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

Babysitting for friends gives my kids access to all sorts of cool toys!

Plus, since Mikko never wants to play pretend with me, I get the fun of trying out new games, like Moira's doll and stuffed animal hospital. Yes, there was an epidemic. Good thing we had Davis the nurse to help.

P.S. Happy St. Patrick's Day. Mikko wants to celebrate by getting a piñata. Of course.

I still haven't figured out how I'm going to keep up my blog reading once Google Reader is kaput. But, for now, I still have links! Enjoy while you can.

11 hours ago

#green living
#Composting
#gardening
#condoms
Hybrid Rasta Mama: Did You Know That You Can Compost Latex Condoms? →
Oh, my gosh, how did I not know this? And to think we’ve been wasting them all these years!
17 hours ago (2 notes)

#pregnancy
#Nutrition
#weight
#midwives
#obstetricians
#health
#fat acceptance
#Plus Size
#Size Acceptance
The Well-Rounded Mama: Bad Nutritional Advice to Pregnant Women of Size →
Actual nonsenical dietary advice to women who dare to be fat while pregnant.
And even when women comply with these ridiculous restrictions, their care providers often don’t believe them.  In the care providers’ eyes, if you are “obese,” then OBVIOUSLY you are overeating, mainlining ice cream and bread, and consume a TON of sugar.  And if you don’t admit to it, well, then obviously you are lying.
1 day ago

#parenting subsequent children
#siblings
Swistle: Reader Question: How Does a Second Child Change Things? →
From getting Dad more involved to dressing them in matching outfits: Yes!
Also this:
Another change was how big our older child seemed all of a sudden. It was like he was a baby that morning, and a totally competent walker-talker that afternoon. I felt like the new baby gave me a much greater appreciation for the older child’s skills—-things I hadn’t noticed so much before, like how nice it was that he could tell me what was wrong, or point to what he wanted, or be set down anywhere without slumping over like a cute little slug.

And the flip of this was also true: I found I could appreciate my second child’s babyness so much more, because I could see it in contrast to the older child. Instead of feeling like his babyness was practically all used up at 6 weeks (as I did with my firstborn, although to be fair that was in the middle of a hormonal cry fest), I felt like he seemed small and cute endlessly. And I could appreciate the simplicity of his needs: he needed food, or warmth, or a new diaper, or snuggles—-he didn’t need a twentieth “Why?” answer, or to have it explained why he couldn’t have my coffee, or to have me to decide how much television he could watch.
1 day ago

#bilingualism
#non-native bilingualism
#multilingualism
#language
#unschooling
#homeschooling
Bilingual Babes: RAISING BILINGUAL CHILDREN: 5 ways to get your kids talking (a minority language) →
Fun ways to encourage minority language use.
6 days ago (1 note)

#unschooling
#homeschooling
#education
#death
Unschooling after Death | Enjoy Life Unschooling →
Sad topic that I know is pertinent to some unschoolers in my circle. It can also apply to divorce and contains good advice for all of us to prepare for our children’s welfare in advance.
6 days ago (1 note)

#emotions
#respectful parenting
#responding with sensitivity
#responsiveness
#gentle discipline
45 Ways to Help Your Child Cope With Big Emotions | ourfeministplayschool →
Amazing list of tips that are respectful to your children and calming for both of you.

What Natural Parenting REALLY Looks Like! — NPN Flickr photo contest

Win some of the almost $1100 in prizes by contributing your photos of "What Natural Parenting Really Looks Like" to the new Natural Parents Network Flickr Pool.

Photos submitted to the NPN Flickr Pool from now through March 31 will be considered entries into the contest. See details at the link.

At LaurenWayne.com:

Forward vs. foreword

An easy one, but don't let me catch it wrong in a book again!

Six Ingredient Challenge:

I hope you're enjoying reading along with the six-week Six Ingredient Challenge! We've got two more posts planned this week, and then we're setting you loose! How has the challenge gone for you?

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)
• Butter (2/22)
• Bread (2/25)
• What has been the easiest part of this challenge for you so far? The most difficult part? (asked 2/21; linkup 2/28)
• Sample Meal Plan (3/4)
• Caesar Dressing and Salad Dressing Roundup (3/5)
• How's your budget? What money-saving strategies have you been employing? (asked 2/28; linkup 3/7)
• Mozzarella cheese (3/8)
• Changing Habits: Adapting Your Time and Budgeting (3/11)
• What are you learning about your body through this challenge? Your family's rhythms and routines? Your feelings about food? (asked 3/7; linkup 3/14)
• What are your final thoughts and reflections as we wrap up this challenge? Do you have any newfound wisdom to share? (asked 3/14;
  linkup 3/21)

Start formulating your answer to the final writing prompt, and publish it on your blog by March 21 (or save it to paste in the comments when we post our responses then). You can also read the interesting responses to our fifth writing prompt from the linky! If you haven't followed along, we invite you to read up on what we've all been learning and take the challenge for yourself.

Deals:

Giveaways:

I've got THREE nice big giveaways going on right now, each for a $100 CVS gift card! (As in, enter all of them!)
Fluffy rainbow clouds of joy on a sick day (plus a $100 giveaway!)

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 three $100 gift cards to CVS. (They all end March 31 and are open to the US only.) It's nice to have a little extra spending money during cold & flu season!

And not a giveaway, but I need to give it a wee shout-out:

Six tips for a successful road trip with little kids



Leave your own best advice in the comments!

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. Authentic Parenting: Medicalized Birth, Gender & Herbal	2. Mar 10-16: plugged-in parenting, moon journal, fighting, building vocabulary
3. Hobo Mama = Babysitting