Once, years ago, when I was teaching in Kansas City at a Hoity Toity Catholic Joint, we hired a speaker to come and motivate our students to stop bullying one another. I really can't remember who the guy was or what his schtick was, but I remember one thing: he told the students over and over again to "share, don't compare."

While I am not usually one for self-help gurus, overly simple "quotes of the day" or platitudes of any sort, that little phrase stuck with me. I suppose it was because I am just a little bit guilty of comparing. I mean, sometimes, I might, just for a second, look at someone else's house and compare it to my own. Or, maybe once or twice I have thought about someone else's fashion sense, or maybe I've just for a SPLIT SECOND considered how I rank as opposed to other mothers.

I mean, clearly, this is not a BIG problem for me. Clearly, I don't give a whit that EVERYONE I KNOW has a bigger, better house than I do, or that I've never owned a pair of Jimmy Choos, let alone a handbag that didn't come from either Target, a street vendor, or a thrift store. I'M NOT BITTER. I'm just saying, that once in a teeny weeny while, I might compare. Just a little. Not that often. Only in my weakest, darkest moments.

So I remember that little phrase from time to time, when I am starting to feel a little bit sorry for myself because I am realizing that I don't have anywhere to put my glorious kitchenaid mixer in my tiny kitchen, but I saw that old friend on Facebook yesterday, the one who is showing off pictures of her brand new McMansion. I remember that my street has mature trees, and I try to be happy. I remember that we are not all the same, and I should SHARE, NOT COMPARE.

I also try to recall this mantra when it comes to mothering. I had heard the horror stories before I ever got pregnant, the ones about how mommies are the most competitive bunch in the world, and will forever berate each other with stories about THE BEST daycares, the strollers they spent a college fund on, the honor roll, the wonderkind who spoke in sentences at nine months and read his first Harry Potter book at age four. But I didn't really believe them. I thought these were people who needed something to complain about, who (oh, how I love this phrase and the really nastiness of it) "didn't have a life." I mean, who really has time to care about the brand of baby sling your neighbor got? I didn't get it.

When I got pregnant, I vowed not to join ranks with the hater-mommies. I wasn't going to fall victim to the comparisons of womanhood attached to being THE BEST MOM EVER. I didn't care if anyone called me a "super-mom" - I just wanted to be a good mom in the best way I knew how, and I wanted everyone to leave me alone and stay out of my way.

I set out collecting secondhand baby gear, refurbished baby furniture, and hand-me-down baby clothes. I was so proud of myself, for being a budget mom and avoiding my competitive impluses, for being practical and savvy instead of trying to keep up with the elusive Joneses. (Really, I don't know any Joneses with whom to keep up.)

I squelched the impulses I had to harangue all my friends with older kids with questions like "When did YOUR baby sit up/crawl/walk/say her first word?" I didn't want to compare. I WANTED TO SHARE! So share, I did.

Every time some friend of mine got pregnant, I'd regale them with information about what baby gear to get where, and cheap. I'd freak out if someone suggested that a $40 pair of baby jeans they found online were cute. "WHY ARE YOU SHOWING ME THIS? My kid will never have $40 jeans! I don't have $40 jeans!" Oh, crap.

In my efforts to be the no-competition mom, I had inadvertently become just that. Rather than comparing myself with the moms who bought the fanciest gear, who flaunted their babies in Janie and Jack outfits and had the money to send them to every KinderMusic class in Lawrence, I'd become just as repulsive on the other end of the spectrum.

I was the woman who judges not because a parent isn't doing enough, but because they're doing TOO MUCH.

For crying out loud.

So after I gave myself a good talking to, put myself in time-out for thirty-seven minutes (BLISS!), and recovered my sanity, I started again, with new resolve.

I WILL SHARE, NOT COMPARE.

I will answer the questions of new moms and moms-to-be honestly and with my own experience, but they are NOT REQUIRED to take my advice. If a new mom wants to purchase a thousand dollar carseat and travel system, that is her prerogative. If she feels her baby is best served by having a team of round-the-clock nannies, by golly, she should do it.

I mean it, people. I am not here, anymore, to either beat myself up or beat up my fellow moms. I will not take secret offense when someone tells me that my idea of great childcare does not coincide with hers. I will not feel inferior when I talk to a stay-at-home mom and admit I have to go to work five days a week.

Today, my baby fell down and smacked his eye against a corner. He has a tiny little cut and his first shiner. I will not cower on the streets, hoping that the other moms won't judge me for being so reckless with his little head. I will let him wear his shiner with pride. I AM NOT PERFECT, and NEITHER ARE YOU.

However, I cannot promise that I will not secretly look at every baby I meet and say in my head, "Mine's cuter." Because he is. And I think that is a mother's right - to believe her child is the most beautiful one ever created.

I mean, seriously, have you seen him?

first birthday by meganstuke

Please Join us at The Chiropractic Experience on Thursday Night, September 16th, for our annual "DISCOVER WELLNESS" Night. It will be an evening full of friends, food, and FUN, as you learn about ways to improve your wellness while participating in fun games with the chance to win one of many great PRIZES!! So bring the family, and we will see you on the 16th!!

Discover Wellness by seancailteux

If you have a passion for community wellness and want a part-time job, check this out.

K-State Extension Douglas County is taking applications for a part-time coordinator of a workplace wellness initiative. Click here, then click on "Work Well Lawrence Coordinator Employment Application."

The person who gets the job will work with a network of key employers to put together a results-oriented workplace wellness initiaitve for our community.

Our baby, Johnny, has responded to music since a very young age. As a tiny infant, he'd quiet if I held him and sang softly. I purposely picked out a few favorite songs and lullabies to sing to him frequently, as I hoped he'd grow up associating those particular sounds with comfort, home, and safety.

As he grew and his body strengthened, I could see a physical response to music. If I turned on music on the television, he'd immediately turn his head to see where it was coming from. For awhile, he actually "directed" - by picking up a pop bead and waving his arms wildly every time he heard a sequence of notes. He tends to respond best to classical music, but really, he's not picky.

I've read that a lot of musical intelligence is fostered between birth and six years old, so I'm all about finding ways to encourage him to hear, play, and enjoy all different sorts of music. At age one, he's already familiar with our litany of favorite bedtime songs, and is completely infatuated with any toys that honk out a tune, annoying as they may be to his parents. For his birthday, he received a wooden toy drum, and has not let go of the mallet since he first picked it up. Drumming, it appears, is his favorite. Which does not bode well for my sanity in the next seventeen or so years.

Still, I'll encourage him any way I can. I'll put a shaker egg in his little hand, let him beat on pots and pans, try out different flavors of music wheneve we get a chance. I'm not a big fan of "kid music", and I sense that the complexity of grown up music - be it Johnny Cash or Johann Sebastian Bach - is good for his little developing brain. In fact, there is research to support the notion that listening to music in early life has a substantial effect on intelligence.

And music isn't just for the individual's own growth. It helps a family grow, too. My family tried its best to be musical, and my sister still plays a mean piano. My brother, now well over forty, can still play "Skating", which he learned in his one year of piano lessons at age six or seven. I, myself, took many years of piano, guitar, school band, and voice lessons. And my family, together, enjoyed this. We played music for holidays, went to one another's concerts, recitals, and shows. We learned from one another and formed many a familial memory in regard to the songs we shared.

My dream is for Johnny to grow up to play the stand-up bass. And yes, I know it's totally wrong to try to imprint my expectations on him. And yes, I'll probably do it anyway, despite my best efforts to be open to WHAT? THE FLUTE? or any other instrument he decides to conquer.

At the Working Well conference in Wichita last week, Wellness Council of America president David Hunnicut outlined seven benchmarks needed for a workplace wellness program to succeed. My favorite quote from the Wichita Eagle article on his presentation:

"Most companies say 'we need to start doing wellness activities' then launch a walking program with balloons in the parking lot. And that won't produce results."

WELCOA's Seven Benchmarks of results-oriented workplace wellness programs include:

1. Capturing CEO Support
2. Creating Cohesive Wellness Teams
3. Collecting Data To Drive Health Efforts
4. Carefully Crafting An Operating Plan
5. Choosing Appropriate Interventions
6. Creating A Supportive Environment
7. Carefully Evaluating Outcomes

Learn more about the seven benchmarks here.

For information about starting a workplace wellness program, contact Susan Krumm at K-State Extension Douglas County.

Here is the bad news over 60% of Americans are overweight or obese and the waste lines grow as the income levels shrink. There is an undeniable connection between class and obesity, but it is not what you think. The common misconception is that healthy food cost more; there for the lower income you are the less healthy foods can you afford. That is rubbish! I am a single mother of two making less than $28,000 a year and I can pretty comfortably afford to feed my family fresh wholesome meals that are mostly organic. I am on welfare but not on a fast food diet. To the contrary being so close to the poverty line forces me to eat even healthier and more simplistically. The key to eating healthy on a budget is having the knowhow and having access to fresh fruits and veggies. I can help my fellow low income friends with the first point but the later is a sad reality of our modern day society. Food deserts are part of our modern day inner city culture. Luckily there are some pretty amazing folks out here who are addressing these issues head on; here in Kansas City there is The Kansas City Center for Urban Agriculture http://www.kccua.org/ Unfortunately this is not the story in all cities and the lack of education and resources are causing catastrophic health problems for families who are already suffering financial stress and the in justice of a classist society.

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/overwt.htm

Why are we so unhealthy? The real question is why we still think that the US government and food corporations are protecting our health. They wouldn’t sell us something that is unhealthy…right? WRONG Our food system and the policies and agencies that govern it are looking out for one thing only….their bottom line. Yes people are making horrible decisions when it comes to food, but they are being carefully and methodically manipulated into these “choices”. Before it even gets to the grocery store our food is; price fixed, preserved, subsidized, striped of nutrients and pumped full of additives and marketed directly to you on your favorite prime time TV show.

One way we are manipulated is by price. I am not talking about the price of apples at one store compared to another; I am talking about the manipulation of food prices through government subsidies and monopolistic power of the food giants. Our food system is full of harsh irony; one ironic fact is that we are paying billions of tax dollars to subsidize the un-healthiest foods, which are consequently the cheapest and most readily available. Essentially the American people are getting fat on junk food while the junk food manufactures are getting fat on our tax money. Take for example Archer Daniel Midland (ADM); ADM operates more than 270 food product plants worldwide. ADM’s products include oils and meal from soybeans, cottonseed, sunflower seeds, canola, peanuts, flaxseed, and Diacylglycerol (DAG) oil, as well as corn germ, corn gluten feed pellets, syrup, starch, glucose, dextrose, crystalline dextrose, High fructose corn syrup sweeteners, cocoa, ethanol, and wheat flour. End uses are consumption by people and livestock, and fuel additives. ADM rakes in a cool $1.7 billion annually. “ADM has cost the American economy billions of dollars since 1980 and has indirectly cost Americans tens of billions of dollars in higher prices and higher taxes over that same period. At least 43 percent of ADM's annual profits are from products heavily subsidized or protected by the American government. Moreover, every $1 of profits earned by ADM's corn sweetener operation costs consumers $10, and every $1 of profits earned by its ethanol operation costs taxpayers $30. ADM has been the most prominent recipient of corporate welfare in recent U.S. history.” Bovard, James. Cato Policy Analysis No. 241. CATO Institute. September 26, 1995. http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-241.html

Another way we are duped into eating toxic foods is by the centralization of the food system. There are fewer producers with more power and a lot less ethics. “Through the prehistoric, historic, and contemporary record of human adaptation, a reasonably clear pattern is discernible: as the food system becomes more centralized, so too do political, economic, and even religious systems”, Richard Manning’s book, Against the Grain (2004) http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1556-486X.2009.01013.x/pdf This is nothing new; food has been and will be the underpinnings of human societal structure for as long as there have been and will be human beings on Earth. I love to look at this anthropological view of food because it is at the essence of how we have ended up where we are today and reveals who is really at fault for our broken system and overweight populous. It is the food giants who have the blood on their hands; Dean foods, Smithfield Foods, Kraft, Cargill, Monsanto, Tyson….These are owners of our food supply. Dean foods for example owns 70% of dairy production on the east coast mean while we have lost 50% of family owned dairy farms in the last fifty years. Hundreds of family farms fold every day in the country, meanwhile milk prices soar, and Dean Food’s pockets billions. When food is centralized so is power. These corporations are driven by one thing; profit. Food that is mass produced is the most profitable. It is mass production that robs our food of nutrients and in many cases makes it literally toxic. Finding healthy foods means turning our back to the food system as we know it, not an easy task to embody. Luckily we are still a point where there are alternatives. http://www.kintespace.com/swf_video/?key=shiva

Turning away from the food establishment is exactly what I have done. It wasn’t easy, and I can’t say that I am 100% free of junky foods, but I think I can help others who are ready to take their food and health into their own hands. It took five years of research before I understood the importance of my food decisions, but now I know that what I can’t afford to do is eat like I used to. Eating healthy on a budget means making sacrifices; less meat, less sweets, less chips and processed snacks, no fast food, no meals in boxes, no morning latte…the good news is you don’t need this stuff to survive. The bad news is if you have lived your whole life with these foods you are physically addicted to them. Start slow and build on your success. After you have lived without junk food for a while you will become more aware of the biological affects it has.

I can’t tell you how many times I have heard people say that they can’t afford to buy natural foods. That seems so funny to me because I can afford it and I make less than most of the folks I hear this from. I would never say that I can’t afford to buy natural foods, but I would say that I can’t afford cable TV, or going out to the movie theatre, or a magazine subscription, using more than half a tank of gas every week etc. My point here is if you are going to eat within your means then you will have to start living your life within your means. In the US we spend only 15% of our incomes on food..the global average is above 40%.....We are living un realistic lives.

I make sacrifices in other parts of my life to afford healthy food. I am not just talking about eating health here I am talking about a life style, and for lower income families that means living without certain modern day conveniences. Like; microwaveable dinners, and pizza delivery that are too expensive and too compromised nutritionally. That is right a healthy life style means cooking your own food. Make simple means that start with fresh veggies and food that gives you the most nutritional value for your buck. Since I won’t buy factory farmed meat I can only afford to eat meat 2-3 meals a week; I use beans, eggs, tofu as protein sources instead. Back to the basics is the name of the poor and healthy eating game. I shop every three days and waste as little food as possible basing my meals on what I have left over. Check out Michael Pollan’s latest book “Food Rules” as a place to get started. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-pollan/food-rules-a-completely-d_b_410173.html

The National Institute of Health (HealthDay.com) last week posted a study showing students who walk to school are more alert and less stressed out than those who get dropped off in the carpool lane.

The study was performed in a lab using 20 boys and 20 girls, ages 10 -14. They took half the kids and simulated riding to school - sitting in a chair and watching a slide show of suburban neighborhoods. The other kids walked a mile on a treadmill wearing a backpack and watching images of a suburban neighborhood.

All the kids rested for 20 minutes after the simulation and then took a test to see how well they could handle the pressure of taking a test. The kids who "carpooled" it had three times more of an increase in their blood pressure and they seemed twice as stressed as the children who walked.

"The cardiovascular disease process begins in childhood, so if we can find some way of stopping or slowing that process, that would provide and important health benefit, " said James Roemmich, an associate professor of pediatrics and exercise and nutrition science from the University of Buffalo.

So get all the parents in your neighborhood involved and take turns walking the kids to school. The "suburban walking-school-bus" has great health benefits for your children in the classroom and for their future.

The Health Care Access Clinic's director, Nikki King, received a Tensie Oldfather Community Service Award at the Douglas County Community Foundation's tenth anniversary celebration on August 21.

The foundation board created the award to honor long-serving nonprofit leaders whose contributions have transformed the organizations they lead. The award included a $5,000 unrestricted grant to the individual's organization.

In recognizing Nikki, DCCF executive director Chip Blaser detailed some of her contributions:

• Growing the clinic's cash and in-kind contributions from $300,000 in 1998 to $4.5 million this year;
• Successfully executing a move to a new location that makes services more accessible, efficient, and effective;
• Initiating wellness programs that make high-risk patients more healthy overall;
• Providing leadership within the CHIP and LiveWell Lawrence community coalitions.

The award is named after the late Tensie Oldfather, a local philanthropist who volunteered for numereous organizations and made the founding gift that established the Douglas County Community Foundation.

Other award recipients were Midge Grinstead, director of the Lawrence Humane Society, and Dianne Ensminger, director of Ballard Community Services.

Nikki King and Mike Davis by Marilyn_Hull

There is nothing like talking about daycare to make a new mom get itchy.

I mean, let's just put aside for a minute the overwhelming anxiety that new moms have when they go back to work. Let's not talk about the tremendous guilt we feel because for whatever reason (and there are many), we're going to have to put our babies in the hands of someone else for hours a day. I'm not here today to talk about the relative merits of staying home v working. That is a "to each his or her own" topic if there ever was one.

But, it's hard. If you are using daycare, you worry. (Heck, if you aren't using daycare, you worry.)

But then, once you've gotten your mind around the "Yes, we're going to have to find a daycare situation," drama, you have the "But what kind of daycare" drama.

Yesterday, I was talking to a pregnant friend of mine who expressed her concerns over needing to pin down daycare soon. She had a lot of things to think about as she sifted through her options.

The big issue, for many parents, is the staggering cost. The crippling, vomit-inducing price, which makes you extra sick because you're bound to think about the percentage of your paycheck that is going to daycare, and man, is it even worth it to keep your job? But some paycheck is better than none, and you need the insurance, and quitting just isn't an option.

So you start thinking about less expensive alternatives. And then you feel terrible because, you know, isn't your baby worth the BEST POSSIBLE care in town? And doesn't it stand to reason that if you pay more, you get more? Surely the pricey places are the best.

But then you feel sick again, because if you opt for the pricey place, you know you won't have enough money left over to save for a college fund or do extra things with your kiddo like a family vacation or music lessons.

And, really, is the pricey place the best? How do we know? I can say that the situation we have is by far less expensive than many of the daycares in town, but I feel like our baby gets amazing love and attention all day.

As with most parenting questions, the answer is to trust our instincts. Check out the various people and providers. Visit with other moms and dads. And then do what feels best to you, based on your experience and your guts.

I told my friend that I could give her the number of the person who takes care of Johnny three days a week, but she said she wasn't sure about a "home" situation. As an attorney, she'd seen too many horror stories about injuries and deaths in home daycares. She had a good point. Of course, I am more than confident that my baby's caregiver is just as careful or even moreso than I am, but how would my friend know that?

But there are drawbacks to the "regular" daycares, too. After talking with my friend yesterday, I went to the pharmacy to pick up my prescription and I ran into a woman who was in my birthing class with me a year ago. She is looking for a new daycare situation because her baby, who is happy and stimulated in her traditional daycare situation, gets sick all the time from the other kids. So this mom would prefer a home situation with just one or two other kids, if she can find it. Also a good point.

I am on the fence. For now, what we have is working for us. Our baby stays home with his grandma at our house two days a week, and goes to the home of a babysitter three days a week. He sees other kids and goes on outings with the sitter, gets his grandma's loving attention, and hopefully is going to be socially well-adjusted and well-rounded for his experience.

Still, I worry that maybe he needs more structure. Do we need a regular daycare so that I know he's getting a certain curriculum every day? Should I be concerned about nap schedules, education, and reading readiness at this early stage of the game?

There's no easy answer. Certainly what is right for my family and baby is not going to necessarily be right for another. My priorities, at least right now, are that my baby be loved and held and get lots of personal attention. That is more important to me than having snack time at precisely 10:00 every day. I mean, he's not quite one. He thinks a stacking cup makes a good hat.

Eventually, I might have to make a change. I'll continue to process and evaluate, and I think it's important never to become complacent where your kids' care is concerned. A change will probably be painful for everyone involved, and I'll lose sleep about it, like I do most of my big parenting decisions. But for now, all I can do is keep close track of my baby, and put him in the hands of trusted folks who will nurture him and help him grow, just like we do at home.

For anyone who needs information about daycares or help sorting out options, The Douglas County Child Development Association can help.

One thing I was sure, SURE I would do when I was pregnant was make my own baby food. I'm sort of into cooking, so I figured it would be a total snap to whip up culinary masterpieces to tempt my baby's palette. I wanted him to grow up appreciating good food, with a wide repertoire of things he would eat. Also, I thought it would be much healthier and more pure than anything I could buy in a carton or jar.

Here's the reality. We do the jars. A lot more than I ever would have hoped to.

There are some things I still make from scratch. I make a mean applesauce and freeze it in individual cubes. I pureed a whole baking pumpkin so we'll have those cubes for surviving during the apocolypse, it made so many. I've steamed and pureed carrots, sweet potatoes, and spinach. But feeding him strictly food made by my loving hand proved trickier than I anticipated.

For starters, I'm busy. I work full time and I cook at least one meal a day for my husband and myself, and if I'm honest, I just don't have it in me to plan something to puree for baby on a regular basis on top of my other household chores.

Also, my baby goes to the sitter three days a week. I can't really be dragging frozen food-cubes over to her. And there's eating out, and travelling. Frozen food cubes don't travel well. Jars do.

The other thing I have noticed is that I can actually offer my baby a better variety of things if I feed him some pre-made baby foods. I couldn't really puree peas or green beans for him when he was tiny and needed smooth foods. They have skins that I wasn't sure would ever smooth out like the peas in the plastic tubs that Gerber makes do.

Now that he's bigger, it's easier. We can usually give him some bits of what we're having, and I keep things on hand that he can pick up on his own. I can cut up a banana or offer him some noodles or frozen peas (he loves them when he's teething). He can eat a blueberry or a cracker or some smooshed up beans. But sometimes I still revert to the Gerber toddler food, because I worry about protein. Somehow, the meat (can we really be sure it's meat?) in those toddler meals is palettable to him, but if I give him a bite of turkey he chokes and gags and acts like he can't swallow it - no matter how small I chop it up.

Yeah, those Gerber people do sort of know what they are doing.

Gerber makes "organic" products and while I'm not completely sure what that means, it makes me feel a little better about what I'm giving Johnny, if I'm not going to be able to give him something I bought at the farmer's market for every meal.

Letting go of the "only homemade food" ideal was hard for me, but it falls under the category of "Things I Do To Survive." My advice to moms everywhere, my mantra, really, is this: GIVE YOURSELF A BREAK.

We can't be super-mom every minute. We can't work, keep perfect houses, be playing developmental games with our children, cooking three different organic meals from scratch, recycling, hanging the laundry out to dry, and wearing heels and pearls all the while. Some things, sometimes, have to give. And guess what. Your children? They'll survive. They'll even flourish.

And they'll be happy, growing up with a mom who knows how to prioritize, and hasn't worked herself into a padded cell.

So to the people at Gerber? I say a hearty "Thank you." You're a real winner, in a pinch.

In just over a week, my baby, my infant, my little bundle of innocence, he who just arrived, what, yesterday? will turn one year old. Weird. I mean, yesterday I was seventeen. Today I'm thirty-seven. And my tiny infant whose birth just happened mere minutes ago is turning one.

Turning one is, of course, a Very Big Deal. It means he's going to get his first cake, and we'll let him have a little ice cream as a super special treat - milk intolerance be damned. He'll receive a shiny new red wagon (but don't tell him! It's a surprise!) and he'll get to swim in the pool and see all his favorite people.

It also means I get to make a cake that I like as opposed to the hideous Bob the Builder or Barney monstrosities I'll be forced to endure later in his life. And we'll have some official one year photos taken, and he'll get his one year vaccinations.

Oh, that's right, I said vaccinations.

Johnny has gotten all of his vaccinations, on the regular schedule, since the beginning of his life. Which was yesterday, right? Seems like it.

I am big on this. I am big on kids getting their regular vaccinations. That's right, I said it. This is not one of those issues where I'll just say "Oh, to each his own. What works for one family might not work for another," like I do on most issues. This is one issue on which I have an opinion, and it is a strong one.

Because if people don't vaccinate their kids? Not only does it put their kids at risk, it puts mine at risk. And, it turns out, there is no link between autism and the vaccines. In fact, the study that created the panic over the link has been officially retracted, as the results were falsified. So can we put that to rest already?

Most people hate taking their babies to the vaccine check-ups, but I don't. I mean, yes, I hate to see him cry when he's poked at, but I get all psyched about the vaccine itself. "SAFE!" I think to myself, after every round of shots. It's a relief. There are plenty of childhood injuries, viral infections, and challenges to avoid that we can't just vaccinate away. But whooping cough? Measles? Hepatitis B? Those, we can control. And, I'm a control freak. So I'm all over those vaccinations.

As the school year starts, it's time to think about those vaccinations. Are the kids in your child's class vaccinated? How will you know? This is not a problem I have to worry about yet, but it already makes my palms sweat.

But for now, I'll just look forward to our one-year check-up and the knowledge that my child is as medically safe as he can be. And, I'll look forward to cake.

Do you have a personal wellness goal? What is it? Why did you set it? How is it going?

Every newcomer to the Wellcommons LiveWell Lawrence group who posts a reply to these four simple questions will be entered in a drawing to win one of ten $25 gift certificates to Garry Gribble's Running Sports store.

The drawing will be on Friday, July 16.

Winners will be announced on the LiveWell Lawrence group page. So you'll need to check back to see if you are a winner. Winners will have one week to claim their gifts. If we haven't heard from you by July 23, we will select a different winner.

I recently wrote an article for KC Parent Magazine July 2010 about the challenges of constipation with children. Right now I have one child that gave us a year of frustration, but she managed to work it on out...so to speak!

I posted a link to the site on my FaceBook account and the comments were endless and hilarious. I thought people didn't start talking about bowel patterns until they were in their 80's. Boy was I wrong!

Do any of you have any questions regarding this issue? Or do you have any tips for poo-ing? Tricks to regulate? Ideas for movin' and groovin'?

This topic needs to remain G-rated please, but humor is always appreciated!