Some links

I've been collecting links for months and never posting them. So most of these aren't recent. But they're also not time-sensitive, so go ahead and enjoy them!

6 Myths You Believe About Feminism
If this is what feminism is, then butter me up and call me a feminist. I don't mind. I think I agree with pretty much everything in this post.

Sourdough English Muffins
These are excellent and I've been making them a couple of times a week lately. But I must say, read all the comments before you try them. You might not want to follow the recipe exactly. (I myself mix all the ingredients the night before, except the baking soda, which I omit. Saves trouble trying to work stuff in to the sticky dough in the morning. I also skip the kneading and the rising! And I keep my stove on its next-to-lowest setting ... I'd burn them otherwise. I do them in my cast-iron and they turn out great.) The dough can also be used to make calzone/hot pocket things, so I've got some of those in my freezer for after the baby shows up.

John Paul II's Teaching Concerning Marital Submission
You know me -- always obsessing over whether or not I should be obeying my husband. He himself says it has nothing to do with him, because that part of the bible is addressed to wives and not to husbands, and there's no corresponding "husbands, boss your wives around" mandate. But I feel that, as a wife and a Catholic, it's my job to figure out what I'm supposed to do and do it. However, I also believe that men and women are absolutely equal, within marriage and elsewhere, and I cannot imagine decisions that affect both spouses being made unilaterally by one of them. That just seems wrong to me.

The good news is, John Paul II apparently wrote a lot about mutual submission, and I like what he had to say. As an added bonus, it's supported by other writings of popes and Church fathers throughout history. The St. John Chrysostom part is especially good. If this is an issue you care about, you should read the whole article ... long as it is.

The Backlash to Breast Is Best
Yes, yes, yes. The best part: "We tell women that breast is best, we tell them to breastfeed exclusively for the first six months, we even tell them it will raise their kid's IQ (and we should give that a rest), and then we send them home with formula samples, or with a baby whose throat is too sore to suckle, or a mom whose milk is delayed because of surgery, and we don't teach technique, and we are offended when a woman breastfeeds in public, so we make her feel housebound, and we don't give a mother and her partner paid leave, and we send her to go back to a workplace without on-site childcare, and so her only alternative to formula is to plug her nipples into a machine, and if she's lucky she gets periodic breaks and a "non-bathroom lactation room" in which to pump, and if she's not she gets a toilet, and so on and so forth."

In other words, we've got enough pressure. Give us support!

Freedom to Learn
I love this blog so much I can't pick a post to send you to. I've been reading through them bit by bit. Basically, it's actual science supporting what I've always felt: that children grow up better with less micromanaging, not more; that their instincts tell them what they need, and we parent better when we're responsive to those needs; and that most of our pressuring, schooling, and punishing is all backfiring.

Happy reading!