Welcome to the Sunday Surf! Here are some of the best links I've read this past week.

I am once more in the throes of my state business excise taxes, which are just as horrific as they sound and which are due tomorrow. I will try to quickly compile the links I've got!

I've wanted to tell you about some of the resources we've been using to prepare three-year-old Mikko for his new sibling, and I've decided to do this in stages. Here are some the books we have out from the library right now on the subject of new siblings and pregnancy and my mini-reviews of each.

I've included special emphasis on how attachment-focused the books are. This is not meant to be a nitpicky criticism of the books in question, but to help you find the books that are most relevant to your family, particularly since it's hard to find pictures and language in most kids' books that reflect an attachment lifestyle. Now, when I'm reading a book out loud that has a different term for a function or item than one we use, I simply change the language as I need to for my son to identify more closely with the story. In that way, you could change some language like, "Babies drink milk" to be "Babies drink nummies" (or your special word for nursing). That said, the accompanying illustration might be of bottle feeding only, so sometimes it's easiest to pick books that are already closest to your family's practices!

I spotted this Japanese mural in McCaw Hall in Seattle
and couldn't resist sharing the corner!
Don't you love the twiddling detail?

We continue to be delighted with the advice and stories our Carnival of Natural Parenting participants share, and we hope you'll join us for the next carnival in February! (Check out January 2011 and the full list of 2010 posts if you missed them.) Your co-hosts are Dionna at Code Name: Mama and Lauren at Hobo Mama.

Here are the submission details for February 2011:

Theme: Parenting Essentials: I cannot imagine parenting without __________. This one is wide open: Do you have a natural parenting product that you can’t live without? Is there a book, family secret, or song that has been crucial to your transition into the role of parent? Is it a friend who makes all the difference for you?

Deadline: Tuesday, February 1. Fill out the webform (at the link or at the bottom) and email your submission to us by 11:59 p.m. Pacific time: CodeNameMama {at} gmail.com and mail {at} HoboMama.com

Welcome to the Sunday Surf! Here are some of the best links I've read this past week.

For those interested in the other end of my Wordless Wednesday picture from this past week:



Cheers to joyful dining with kids!¹

• "Surgeon General: Breastfeeding Should Be Less Hassle" from The Huffington Post: New call to action by the Surgeon General to support breastfeeding. The emphasis is on removing obstacles for women who wish to breastfeed, which I think is right on target. Other relevant links:
  • "Call to Action to Support Breastfeeding Fact Sheet" from SurgeonGeneral.gov
  • "Everyone Can Help Make Breastfeeding Easier, Surgeon General Says in 'Call to Action'" — press release from US Department of Health & Human Services

Are you a writer who's interested in natural parenting topics? Are you a dear soul who wants to volunteer to help a thriving community of like-minded parents?

We need more fresh new content and volunteers for Natural Parents Network, a site that connects like-minded natural parents and parents-to-be.

Dionna from Code Name: Mama¹ and I cofounded NPN last fall, and it has blossomed since — thanks to your involvement! (Read more about NPN's origins and intentions here.)

But we could always use more of your contributions. After all, it's not the Natural Parents Network without you!

WRITE!

If you like to write about natural parenting, please hook us up with some original posts to feature on Natural Parents Network.

I've been surprised how much gaining weight (and girth) during pregnancy has bothered me, considering:

• I was fat and mostly complacent about it before pregnancy.
39 weeks pregnant with Mikko, and may I say, Bwahahahahaha!
• I really do like looking pregnant.
• I know all about the health benefits of gaining weight during pregnancy, even for those of us who were overweight to begin with.
• I gained 33 pounds last time I was pregnant and lost it all within 2 weeks of the birth — even though it was over the so-called recommended amount for fat women to gain.
• I think it's ludicrous that weight gain recommendations don't take relative height and size into consideration — or, you know, current research. I think they're ludicrous just at face value as well.
• My midwife doesn't care how much I weigh.
• I know it's not getting fat; it's being pregnant. There's a baby in there who needs this weight to grow.¹ (And, to go along with my first point, so what if I am getting fatter?)

So why does it bug me so much to step on the scale and see that I am now so much heavier than my husband? Why do I gaze at my naked pregnant body and see the lumps and rolls instead of the swell my baby makes?

And this is why we don't eat out at nice places.

This is another in a series of guest posts by other bloggers. Read to the end for a longer biographical note on today's guest blogger, Rachel Jonat from The Minimalist Mom. Rachel shares her real-life experiences of family life without the family car.

Guest post by Rachel Jonat

When I announced I was pregnant with my first child one of the many follow-up questions I received was, will you be getting a new car?

We had a 12-year-old vehicle at the time that, while not exciting or new, ran just fine. Our emphatic answer was no. At that point I knew very little about the demands of a newborn, but I did know that our son would not care what car we were driving.

Fast forward a year and a few months and we decided to get rid of our car altogether. This news was met with congratulations from some and shock from others: How can you have a child and no car?

It’s pretty easy. I’ll tell you how.

Welcome to the Sunday Surf! Here are some of the best links I've read this past week.

I just spent some hours trying to reconstruct the links I was going to share with you, because once again my browser has crashed repeatedly and taken my saved links with it. I really should become more conscientious about sharing them in my public reader feed before that happens, huh?¹ The good news is, I got to read some more as I was poking around in my history and Google Reader.

The other good news is, Sam has now felt the baby move! That gives me such a kick (so to speak). Now I just have to wait till it's consistent and strong enough to bring Mikko into the experience. There's no way he'd keep his hand on my belly for five minutes the way Sam was persuaded to!

For months after Mikko was born, I'd feel funny twinges in my belly — from muscle spasms or gas or food digesting or whatever it was – and I'd think, "Oh, it's the baby!" And then I'd remind myself, "No, stupid, the baby's on your lap. That's a fart." And I swear, I now have to keep reminding myself, "No, it is a baby now."² How surreal to have an entire person inside me, frog-kicking away.

• "The Power of 10" from Code Name: Mama: An insightful viewpoint on discipline — putting into perspective how fleeting your child's behavior is, and how lasting your responses can be.
  

  "For anyone still on the fence about giving yourself a chance to calm down before you come back to your child (after your child has done something you believe is inappropriate, etc.), consider this:
  
  Will your child’s behavior matter in 10 seconds? 10 minutes? 10 hours? Will it matter in 10 days, weeks, months, or years?
  
  How about your response – how will the punishment you choose affect your child in 10 seconds? 10 minutes? 10 hours? How will the way you choose to punish your child matter in 10 days, weeks, months, or years?"

I should totally go live here. Only $350 a month!

(Click images to view them larger.
You might have to click again in the new window to zoom.)




Favorite lines:

We dont use heat besides the fire place and individual electrical heaters every now and then when it's getting too cold to move a finger. We're not vegan and we smoke but we recycle as much as we can, cook a lot, brew our own booze, avoid using plastic bags, trashy/pre-made food and chemical detergents, soaps, cosmetics... and well we dont wash all that often in the first place ha.

This is a current listing, brought to my attention through my Google Alerts search for "hobo mama," so jump on it if you're interested. The room's available first of the month! I'll see you there.

P.S. I'm not making fun of these people; I just think it's the height of awesome that they called it a big fat hobo mama house and couldn't resist posting. Cheers to nonconformist, community-oriented, not-at-all liberal frat houses and hippie dens!

I have a guest post today over at The Mahogany Way on "Unschooling is how adults naturally learn."

It was a concept that occurred to me when I first started hearing about unschooling. See, I'd originally moved to Seattle with a stated intention of attending a graduate school/seminary program out here — and the more I didn't go back to school, the less I wanted to. I was having too much fun learning to be educated!

Sam went off to try West African drumming and draw cartoons. I took a hatmaking course where I blocked four hats in the traditional style and spent way too much on watercolor supplies for my painting class. Every quarter, a new catalog [of adult-education classes] would come, and we would dog-ear the pages, marking up what looked interesting and trying to prioritize based on the time and money we had available.

I had been considering continuing on to grad school, but it was almost as if these new classes helped convince me not to go. I had been a very good student throughout my traditional-schooling years — teacher's pet, straight As, the whole deal — and what I loved about my adult education classes was that all the rules had changed. In fact, there was no game at all anymore, no rules to keep or break. It was just learning, for its own sake. I was not going to become a hatmaker, a painter, a ballerina, or an actress. But I could go to the classes and learn and absorb, research more on my own, and enter into that new world for as long as I wished.

I hope it's reassuring for you if unschooling seems tempting yet mysterious to realize that you already do unschooling every day in your adult life, so it's more just a matter of applying that philosophy to your time with children. I hope you'll click over and join me in the comments over there.

While you're at The Mahogany Way, take a look at the joyful unschooling Darcel does with her three children, like a recent child-led time at the bookstore and an acknowledgement that playing is necessary. I always enjoy seeing how she documents unschooling in action in a real-life family, and I appreciate her wisdom and experiences with attachment parenting as she writes about breastfeeding, babywearing, and her most recent homebirth.

If you're interested in guest posting for me or having me guest post for you, let me know.

Catch you at The Mahogany Way!

18 weeks on the inside and 3.5 years on the outside

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In honor of Wordless Wednesday, I've put up a wee tutorial over at LaurenWayne.com on "Setting up thumbnail linkies & choosing the right dimensions" for those of you who already do or who wish to host thumbnail linkies, like mine below, from LinkyTools.com, whether for Wordless Wednesday, a giveaway link-up, or other blog hop fun. I've noticed some issues with title character length as I've used thumbnail linkies elsewhere, so I thought I'd just point out how Linky Tools guides users through choosing the appropriate combination of image size and character length for the title. If you already know this, carry on!

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1. The Linton Academy - Beach Toys

2. Simple Whimsy- Light Board Fun

3. Christine @ Our Homeschool Reviews **LINKY**

4. The Snowy Day - Sarah @ Two Young Kids

5. Musings From Mt Rogo

6. Green Momma w/linky

7. Angelicas Awesome Adventures (Linky!)

8. Help! Parenting Advice Needed - linky

9. Mom Caboodle W/Linky

10. Our Tiny Apartment

11. Adventures in Mommyhood

12. My Life in Jenga-w. linky

13. Fashion Wednesday! w/linky

14. The Mommy Chronicles

15. Amber @ The Mom Road

16. Snow Family

17. A Lot of Loves *linky*

18. The Long Road Ahead

19. Annie Dees SNOW Day!

20. Ask Ms Recipe-Linky

21. Dagmars momsense: Snow **linky

22. Cheeky Monkey @ The Parent Vortex

23. Crazyland: Tales from the Motherboard *LINKY*

24. Exceeding Abundantly

25. Zelmas Workshop LINKY

26. The Artsymamas view from her window

27. Adventures in Mommyhood

28. Kindred Spirit Mommy

29. Two at once @ Anktangle

30. Wordless Wednesday @ Purple Dancing Dahlias

31. "Cat"

32. shades of white *linky*

33. MomAgain@ 40