Friday, April 15, 2011

Natural Parenting Blog Party

The Peaceful Housewife

¡Hola y bienvenidos!  I am so excited to team up with some of my favorite bloggers ever for the Natural Parenting Blog Party.  If this is your first time to visit, hello and welcome!  I am so happy to have you stop by.  And if you are already a friend, hugs for coming back!

Jenny has thoughtfully given us some starters to introduce ourselves.  Here goes:

1.How many children do you have, and how old are they?  I have four kidlets, Ariana (7), Joel (5), Elena (2) and Amaya (9 months).

2.Do you have a partner, or are you a single parent?  I have been married to my amado, Carlos, for almost 12 years.  :)

3.What are your “hot button” parenting issues?  Gentle discipline and breastfeeding are biggies for me.  I have a really hard time keeping my mouth shut when people claim that the Bible teaches that we must spank our children.

4.Have you made any parenting choices that you didn’t think you would make before you were a parent, i.e. cloth diapering a child when you had previously thought it was disgusting?  Ooooh boy, yes!  Pretty much every thing.  I mention some in this post.  That was from a couple years ago, and I am still enjoying the cookies on the dark side.  ;)

5.Is there one book or person in particular that’s heavily influenced your parenting choices?  Just one???  I have way too many to mention.  As a follower of Jesus, the Bible is a huge influence.  To Train Up a Child was a significant influence in a very ironic way, as it is what started me on the journey into gentle discipline.

6.If you had to describe each of your children using only one word, what word would you use?
                 Ariana ~ Healer
                 Joel ~ Believer
                 Elena ~ Warrior
                 Amaya ~ Contentment

7.Is there one parenting decision that you regret more than others and wish you could change?  I regret vaccinating Ariana according to the schedule.  It may not have had any negative effects at all, but I wonder if it played into her food allergies, etc.  In a broader answer, I wish that I had learned and chosen early on never to shame my kids. 

8.Is there an area of your parenting you wish you were better at?  I still struggle with shaming sometimes, although I can look back and see improvement, which is encouraging.  I also get frustrated some times with triage care--feeling like I so often have to focus on whoever needs me most at a given moment.  Finally, I am not very good at playing.  I do well at setting up opportunities for them to play, but it is really difficult for me to enter into it fully--I am more likely to watch. 

9.Now for the fun questions – is there one particular food or type of food that you could eat every day?  Chocolate, of course (except for recently--see below).  Mexican food (real Mexican food).  I never get tired of either.

10.Vanilla ice cream or chocolate?  Both.  Although I am avoiding chocolate since my youngest reacts really badly.  But when she weans or outgrows the allergies, definitely both.

11.What’s your guilty pleasure?  Gallons of decaf iced coffee (the decaf cancels out the gallons.  Or something.), a good book, and a long soak with lavender bath oil.

12.If you could be part of any television show, which show would it be?  I would love to be a guest judge on Top Chef or Iron Chef America.  Food and fun, what could be better?

I am looking forward to getting to know you, too.  Feel free to leave comments or poke around the blog.  Blessings!

Dulce 

34 comments:

melissa said...

It's so fun to read and learn about the women whose hearts for their children so inspire me :)

Maybe when your youngest is finished nursing, you can combine your favorite foods and have chocolate with chiles?

Megan said...

Hi! You sound like a busy Mama! I love the name Amaya. Does it have a meaning?

dulce de leche said...

@Melissa, right back at ya, mama! <3 Have you tried the Firecracker dark chocolate bar? It has chiles and popping candies in it. It is my favorite chocolate bar ever! http://store.nexternal.com/chuao/firecracker-c32.aspx

@Megan, yes, Amaya means night rain, or a high place or end, depending on which language you reference. The night rain part has a lot of meaning to me and always makes me feel peaceful and content, which describes her well. Even the 'end' part is fitting since she will most likely be our last biological child. :)

CatholicMommy said...

The words you use to describe your children are beautiful. So positive and descriptive! I'm excited to be at this party with you. :-)

Favorite candy bar -- Crunchie by Cadbury. Chocolate coated honeycomb.

dulce de leche said...

Thank you so much! Before any of them were born, I felt like God spoke to me about each of them and impressed those traits on my heart. It is so interesting to see how accurate they have been!

That honeycomb bar sounds scrumptious! You know, we should do a Candy Bar Blog Carnival where each person does a giveaway with their favorite candy bar...

Shanon da Doula said...

SO SO glad to see you in this blog party!! :) I love your blog and loved reading these questions!!

Staci said...

Wonderful post, as always. I always enjoy reading about your family. My favorite was your one word description of your children. <3 I think a chocolate blog carnival sounds delicious ;)

dulce de leche said...

@Shannon, thank you so, so much! I am thrilled to have found *your* blogs. <3 <3 <3

@Staci, (((hugs))). Much love to you, my friend. So, are you going to participate in the party? :gentle poke: And I am thinking more and more about the chocolate thing...

Amanda said...

Are you like me in that you watch every cooking challenge show ever? I LOVE Chopped; have you seen that one?

Also, I think I have problems actually playing with my children too. I try to do it, but I feel like I do the same thing over and over again. I think my imagination has been suppressed :)

Unknown said...

I, too, regret the vax thing with my oldest. It helps to just remember that, at the time, we were just doing what we thought was best. I look forward to more posts from you!

dulce de leche said...

@Amanda, Yes we *love* cooking shows. The kidlets were playing Iron Chef by the time they were two, and we watch Chopped and Throwdown with Bobby Flay, and Anthony Bourdain (I watch Gordon Ramsey, but not when they are around). :)

@Alice, ((hugs)) thanks for the encouragement and understanding! <3

Anonymous said...

nice to meet you :)

Kelly from
Themysticalkingdom.blogspot.com

I Thought I Knew Mama said...

You sound wonderful! Glad we're connected!

Kelly said...

Love learning more about my favorite bloggers :) Thanks for sharing!

And I totally want to second the idea of a candy bar blog carnival ;)

Staci said...

If I can figure out how I'll *try* to participate ;) Not sure that I'll have a lot to offer :giggle.

dulce de leche said...

:Squealing in delight at all the friends, old and new: Much love to you all!

When I was little I pretended that my name was Kelly because I thought it was a name for lovely women. I was right. :)

The chocolate carnival is starting to really tempt me...

@Staci, you have so, so much to offer. I love your posts and am always eager for more. <3

Jenny said...

I'm so thrilled you joined in, Dulce! I'm really looking forward to chatting face-to-face in a little over a week.

dulce de leche said...

Jenny, thank you so much for organizing this party! You are a fabulous hostess! :) I am having so much fun and meeting so many awesome bloggers. I am really excited about meeting you in person soon. <3 <3 <3

Lisa - the Granola Catholic said...

This blog party has been so much fun. Meeting moms and bloggers who share so much with me. I haven't met this many like minded moms since my days in La Leche.

Lisa - the Granola Catholic said...

This blog party has been so much fun. Meeting moms and bloggers who share so much with me. I haven't met this many like minded moms since my days in La Leche.

One Rich Mother said...

Followed you over from the blog party link up. Thank you for your post on my blog. : )
How neat about Amaya's name, beautiful.

Epiphius said...

Yes to the triage! I keep thinking that when both my kids can express themselves better (they're 3 and 1) that I won't have to triage quite so much but maybe that's wistful thinking that will change as they grow.

Diane (Oh! Diane) said...

I just wanted to stop by for the blog party. I love the words you chose to describe your children.

dulce de leche said...

@granola catholic, I am loving this, too. I feel like a met a bunch of awesome new friends without all the weird, uncomfortable small talk at the beginning while secretly wondering if they thought I was a wacko for things like natural birth, child led weaning, not vaxing, etc. :)

@One Rich Mother, thank you so much! I am looking forward to more of your posts.

@epiphius, LOL. It does change a little as they get older, but it seems like they need us in different ways. My oldest doesn't breastfeed anymore, but she really needs one on one time and focused attention to keep her love cup full. My son needs lots of rough housing and cuddle times. I am so glad you stopped by--I can't wait to check out your blog!

@Diane, thank you so much! I love seeing their personalities shine so clearly, even when they are babies. :) Looking forward to reading your blog!

Corey said...

so happy to have linked you through the natural parent blog party. iced coffee with sweetened condensed milk is indeed nectar from heaven!!

dulce de leche said...

Rae, I would so love to be able to share a nice pot of coffee with you. At least we can have a virtual iced coffee break together. :)

mrs green @ littlegreenblog said...

I'm from the blog party too. I totally hear you on the 'play' thing, I simply cannot enter into it and I really admire mamas that can. THanks for sharing some interesting answers!

dulce de leche said...

Thanks so much! I love your blog and am so happy that you joined the party! :)

Vanessa said...

Hi visiting from the blog party! :) I love how encouraging you are in describing each of your children! Do you have any suggestions for me wanting my daughter's to be bilingual? I guess that is assuming you speak Spanish! :)

Maria said...

So fun to learn more about you, and I will take you up on the visit with coconut ice cream. ;-)

dulce de leche said...

Yay! I am looking forward to it! <3

dulce de leche said...

@Vanessa, thank you so much! Yes, I speak Spanish, and used to do so constantly with our kidlets. It has gotten harder as they have gotten older, but here are a few of the things that we do: http://dulcefamily.blogspot.com/2010/10/no-comprendo-helping-your-children-be.html

:)

Unknown said...

Haha...Top Chef is a great pick! I love food challenges! That was a fun post comadre! I'm with you on the shaming...also with my husband at times. It's hard not to at times, but I find it really doesn't work and it only makes all of us feel bad. Rationally, I know how much it stinks, but getting your emotions and your mind to walk the same path is a different story.

dulce de leche said...

Hugs to you, amiga. You are so right about the difference between rational actions vs. emotion-based recordings from our pasts. I'm glad we are creating new tapes for our families. <3