Paganism, pregnancy, & parenting link round-up

I just checked and I haven’t gotten around to doing a monthly link round-up since March. Oops. There’s so much good stuff that I share on Facebook and Twitter. Today I’ve compiled some of the recent best.

But first some blog business:

• Pagan Families has joined Pinterest! Definitely still figuring things out over there. Come check us out and help us figure out how to pin stuff you want to see.
• In celebration of Birth On The Labyrinth Path’s first birthday, Wild Mother Arts is offering us all a 10% off coupon code to the etsy shop that can be used until the end of June. The code is: LABYRINTHPATH2013 She’s got fertility, birth, nursing, and goddess jewlery there. If you decide to order something and you take a pic of your lovely Pagan goddess self wearing it, I’d be thrilled to post your photo.

  

• Pagan Families is always looking for contributors on all aspects of Pagan family life, with particular interest in the childbearing year. I’d especially love to hear from writers who want to share a post about fathering or grandparenting.

Now the link round-up:

• A look back at how birth went, by Tales of a Kitchen Witch:”I have a few moments etched in my mind that I hope I never forget: the excitement on my littles’ faces as they peered over the edge of the pool, the desperation and power as my body knelt to work through another contraction, the sight of Henry relaxed into a limp noodle, pale and perfect as he lay draped over the side of the pool while my doula and I rubbed him down to coax breath into his body.”
• A discussion of how the Fertility Awareness Method works: “I was surprised to realize how little I knew about my anatomy and my cycles, but the feeling seemed common.”
• Using positive affirmations when trying to conceive: “Using positive affirmations can help alleviate fears about the process of getting pregnant and prepare the mind for pregnancy.”
• From Mothering with Soul: “This month, Lake beckons us into her calm waters in hopes that our expansive summer adventures may find their complement in the still quiet place that is ever only a few deep breaths away.”
• A great interview about the Mother’s Wisdom deck:  “We believe that this grunge becomes gold if motherhood can be approached as a spiritual practice.”
• Gateway Goddess tells us how to make family breakfast magical: “Being a witch, it was Magical Muesli. Without planning it, the ingredients I chose have magical and deity correspondences that I needed that day. Practical intuition at work.”
• Apropos of Birth on the Labyrinth Path‘s birthday party, Walking in Beauty shares about living with a labyrinth: “Walking a labyrinth is one of my deepest pleasures. It is also one of my surest paths to the realms of spirit.”
• From Talk Birth: Rites of Passage… Celebrating Real Women’s Wisdom: “Woman-to-woman help through the rites of passage that are important in every birth has significance not only for the individuals directly involved, but for the whole community.”

In case you missed it here at Pagan Families:

• Molly’s post about small adventures could also have been called Raspberry Warrior, plus it has a sorbet recipe: “Yes, like Inanna, I faced thorny gates and descended into darkness, crawled on my knees, and gave up things that I cherished, and in the process discovering things about myself, and then returned with a renewed sense of purpose and an awareness of my own strengths…but, I got sorbet out of the deal!”
• Adoption is something I have little experience with so I’m really happy Tara “Masery” Miller volunteered to share her first-hand experience: “Well, finally I got a vision of a little girl, not a spirit wanting to be born but a child coming into my life and I felt the Goddesses’ blessings. That’s how I knew it was time.”
• Check the All Posts tab for more recent posts you may have missed: small sacred places, Birth Guardians series, Wednesday Wisdom meditations, and more.