she was about this age. We sometimes think we are making the right decision because of the perception we have about a situation, but what I noticed for my son is he didn't really feel as comfortable in his skin as I knew he should be. I'm glad we made the change and I followed my intuition.

All is well...