Relax, honey, you’ve got nothing to worry about. I’ll take brains over Brawny anytime.

(HT: The Common Room.)

Best laugh of the day: right here at Amy’s blog. Classic.

Hey Danielle Bean, this one is right up your alley!

Should women educated on the government’s dime be punished for later choosing to stay home with their kids? A Dutch politician thinks so.

“A highly-educated woman who chooses to stay at home and not to work – that is destruction of capital,” Dijksma said. “If you receive the benefit of an expensive education at the cost of society, you should not be allowed to throw away that knowledge unpunished.”

Toddler on lap, so commentary to come later. Really, though, this one speaks for itself.

Tags: SAHM, Parenting, Education, Women, Motherhood

…but Amyable pointed me toward this site called Old-Fashioned Living which promises to be lots of fun.

Funny side note—I’m sitting here with Wonderboy on my lap, and while I was writing the above, he looked up at me and said, “Hi, Mom!” several times in succession. “Aren’t you amiable this morning?” I laughed, and suddenly, for the first time, I realized what Amy’s blog name means. Heh, sometimes I’m a little slow.

*Update: broken link fixed—thanks, Maria, for the heads-up!

Here’s one for Scott: Sibelius in America

One for moms of little ones: Five Under Nine

One for book buffs: Middlemarch Blog

One for a laugh: What?

One for Lent: A Lenten Tea

One that beat me to the punch (so beautifully): Playing with Picture Books

One for fun with maps: Pirate Maps and Compass Directions

One for pondering: Which Majors Promote Thought?

Wonderboy, that is. He has ‘surped my morning blog time, but that’s quite all right, because he only has a week or two left to be the baby of this family, and the extra cuddle time is a treat for both of us.

Commencing the cuddles at 5 a.m. is perhaps the teeniest bit excessive…(yawn)…

Anyway, he’s been in my lap for over an hour, and the other kids will be down any minute. I’ll post later, but for now, here are some links that caught my eye—

Anastasia Suen reports on trends in children’s books.

Astronomy picture of the day. (HT: Daryl.)

Florida is considering a move to require high-school freshman to declare a major, a notion that many of us find ludicrous.

Chicken Spaghetti profiles dragon books.

Book Moot has some thoughts about a San Antonio school superintendent’s decision to disallow a school-wide reading of The Handmaid’s Tale.

Becky features books about grammar. (UPDATE: broken link fixed!) Karen Edmisten has thoughts of her own about the benefits of modeling proper grammar. (Love that Ramona!)

While you’re at Karen’s site, don’t miss her posts on how you are what you read.

…it’s Carnival of Education time over at one of my daily must-read sites, The Education Wonks.

Slept late this morning and Wonderboy has PT soon, so just a quickie for now. More later; until then, there is loads of good stuff to read at this week’s Carnivals. There’s Homeschooling, hosted by Palmtree Pundit, and Education, hosted by Mathandtext. And if you haven’t yet made it over to Chicken Spaghetti to see the second edition of the Carnival of Children’s Literature, you’re missing out!

Speaking of the latter, we have hosts lined up for the April and May editions. If you’re interested in hosting a future edition, just drop me a note.

Recent abrupt and bizarrely executed changes at the Sonlight forum have left a great many longtime forum users stranded and cut off from communicating with one another. An open-access alternative temporarily named “Sonlight Refugees” has been created by the kindhearted Bryce. Just doing my bit to pass the word along.

Of course, the Real Learning message boards are another warm and wonderful place to find homeschooling encouragement, ideas, and advice!

This morning I learned the terrible news of the death of a homeschooling mom after an emergency c-section yesterday. Missey was a member of the Ambleside Online list, where I have been a lurker for years. She also maintained a lovely blog called Heartschooling. Her last post was just yesterday, a cheery account of taking her son to the doctor.

Please keep Missey’s family in your prayers. She leaves behind a devastated husband and five children ages 11 to newborn.

UPDATE: The following was posted by Loa on Missey’s “BasicallyBeechik” list yesterday:

I have spoken to Missey’s family and they are touched by the outpouring of love and support from everyone. They are devastated by the loss but dealing with it as best they can.
For those who want to make financial donations, it would be greatly appreciated by the family. We have set up a memorial fund at Paypal. (Click here to contribute.) They did not have life insurance for Missey and I know this would be a blessing to help cover the funeral and other expenses. Krystal is a long time friend of Missey’s and mine and I can assure you that each and every penny will reach the Gray family.