Welcome to the Sunday Surf, a tour of the best blogposts I've read throughout the week.


Mikko specifically wanted me to show off the food in his mouth with this photo.
You're welcome.
Time for some weekend reading!

6 hours ago (3 notes)

#parenting
#time management
#humor
#funny
#Just for Fun
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I laugh (and cry) because it is true.
(via What You Can Get Done in 30 Minutes Without Your Kids vs. With Your Kids | More LOLs & Funny Stuff for Moms | NickMom; illustration by Adrienne Hedger)
8 hours ago (2 notes)

#homeschooling
#unschooling
#socialization
The Five-Second Rule of Homeschooling: What About Socialization? | BlogHer →
I’d never heard the 5-Second Rule applied to anything but eating food that’s dropped on the ground, but this makes so much sense:
The rule is this: “If you can think of it in five seconds, I can think of it in five seconds.” That is, don’t give obvious advice or ask really silly questions about something a friend has told you until you’ve given it more than five seconds of thought.
If the only thing someone can think to kneejerkily ask about homeschooling is “But what about socialization?” maybe you could ask that person to give it more than five seconds of thought … since as a homeschooler, I certainly have!
10 hours ago

#faith
#child development
#activism
We Went to Mass Again! . . . →
So. Incredibly. Impressed. I am never this articulate when someone’s being a snot to me!
Ladies and gentlemen, I was hot under the collar at this point, but I wanted to be nice. “I understand fully what age appropriate means”, I said, “and I am sorry that you have an issue with my children attending mass. It is in no way inappropriate for them to attend with me, and I will continue to listen to their needs and attend mass as long as it works for our family.”
18 hours ago

#breastfeeding
#long-term breastfeeding
#breastfeeding past infancy
#breastfeeding beyond infancy
#weaning
Fabulous Mama Chronicles: The Importance of Nursing Boundaries →
On setting limits when breastfeeding isn’t working well anymore for the mother.
20 hours ago (22,527 notes)
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(Source: backinasex, via sylvar)
1 day ago (2 notes)
Authentic Parenting: Even With the Best Intentions...→
Balanced interpretation of Aletha Solter’s work (author of The Aware Baby, which encourages letting babies and children whose other needs are met to cry in arms to release stress).
When I first heard of her position, I was nervous because it seemed too close to encouraging crying-it-out and discouraging breastfeeding (or I feared that’s what people would make of it, which as you point out, can be the case). However, the flip side is it has given me chances to examine what makes me so uncomfortable about my children expressing emotion and realizing that I don’t always need to respond with the breast. For instance, now I often hug or offer verbal comfort first, talk through the situation, and let my toddler ask for the breast if that’s what he needs instead, rather than assume he wants to nurse, as if having him nurse is the fastest way to shut him up and turn off the crying. The younger the child, of course, the less talking-through can happen or be useful, but reading her work did offer me some reassurance and lead me to this self-reflection of when I was using the breast perhaps inappropriately.
However, my little ones have always nursed a LOT, including comfort nursing, so I think any reading of the book should be taken with common sense and compassion in mind, even as some of her lessons might be beneficial.
My own experimentation on the subject: “The aware parent: Becoming comfortable with crying”
5 days ago (2 notes)

#breastfeeding
#breastfeeding past infancy
#breastfeeding beyond infancy
#long-term breastfeeding
#nursing in public
#breastfeeding in public
#toddler
#Preschoolers
your fonder heart: breastfeeding a toddler →
As Olive approaches 2 years old, and as I look back on two years of nursing her, and as I look forward to what is bound to be at least a little more time of continuing to nurse her, I am struck by how easy it has been to decide to keep going.
Before I had a kid, any breastfeeding I saw was unusual, and nursing toddlers seemed so big to me. But when it was my kid, he just looked like — my kid. Who needed nummies just like when he was a newborn, until he eventually didn’t anymore. I do like for it to be gentle and nonjudgmental like that, where people know it’s just a child seeking comfort and nutrition and a mother responding. I stopped feeling comfortable in public at some point, though, so I know there was a time when I decided it was best to keep it private, that I knew there were strangers (or not strangers) who would judge us. My second nursling is 20 months, and he just seems so much like a baby to me still — it’s hard to imagine that nursing him is odd to anybody.

Guest posting:

I'm happy to share my post on "Side-lying nursing: A breastfeeding tutorial to give you more sleep" at African Babies Don't Cry!

At LaurenWayne.com:

Carnival news:

Calling for submissions for March 2013 Carnival of Natural Parenting: Tough Conversations
Theme: Tough Conversations: How do you address challenging topics with your kids (death, race, sex, injustice, etc.)? Recall a tough conversation you had, share your thoughts or tips on how parents can handle these challenges with grace, or find your own way to tackle this topic.

Deadline: Tuesday, March 5. Fill out the webform and email your submission to us by 11:59 p.m. Pacific time: CarNatPar {at} NaturalParentsNetwork.com 

Six Ingredient Challenge:

I hope you're enjoying reading along with the six-week Six Ingredient Challenge! How's it going for you so far? If you haven't started yet, feel free to join anytime!

Posts so far:

• Reclaiming "Healthy": On Intuitive Eating and Ditching Diets For Good (1/29)
• Join us for the Six Ingredient Challenge! (1/30)
• Rules & FAQ of the Six Ingredient Challenge (1/31)
• Involving Your Kids & Partner in a New Way of Eating (2/4)
• Why have you decided to participate in the Six Ingredient Challenge? (asked 1/31; linkup 2/7)
• Shopping Strategies (2/12)
• How's it going for you so far? (asked 2/7; linkup 2/14)
• Chicken Broth (2/1)
• Peanut Butter (2/5)
• Almond Milk & Sweet Almond Cream (2/8)
• Flour Tortillas (2/11)
• Soft Pretzels (2/13)
• Coconut Macaroons (2/13)
• Ricotta cheese (2/15)
• Granola Bars (2/19)
• What new foods or recipes have you tried or discovered? (asked 2/14; linkup 2/21)
• What has been the easiest part of this challenge for you so far? The most difficult part? (asked 2/21; linkup 2/28)
• Butter (2/22)

Start formulating your answer to the fourth writing prompt, and publish it on your blog by Feb. 28 (or save it to paste in the comments when we post our responses then). You can also read the interesting responses to our third writing prompt from the linky! No matter how far along we are, we invite you to sign up and join in now — we're excited about the conversations we're having!

Giveaways:

I've got two big ol' giveaways going on right now, both for $100 CVS gift cards!
Staying well during sick days + $100 giveaway from Children's Mucinex! {3.31; US}

Being sniffly doesn't have to mean being miserable.

7 ways to turn sick days into fun days + $100 CVS gift card giveaway {3.31; US}
Enter with one easy comment on each post for a chance to win one of two $100 gift cards to CVS. It's nice to have a little extra spending money during cold & flu season!

Surf with us:

We love following along with fellow Sunday Surfers. If you have your own post of reading links to share, please link up your post on Hobo Mama or on Authentic Parenting. The linky will go live every Sunday, and you can link up any day that week. You only need to add your post to one of the sites, and the linky will automatically show up on both sites.

You can get the Sunday Surf button by Jenna Designs and some code to add to your post from my Sunday Surf page.

Check out previous editions for good reading, and you can find more shared items during the week at my Tumblr blog, Hobo Mama's Shared Items.

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1. Feb. 17-23: Kids success, comfort food & "pins"	2. Hobo Mama = Seafood
3. Sunday Surf: 2/24	4. Pregnancy, toddlers, diabetes, make up. . . oh my!