Elena 
What makes for a good learning day? Getting all the workbooks done? Keeping on schedule? The Lilting House has some interesting answers.
On the same topic see Karen Edmonston here.
Happy Hearts at Home has link for free scans of old maps and bibles! I particularly liked this one!
Sprittibee also had a TON of great links to check out for homeschoolers and moms! Plan to spend some time over there! and over here too!
A nice article here from a Lutheran perspective on Embracing NFP!
At our congregation we have a beautiful young Sudanese woman named
Ajulu. Ajulu loves talking about her children and hopes that God will
bless her with many more. On days when her children Ter, Ruon and Deng
are behaving, she even talks of wanting nine. What perplexes Ajulu is
that people in our country have so few children. In her home country,
children are considered as one of the greatest gifts from God.
Children are a vibrant and vital part of the community. These
communities grieve when they cannot conceive. Knowing the sadness that
comes with infertility, the Sudanese community embrace marriage as a
union that is open to life. Where God will grant life, they will
receive it.
Alicia also has a thorough posting on NFP, contraception and breastfeeding. Her last paragraph is very thought provoking.
Sufficient reason. Grave cause. Serious circumstances. There are many of these. Responsibility to the children one already has, the health of the mother, temporary or permanent hardships – it is not possible to give a complete list. Here is where the rule of an informed conscience is paramount. But it is also possible to be selfish here – and also to have a misunderstanding of what one’s responsibilities and limits truly are. I only wish, at this point in my life, that I had been a little more generous. I wish that I had listened to those of my children who begged me for a baby brother – while I was still young enough to have tried again. And maybe that regret is one of the prime reasons I have come to the point where I am now. And again, maybe it is just that I have been trying to let God work on my life more and more.
Barb Curtis has the line up for TLC’s large family programs! Kid’s by the Dozen.
Stony Creek blog had two posts with comments on the two sides of the abortion debate, and how the divide between us keeps widening. Read here and here.
Keel the Pot had a good posting about childbirth and medical interventions.
That said, I found the article interesting. It mentioned the “modest home” which suggested to me the family wasn’t middle-class. It also mentioned a physician’s opionion that homebirth presented “unacceptable risks” (to whom wasn’t specified.) I’d absolutely agree with the doctor that some interventions are necessary and desirable at times.
My own reasons for choosing homebirth is simply that it’s a package deal: in my community, a laboring mother in a hospital can bank on any number of routine interventions, not one of which have been scientifically shown to be beneficial to my baby or to me. If I’m to hire a hospital or doctor, presumably under the guise of safety and availability of emergency equipment, it’s expected that I’ll accept the interventions which won’t benefit me. I have had physicians and nurses tell me their licenses and/or liability insurance is on the line if I fail to consent to “community standards of care” (which aren’t evidence based.)
I’ll tell you what. Let’s make a deal. I’d be happy as a clam to give birth with the bells and whistles down the hall IF I can get evidence-based medical care. That means I don’t want to be induced or augmented without medical reason. I want intermittent fetal monitoring with a fetoscope. I want the freedom to eat, drink and move around at will. I want continuous labor support. I want the companions of my choice. I want to birth in the position of my choice. I do not want to be separated from my baby. I want breastfeeding to be supported and encouraged, not thwarted by pacifiers, midnight baths, and pediatric exams in a nursery.
TSO’s two most recent Spanning the Globe’s have been excellent reads. See here and here.
Justice Kennedy has been activated! Really funny parody by the Curt Jester!
Serial Drama is a great blog if you like the soaps. She is just a great read. Check out her assessment of a soap here!
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