My Favorite Blogs

I love waking up early in the morning and having my hot coffee alone and catching up on my favorite blogs!  Here are some of my favorites... I read more than this but I get excited when I see these people have posted.  My favorite blogger stopped blogging.  She should reconsider.  Anyway.....

These are people I know in real life: 
Jenn of The Kearney Good Life!  She has 3 boys.  Cameron is 6 and her twins are 3 and she gives me good perspective of raising boys.  And gives me good recommendations on planners.

Kendra of My Full-Thyme Life!  Kendra and I went to high school together and she has a boy and a girl very similar in my children's ages.  I feel like we go through similar stages and issues with our kiddos, so it is nice to confirm what I am already feeling! :)

Janet from Love is Blonde.  I LOVE when Janet posts.  She has twin boys, a month older than Charlie who are the cutest dudes you have ever seen and frankly I just love what Janet writes!

Karlyn from The Taylor Tots.  Karlyn is actually Janet's sister and she has two boys that are almost the exact ages of Paul and Charlie.  I like boy moms.  Karlyn is smart and kind and I love looking at pictures of her sweet family!!

Food Blogs :
Caitlin of the Healthy Tipping Point!  She has great vegetarian recipes, she has a little boy, I like her writing style and she started something called Operation Beautiful which encourages woman/people/whoever to leave little sticky notes of encouragement about life or the way they look anywhere strangers could find them.  I think this messages is especially important for high school girls, so I love reading about her passion of spreading positivity.  

Tina of Carrots N' Cake.  She is really in to cross fit, her husband is a teacher, and she does a great job of balancing the fun and healthy choices!

Family Blogs: 
Julia of My Life in Transition.  Julia just had her third baby and she takes great pictures and does a great job blogging about the normal day to day routine of raising a family!

Kelle of Enjoying the Small Things.  I love this blog SO much.  The pictures are amazing, the writing is incredible, and it just lifts you up and makes you feel better after you have read a post from this blog!

Fashion Blog: 
Pinterest Told Me To is awesome. This is a blog about Sheaffer trying to recreate outfits she sees on Pinterest with her own closet.  But more importantly, her recaps on the Bachelor/Bachelorette are to DIE for.

Fun Blogs: 
Shay from Mix and Match Family.  Speaking of the Bachelor, this is the blog of Sean Lowe's sister. She is sweet as can be and blogs about her kids, fashion, what she makes for dinner, house decor, etc.
Andrea from Momfessionals.  She has 3 kiddos, is a teacher and friends with the two blogs above. She has a funky style and is a busy mama and I enjoy her blog quite a bit!

Famous Blog: 
I am sure you all have heard of Glennon from Momastery.  Her writing hits home for many moms and she is HILARIOUS.  She wrote a book that I still need to read but is sitting on my nightstand.

I Just Like It Blog: 
Sarah from Whoorl.  Fashion, family, health, whatever.  I like how Sarah writes, her hair is amazing and I always feel like I can learn a little something from her blog!

Whew!  What are your favorite blogs?  I would love a little more reading material in the morning!: ) 

All Those Other Moms

I LOVED this post from Momastery about being brave.  YES YES YES.  Paul gets nervous when he is in a new scene.  9 out of 10 times he will eventually warm up and be fine, but for those first few moments (which can seem like hours, days, years) it can feel tense.  Really tense.  In fact last week we took Paul to his first swim lesson (and by we I mean Ryan.  I am still dealing with post traumatic stress disorder from the dentist).  Frankly I just want to get to the point where I take the kids to the pool, they swim and have fun and don't drown and I read books.  Anyway, Ryan texted me the play by play that Paul had his heads in his hands crying for the first 15 minutes of swim lessons. Watching your kid cry because they are scared, nervous, anxious, blah blah is agony.  I was not even there and I could feel the anxiety all the way within the walls of our home and had to text my friend Jenn who has twin 3 year old boys and 6 year old Cameron.  She assured me Cameron went through a similar stage and it sucks but then it was over.  That's exactly what I wanted to hear.  That is sucks but then something else will come along that will suck too and the cycle continues until they finally graduate from high school, move out and you can just pretend everything is great because they are not in your face constantly or sleeping under your roof and you can self medicate with red wine.  Yes?  Of course as soon as the first 15 minutes of the lesson were over, Paul remembered he loved swimming and did great.  Ryan said he talked the whole time even when doing back float.  Super.

I've been with Paul when he is in a new situation and where he needs a second to collect his bearings and my friends have said "come on Paul give it a try, it's not big deal, you can do it, BE BRAVE." And these are my friends so they have nothing but good intentions but I can literally feel Paul coil up around me.  Getting more scared that the pressure is on, that everyone is looking at him, perhaps even feeling guilty that he is not being brave.

That is why I love that article so much.  That it validates that being brave is as simple as listening to yourself.  Maybe we should listen to ourselves.  Maybe we should feel comfortable in our own parenting choices.  It's probably fine that I don't find it necessary to put my kid in soccer at 18 months.  And I used disposable diapers. And I didn't teach sign language, and sometimes they watch too much TV.  And for some reason many toys turn into guns.  And they hate dolls even though my mom bought them a really cute doll house.  And that I put them in swim lessons for selfish reasons.  And sometimes they are scared.

The point (is there a point) is that there is so many ways to do this parenting gig.   You can feel confident in your own choices, but you can also respect the bravery of those who choose something different.  Because I am pretty sure all of us want nice kids.  Who are happy. Who use manners and want to cuddle us on the couch while they watch Paw Patrol and eat pop tarts.  And it doesn't really matter how you get there, but that you have support along the way.  And red wine.