(Note: This is one of many posts I wrote during my 27-weeker preemie’s NICU journey that never got published. Some of them felt too raw to share at the time. Now that my son is two and thriving, I’m going back and publishing these for World Prematurity Day. Several posts like this will go live […]
Different Homeschool Philosophies: Take What You Want, Leave the Rest
How does one choose among the different homeschool philosophies? I have often encouraged moms to develop a philosophy of education to guide them, but that doesn’t mean following any one philosophy slavishly. Take what you want, leave the rest; this is certainly good advice when talking about different homeschool philosophies. When I was a La […]
42 weeks pregnant: Ignore This Post
[Update 2016: I found this post in my drafts folder, never published. It’s now over four years old, like the baby. I was 42 weeks pregnant with baby #6 when I wrote this, and had never felt more (physically) miserable in my life. It’s funny how much of this I had forgotten. With my next […]
From Crunchy to Soggy, and the sweet spot between frugality and environmentalism
There is a sweet spot between frugality and environmentalism. While I aim for both values and they have much overlap, they are sometimes at odds with each other. I’m happiest when I stay in that sweet spot. Read on to see what I mean. As I review the nearly 2,000 posts published on this blog, […]
Compleat Mother: interview with Jody McLaughlin
In the last couple of weeks I’ve been going through archives on this here blog. My intention is to dust off all that old content to make it better, delete where appropriate, and figure out a way to make what’s left useful now. For several years I hosted a podcast called NaturalMomsTalkRadio. I’m finding transcriptions […]
Home Alone. Only Not.
[This post originally published a few days after my sixth child was born. Since she turned 4 yesterday I thought I would republish it.] Dear Baby V, This morning your Dad kissed me goodbye and you were snuggled on my left arm and your big sister Ruby was lying on my right arm, having climbed […]
Back-to-homeschool to-do list
I didn’t post a summer bucket list this year as in years past. I’ve been focused on writing my new book. However, there are a couple of things I need to accomplish before the busy season of homeschool and extracurricular lessons begin. They’ve been niggling at the back of my brain, but for some reason […]
Victoria the Sage
Inbetween using my phone to take dozens of selfies of her feet (feetsies?) and hiding in luggage, my 4 year old daughter speaks nuggets of wisdom. I call her Victoria the Sage. She randomly makes delightfully humorous and profound statements. A few examples follow. On beauty and femininity: “When people are mean, they’re not […]
Lact-Aid Nursing System: Goodbye, Frenemy
Preview: My experience and feelings about using a Lact-Aid nursing system for breastfeeding my 27-weeker preemie. I review the Lact-Aid versus the Medela SNS, and share my thoughts on both. Yesterday I got an email from the mother of a preemie. She had just taken her baby home from the hospital and sounded desperate. She asked […]
Homeschool plan: 2016/17
Here’s the Homeschool plan for 2016/17. We start our school year on September 1. I know it’s July, but as soon as summer begins, I feel the itch to nail down a plan for the next year. I can’t relax and enjoy my summer until I get some things down on paper. Anyone else like this? [Side […]