In my so far, short stint, as a mother (nine years and counting,) I've encountered too many stories of mothers being harassed for nursing in public. Luckily I never encountered such a thing, but I absolutely lived in fear of someone giving me a dirty look, or goodness, actually protesting the act of me innocently feeding my baby.

Well.. another story is hitting the newswire and its much like all the previous ones I've heard over the years, except this one, the company in question, Applebees and their parent company, Thomas & King, understand the Kentucky statute, but they don't want to necessarily adhere to the law.

After a second letter, a Thomas & King lawyer said the restaurant chain would consider keeping blankets in the restaurant so that breast-feeding women could cover themselves.

OK.. first, there are times at any restaurant, where I would question the cleanliness of the seat I'm sitting on, no matter what chain it is, never mind a blanket that has been stored god knows where, and washed god knows when. But thats not really the point. The Kentucky statute states:

that breastfeeding may not be considered an act of public indecency, indecent exposure, sexual conduct, lewd touching or obscenity

OK (again) if in Kentucky, breastfeeding is not to be considered, well, what I just quoted, then why cover it up?

You know, I get that some people are uncomfortable with it. I really do. But thats not my problem, or the problem of any other nursing mother. These things here on my chest? They are first and foremost, eating utensils for my young offspring. Not sexual. Not something to stare at. And lastly, not at all unnatural! If you can't sip your coffee, or eat your lunch because a woman a few tables away is feeding her infant, the way nature intended.. then you my friend, are the one with the problem.

Good Grief Applebees!

Anyway, Jennifer over at The Lactivist Blog is talking about this and documenting action that can be taken (letters, nurse ins, nurse outs. Check it out if you are as ticked off as I am and want to do something.

Also worth noting. Brooke Ryan was absolutely genius in carrying her state's breastfeeding statute on a card in her baby's diaper bag. This isn't about starting trouble, this was about protecting herself AND her baby's rights. Perhaps if I had thought about doing that when I was nursing, I wouldn't have been so afraid of nursing in public and being criticized for it.

I had been planning for a few weeks to have a little contest during the first week of September to celebrate five years of My Little Tribe. It was September 7, 2002 when I purchased my domain. Five Years.

But then I signed up for The Alzheimer's Association's Memory Walk as a Team Captain.. and frankly, we need sponsors. So Richard and I came up with another kind of contest.

The rules..

1 entry for every 5.00 you donate to sponsor Team Martin. (Use this page to directly sponsor Team Martin. OR paypal carla AT mylittletribe DOT com, if you prefer not to use a credit card, and I will add it to the sponsor totals and send the check.)

1 entry for linking to My Little Tribe and blogging about this contest.

1 entry for signing up to walk in your local Memory Walk.

So depending on how much you sponsor us for, you can get many entries. Additional earned entries by linking and/or signing up!

Best yet.. You pick your prize! The lucky winner will be able to choose one prize between the following three options: an Apple iPod Shuffle (you choose your favorite color!) , a FIFTY DOLLAR gift certificate to spend any way you wish at Amazon.com or, because so many fiber friends read here, a FIFTY DOLLAR gift certificate to spend any way you wish at The Loopy Ewe, my absolute favorite online yarn store.

Comment here OR email me at carla AT mylittletribe DOT com, with your number of entries (I will double check!) And one name will be chosen randomly using random.org, on Friday evening, September 14th at 9:00 PM, EST. If the Martin Family's modest goal is met with enough time prior to the end of the contest, I will add more prizes for even more winners.

This contest is only open to entries from the USA, Canada, and Great Britain for purposes of shipping costs.

I've decided to move all political posts to their own home. I've been wanting to do this for a while and just never sat down long enough to buy the domain and set it up. Until today, that is.

I'm certain my little rant on Billo last week either scared some muggles, or at the very least hurt a feeling or two. I'm not going to apologize for it, but I will try to separate some of the facets of my life.

So in the future, My Little Tribe, will be family and craft only. All of the typical political crap that gets under my skin so much that I just have to talk about it, will now be at LiberalMom.Com, my brand new blog. I may move my political category over there, or I may keep the old stuff here and start fresh. I'm not sure yet. I guess it all depends on how it will affect MLT's ratings.

Anyway, there isn't much there yet.. its going to take me at minimum, a week to tweak the hell out of it and get it up to my blogging standards.

But do stop by.. even if you swing to the right.

Come on now, get out of my head..

If you subscribe to my feed, I'm sure you've noticed the same posts popping up as new. I'm not sure why, other than I added the technorati ping service to my list of ping servers. I've now removed it to see if that helps. In any case, sorry for that!

I suffered a setback with the lace project last night, so no pretty lace pictures. And although I was tempted to reach for something else to knit, I resisted (plans are in progress to start another pair of socks however, since I desperately need something mobile to knit)

I will take this Friday blog post to remind my local friends...

Tomorrow. Saturday June 9th. Inner Harbor. Noon to 4. Be there or be square

After numerous database problems.. things just started to 'click'. But I think I did it! All.By.Myself! Did it work? Did it, huh huh? Did it?

The person with whom I've hosted my blog (and previous business website) all these years, has decided to close the doors. Directly because of the server issues going on. Apparently the server is not reliable suddenly and alas, all the up and downs and errors. So myself and the handful of others that have faithfully stuck with them need to find a new landlord.
In a speedy fashion, I need to find a new host, and start the process of re-installing blog software and moving everything (several years worth of images and blog posts). Ugh.

So.. again, be patient if you experience errors. I expect this to take a few days of work to get fully moved and get the kinks worked out.

Wish us luck.

If everything goes as I plan on it going, you shouldn't notice anything at all.