After a brief summer break for August, the Carnival of Natural Parenting is back. We hope you'll join us for the next carnival in September! (Check out January, February, March, April, and May, June, and July if you missed them.)
Here are the submission details for September 2010:
Theme: We're all home schoolers: Children, of whatever age, are learning all the time. Describe some of the ways your children learn at home as a natural part of their day. No matter if your children attend (or plan to attend) traditional schools or not, please talk to us about how you incorporate home-schooling or unschooling ideals and practices into your children's education.
Deadline: Tuesday, September 7. Fill out the webform (at the link or at the bottom) and email your submission to us by 11:59 p.m. Pacific time: mail {at} HoboMama.com and CodeNameMama {at} gmail.com
Carnival date: Tuesday, September 14. Before you post, we will send you an email with a little blurb in html to paste into your submission that will introduce the carnival. You will publish your post on September 14 and email us the link if you haven't done so already. Once everyone's posts are published on September 14 by noon Eastern time, we will send out a finalized list of all the participants' links, to generate lots of link love for your site! We'll include full instructions in the email we send before the posting date.
Please submit your details into our web form: This will help us as we compile the links list. Please enter your information on the form embedded at the end of this post, or click here to enter it on a separate page: September Carnival of Natural Parenting participant form
Please do: Write well. Write on topic. Write a brand new post for the carnival. As always, our carnival themes aren't meant to be exclusionary. If your experience doesn't perfectly mesh with the carnival theme, please lend your own perspective. Please also feel free to be creative within the gentle confines of the carnival structure. If you're feeling so inspired, you could write a poem, a photo essay, a scholarly article, or a book review instead of a regular blog post (though those are welcomed, too!), as long as what you write is respectful of the carnival's intent. If you want help determining that ahead of time, please talk with us.
Please don't: Please don't use profanity of the sort that might be offensive to more sensitive readers or their children. Please don't submit irrelevant or argumentative pieces contrary to the principles of natural parenting. You don't have to agree with all our ideals — and certainly you don't have to live up to them all perfectly! — but your submission does have to fit the theme and values of the carnival.
Editors' rights: We reserve the right to edit your piece or suggest edits to you. We reserve the right to courteously reject any submissions that are inappropriate for the carnival. Please also note that since there are two co-hosts on different schedules and conferring over email, our personal response to your submission might seem delayed. Don't be alarmed. We also reserve the right to impose consequences if the responsibilities of the carnival are not fulfilled by the participants.
If you don't have a blog: Contact us (mail {at} HoboMama.com and CodeNameMama {at} gmail.com) about potentially finding you a host blog to guest post. Please write your piece well in advance of the deadline in that case, so we can match you up with someone suitable. But if you really have something amazing to write — why not start your own blog? If you want advice, we find Scribbit's free Blogging in Pink ebook to be a very helpful and down-to-earth guide, for beginners on up.
If you have questions: Please leave a comment or contact us: mail {at} HoboMama.com and CodeNameMama {at} gmail.com
Links to tutorials: Lauren and Dionna have written several tutorials for our participants about how to schedule posts in advance, how to determine post URLs in advance, how to edit HTML — all for both Wordpress and Blogger users. For these tutorials and more, please see this handy summary post at LaurenWayne.com.
Show off: If you are a (former or current) participant or supporter and want our delightful button to put in your sidebar, grab this code and proclaim to the blogosphere that you are a natural parent!
In a little more than two months I will be stopping work entirely. No more working from home, no more going into the office once a week. Finished. I've worked my whole life. And although I'd planned to take 6 months off when Riley was born, I ended up taking just 3 months off because the idea of working from home was just too tempting.
And as excited as I am about not constantly having my attention pulled in a million different directions, I know it's a big change. There are all sorts of words to describe mothers who choose not to work.
Full-time mother. I don't like it. All mothers are full-time mothers. It also makes it sound as though I'm completely defined by motherhood which I'm also not keen on.
Stay-at-home-mother. Also, not a big fan. It makes it sounds like I have some impediment which stops me from leaving the house.
Home-maker. Not used that often in Australia, but I couldn't even say this one out loud without laughing and/or vomiting.
There are a whole range of reasons why I'm making the choice. The primary motivation is that I am personally against using institutional child care until Riley is at least three. It's also a lifestyle choice for us. A division of labour thing. So that we're not running around before and after work organising pick ups or having to do all of our shopping and errands on the precious weekend. But also, it's really an emotional decision. I don't want to miss anything. And being away for one day at the moment when I go to work is about as much as I am willing to do. We've only had two nights apart since she was born and I can't say that I really cared for either of them.
I'm in the position of knowing what I'm getting myself in for, at least. Although I've been working, the vast majority of it is done from home. The biggest misconception about being a stay at home parent is that it is unfulfilling, boring and not stimulating enough intellectually. And I'm sure there are plenty of loving parents who feel that way. But I just didn't. Which was as much a surprise to me as anyone. It was quite a shock to find out that I found looking after a baby (or now a toddler) far more interesting, stimulating and just plain fun than doing my paid work. That I found just as much reward from baking bread in the morning and cleaning the house during patches of quiet play or napping as I did from my career. And the joyful discovery of everyday with a little one far surpassed anything I had experienced in my former life.
Of course, not every day is like that. Sometimes the whining never ends. And the house is a mess. And there are no naps. And I'm exhausted. And I dread going to the supermarket because I'm not sure I can cope with another tantrum. But that's all part of why it is so rewarding.
But I'm not going to kid myself — it's still a big life change for me. I'll have to work out what to say when people ask me 'what do you do?' I can see what it's like to live without deadlines for awhile. And I can do everything I want to do without feeling like my contribution to home and to work are equally substandard. I've felt for some time that something had to give with my writing as well — either I was going to need to scale it back or I would need to stop working and see if it turned into anything. I'll have run out of excuses, too. At the moment my response to demands are often 'when I stop working…' We'll see how true that is. Because we all know the whole line about stay at home mothers' not working is a little ridiculous.
Zoey is a reformed perfectionist, writer, parent adventurer, toddler wrangler, social media addict, photo enthusiast and book devourer. She blogs in words and pictures at Good Goog.
"Racism is not our prop. It is not ours to hold up to compare breastfeeding discrimination against."
There will be a guest post tomorrow from the lovely and talented Zoey of Good Goog on how to identify when making the transition from working mother to stay-at-home, which I'm so looking forward to hosting. If I don't have the internet access to shill for comments, please take that as read and give her a hearty welcome. (I was going to say a "hobo welcome" but wasn't sure how welcoming that actually would be.)
"Danger in a Spray Bottle: Why It’s Time to Change Our Childproofing Strategy" from DrGreene.com: In 2006, nearly 12,000 U.S. children made trips to the emergency room for an accidental contact with a household cleaner — primarily poisoning. I love vinegar plus water in a spray bottle for cleaning, but over time, other poisonous cleaners (even natural ones) have made their way back into our house. I like this perspective on keeping all cleaners (or as many as possible) in the nontoxic range, to prevent unintentional child poisoning. I'm going to do another run through our cabinets and try to find non-poisonous and streamlined alternatives to everything we need.
"None of the children’s injuries … was necessary. Effective, safer ingredients are now available for every common household cleaning job. …
For parents of children age 6 or under, doctors’ advice to lock-up toxic cleaners is no longer adequate. Instead, childproof by replacing products whose labels must say Danger, Warning, Harmful if Swallowed, or Use in a Well-Ventilated Space. If the label gives instructions for calling poison control or for emergency treatment, the product is dangerous."
I am very pleased that Paige's FeedBurner guest post helped me make this Favorites feed on my long-neglected top posts page. Now the list will update automatically as I add posts to the "favorites" category. If you are a new Hobo Mama reader, you might browse through the list for posts and topics other readers found interesting, and if you're a dedicated fan, feel free to suggest posts you want to nominate for inclusion. Like this fine, fine example of journalism. Hey, don't knock it — there's a funny video at the end!
I have two giveaways going on right now, and one's awash in secret awesomeness:
The Surprise Hobo Mama Giveaway, wherein you will definitely win Hobo Mama calling cards and will be entered into a drawing for other fabulous prizes, as yet unannounced. It's almost spooky, it's so tantalizingly vague! Open worldwide.
Enjoy "The Oregon Trail — Official Trailer" below from Half Day Today: Did you use to play the original Oregon Trail game? That was my favorite part of computer class, on our Apple IIes, and now it's been brought to the (mock) big screen. I can't decide if my favorite line is "No one wants to be the carpenter," "But, son, we can only carry back ten pounds," or "Just the bullets." I think I'm going to have to go with "Just the bullets."
I hope that some of you lucky gardeners have an overabundance of homegrown tomatoes round about now. We have had about 3 red tomatoes between us and a whole heaping bunch of green ones still hanging out on the plants, taunting us. Here's for sunlight tempting them to ripen before frost!
Our lone patio tomato.
Good thing it was tasty.
But let's assume other people need some recipes for fresh tomatoes. Here's one of our favorites — the fabulous Sam's version of pico de gallo, a mild and chunky, non-saucy, sweetish and tangy salsa. It uses other things you might have in your garden as well, such as cilantro, cabbage, and sweet onions. (We're growing Walla Wallas! Yum!)
If you didn't take Spanish in high school as I did (yes, of course, I'm fluent!) (not really), the last word is pronounced like the word "guy" with an O on the end. But, no, it's not the word for "dude" in Spanish. The phrase means "beak of the rooster," but don't ask me why.
I'm republishing this recipe from last year, because I'm on vacation and am allowed to do things like that.
Gather your ingredients:
• tomatoes
• onions — the sweeter the better
• cilantro
• cabbage (the secret ingredient!)
• lime juice
• sea salt to taste (optional)
Everything that can be chopped, go ahead and dice into chunky pieces. Mix together in a large bowl and spritz with lime juice. Sprinkle coarse sea salt if you want a little more...well, saltiness.
There are no particular rules for how much of a certain item you need to put in. That's why it's perfect if you have a bunch of tomatoes but not as much of the other things. If the combination you make feels too heavy on one item or another, remember that for next time, or balance it out if you have extra ingredients still on hand. There's no wrong way to make pico de gallo, as long as it tastes good to you!
For best taste, let it sit in the fridge for awhile to let the flavors blend together. But if you can't resist eating it right away, I understand. I couldn't tell you how well this keeps, because ours never stays around that long. If I had to guess, I would imagine canning is possible, but freezing will change the texture of the tomatoes.
If you want more heat, add jalapeños or chiles at will.
But, as is, it makes a very nice treat for young mouths. It's mild enough for even very early eaters to give it a go, and since it's chunky, little fingers or adult helpers can preselect portions that will be appreciated. Adding heat's always an option for more adventurous mouths, but even without a lot of spice, it's refreshing to have this mild, fresh, juicy and crunchy treat.
The standard use for pico de gallo is to wolf it down with tortilla chips, but it also makes a lovely garnish for meals. Layer it over Mexican food (of course!), or use as a salsa topping for chicken, fish or eggs. It can even make for a unique relish on hot dogs or hamburgers!
¡Buen provecho!
Much prettier and eerily accurate bottom photo courtesy Alice Carrier on stock.xchng
— we even used to have those dishes!
Find sites to link up your Wordless Wednesday post
at my super-cool collection of Wordless Wednesday linkies,
and let me know if you have one to add.
You can also link up a thumbnail from your post below!
I'm Lauren Wayne, writer and natural parent. I embrace attached parenting with an emphasis toward green living.
Riding the rails with my husband, Crackerdog Sam, and our hobo kids, Mikko Lint Picker (born June 2007), Alrik Irontrousers (born May 2011), and Karsten (born October 2014). Trying every day to parent intentionally and with grace.
Theme: We're all home schoolers: Children, of whatever age, are learning all the time. Describe some of the ways your children learn at home as a natural part of their day. No matter if your children attend (or plan to attend) traditional schools or not, please talk to us about how you incorporate home-schooling or unschooling ideals and practices into your children's education.
Show off: If you are a (former or current) participant or supporter and want our delightful button to put in your sidebar, grab this code and proclaim to the blogosphere that you are a natural parent!
Zoey is a reformed perfectionist, writer, parent adventurer, toddler wrangler, social media addict, photo enthusiast and book devourer. She blogs in words and pictures at 
Hobo Mama calling cards and will be entered into a drawing for other fabulous prizes, as yet unannounced. It's almost spooky, it's so tantalizingly vague! Open worldwide.
I'm Lauren Wayne, writer and natural parent. I embrace attached parenting with an emphasis toward green living. 
