KellyNaturally.com | A Good Childhood →

It’s one of the most difficult parts of parenting -  shedding that rough sweater of negative childhood experience in order that you don’t pass that insufferable legacy along to your kids.

Fine and Fair: Body Image on the Playground: The Subtle Messages All Around →

When our children start hearing messages about body image starting in preschool or earlier, how do we instill a positive outlook?

So what do we do? What can we do? In a world where a Victoria’s Secret commercial asks, “What is Sexy?” and proceeds to answer its question with images of women who are all tall and thin with long legs and breasts that are somehow both large and perky, how do we teach our children that sexy is different things to different people, and that more importantly, sexy isn’t the only thing matters? Is it even possible to raise children, girls especially, who grow into adults who feel good about their bodies, even if they don’t fit the “ideal” image that is thrust in their face at every turn?

Via the Jezebel article on “How to Lose the Baby Weight in Just Three Lighting-Fast Years,” Michelangelo’s Night is also the figure of a woman who’s borne multiple children. I love that the postpartum body was at least at one time normalized and honored.

I’m loving the musings in this article titled “How to Lose The Baby Weight in Just Three Lightning-Fast Years” at Jezebel about the postpartum body and how our culture doesn’t know how to deal with it.

It is a strange state, indeed: neither pregnant, nor out of shape, but showing a visible history of pregnancy. In spite of weighing more and looking different, I was never healthier than when I was pregnant and just after, in large part to the dynamic shift in lifestyle toward eating well and moving more. But we don’t connect health to physical appeal per se, as any healthy person who isn’t thin can tell you. And when a body shows signs of use beyond the sexual or athletic, we don’t seem to know how to respond to it.

In fairness, it’s worth noting that all this is just as shocking to the woman it’s happening to. Pregnancy is an intense transformation, childbirth an even more intense act. The recovery time is complicated and multi-layered. And what we are left with is a body that has created a child and often nourished it for a period of time afterward too. It’s easy to be proud of the act, but we follow that nod with an intense effort toward eradicating all signs of it.

(via Shannon/NatParNet on Pinterest)

Homeschool Writing Projects For Little Kids →

Easy and playful ways to encourage writing

Informative article fighting the booby trap of “Your milk isn’t good enough”: From Karo Syrup to Goat Milk – The Formulas Change, but the Booby Traps Remain the Same | Best for Babes

(Source: hobomama.com)

They Let Me Let Go | The Single Crunch →

A reminder of the point of gentle parenting: connection.

The Autoimmune Protocol | The Paleo Mom →

I found out information on the autoimmune protocol of eating when researching dietary ways to help my acne. There’s NO WAY I’m going on it at this point, because, my gosh — no grains, no eggs, no nuts, no dairy, no nightshades, no alcohol, no ibuprofen,  no SPICES (so … bland meat and veggies — joy) — but I thought it was interesting information and that the restricted foods are worth looking at for people having autoimmune responses, especially severe conditions.

The Lesser of Two Evils – How the Food Industry Wins →

Insightful and frustrating conversation with a dietitian.

And that is what floored me. A dietitian who makes her living advising people on what is healthy for them is so convinced that people will not actually eat health foods (and are basically too stupid to be taught how important real food is) that she will only give real food an honourable mention before moving on to recommend the processed stuff.

Daffodils & Diesels →

Pragmatic and poetic fable demonstrating the value of learning vs. education.

I’m not very good in geography, either. They call it economic geography this year. We’ve been studying the imports and exports of Turkey all week, but I couldn’t tell you what they are. Maybe the reason is that I missed school for a couple of days when my uncle took me downstate to pick up some livestock. He told me where we were headed and I had to figure out the best way to get there and back. He just drove and turned where I told him. It was over 500 miles round trip and I’m figuring now what his oil cost and the wear and tear on the truck—he calls it depreciation—so we’ll know how much we made. When we got back I wrote up all the bills and sent letters to the farmers about what their pigs and cattle brought at the stockyard. My aunt said I only made 3 mistakes in 17 letters, all commas. I wish I could write school themes that way. The last one I had to write was on “What a daffodil thinks of Spring,” and I just couldn’t get going.