Weekend linkage

I love the Grand Duke.

I guess this would convince me to come camping.

Scientifically speaking, could you actually walk and dance in Cinderella's glass slippers?

Hidden pocket scarf!

Texts from the Dashwoods, and even more good ones in the comments. (The Toast is an oddity to me. I laugh myself to tears over every humor piece they publish, yet completely disagree with everything else on their ultra-feminist, ultra-PC site. Whatever.)

"Yelp Reviews of Newborn Babies." Hee.

Speaking of which, a new approach to caring for preemies in the NICU: get the parents involved, and see markedly improved results. This is great. I am all about giving parents more agency in their children's medical care.

Homeschooling parents are not a special breed. I like this post, because I've heard tons of people say "Oh, I could never homeschool, I'm just too impatient/not smart enough/can't deal with my kids all day." 99% of the time that is not true: this is a matter of choice, not of temperament. Impatient non-geniuses can totally homeschool. So if you just don't want to, that is fine. No need to make self-deprecating excuses.

Sometimes I feel that people think homeschooling parents have different blood—or a different genetic code—that allows them to live with their children during the day. Like maybe they're picturing all homeschooling parents as gentle, patient, generous, encouraging, soft-spoken introspective introverts who like to hang out with their kids. Which is too bad for me because I am a demanding, impatient, and aggressively-selfish extrovert.

"Did You Mean to Have All These Kids?"

I don’t know why God gave me children effortlessly and withholds them from others who would make fantastic parents. But I know this: fertility is not a curse, it is a gift. It is a scandalous miracle.