Sunday Surf: This Week's Favorites

Check this out!

• In case you missed it, Tuesday was the May Carnival of Natural Parenting and it included a whole lot of inspiring pieces on the subject of Growing in the Outdoors. My own submission was about our community Garden Day, and you can scroll to the end to find the links to many other takes on the theme.

• Speaking of the carnival, I discovered The Fabulous Mama Chronicles through her submission and browsed through a few other recent posts while I was there. I really enjoyed: One Diapering Doozy and Re-Learning to EC. It was interesting to read her confirmation of the gradual desensitization that can occur when babies get used to being diapered all of the time. I also love the honesty. In the real world of motherhood, we often have great ideas that need to be pushed aside while we deal with more pressing problems. We've been able to continue with EC, but I have had many other well-laid plans that didn't exactly pan out, like at all.

• Last week, Rachel at 6512 and Growing wrote about how Every Day is Mother's Day, and as I usually do when I visit her blog, I smiled. A lot. She has written quite a few gems lately, actually, so if you're not familiar with her blog, you may want to poke around a bit. Just go ahead and pour yourself a cup of tea now.

• Kristin of Intrepid Murmurings shared some wonderful advice on the Natural Parents Network about When Nursing is Not Enough: Supplementing with Care.

• The Funny Shaped Woman shared a highly informative piece demystifying the idea of Foremilk and Hindmilk: In Quest of an Elusive Arbitrary Switch. Thanks to Lauren of Hobo Mama for sharing this one!

• Dionna shared the first in a two part series of posts about Essential Oil Remedies for Children at Code Name: Mama.

• On the Attachment Parenting International Blog (API Speaks), Kelly of Parenting From Scratch shares a piece titled: I am not raising obedient children. Unfortunately, many of the article's commenters criticized the piece, believing that Kelly was advocating an all permissive, all the time style of parenting where children are given no boundaries whatsoever. I don't believe that's what Kelly was going for, and I share her emphasis on allowing children freedom while nurturing an inquisitive nature and a relationship of mutual respect. I don't believe that the practices of offering freedom and providing boundaries to keep our children both physically safe and emotionally secure are mutually exclusive. 

There's a handful of my favorite reads from the week. What about you - what have you been reading? Any recommendations? Did you write something awesome this week? I'd love to check it out!