Monday, May 31, 2010

Featured blog of the week

I have decided to share some of my favorite blogs. I don't know if it will be a weekly thing or not, heck, it may only happen today! I'm a woman of mystery.

One of my friends (I like to think of her that way, even though we've never actually met) is Jennie. This is how Jennie describes herself : Just an easily distracted, excessively random 20-something Christian wife and working mom of 3 perfectly imperfect children.

She has a great blog about her life and family and it always makes me smile and often makes me laugh. We met online on babycenter.com simply because her daughter and Henry both happened to be born in the same month. I didn't really get to know her until babycenter made their controversial change in the spring of 2008 and several of the moms declared that they hated the change and were taking their ball and going home, leading all of us to add eachother as friends on Facebook so we wouldn't lose touch. (This also led to my downward spiral into Facebook addiction, but let's not go there right now :))

It was after I started my 101 list that Jennie joined me and I started reading her blog. By the way, she is doing much better on her list than I am!

She has something fun she does every Wednesday called How to know you're a mom. I don't know how she comes up with a list every week. I think I could maybe come up with one list in my whole life. Some examples from her lists are:

You know you're a mom when...

You had no idea how rewarding it could be to perform any of the following tasks on another person: cleaning out ear wax, clipping toenails/fingernails, and clearing out booger noses.

You've tried all kinds of thermometers; temporal, oral, under-arm. The fact remains that the best test for a fever is a mommy's lips on a baby's forehead.

If you ever need help finding a mud puddle, just put on your child's brand new pair of white shoes. It's like a moth to light.

You realize that your three year old has far more friends than you when, on a routine trip to Target, she greets three other children by name.

After your six year old sings "You look like a monkey...and you smell like one too!" to your almost one-year old, your three year old chimes in with "Three!" Apparently, she thinks it's a song about counting.

Since that song was over, your three year old began singing an original song about the intricacies of Southern word choice. Some of the lyrics include, "Grandaddy says 'supper' and Daddy says 'dinnnnneeeerrrr'! But dinner is the same as suupppppppeerrrr!"

Your six year old tell you he knows what "curls" are because he learned about them in school. He proceeds to explain that it's when you have more than one of something. You explain that you think he means "plurals". And then you realize that sometimes life is just one big game of telephone.

The tidal wave whooshing noise you heard coming from the kitchen was the sound of an entire gallon of tea spilling on your freshly mopped kitchen floor courtesy of your one year old, as you stepped out of the room for 20 seconds for that potty break you so infrequently afford yourself.

As a result, you quietly chastise yourself for taking that oh-so-needed restroom break. You knew you put them off for good reason.

You admit that you need to tone down the road rage when your three year old yells from the back seat, "Get out of the way, people!"

I'll let you read more on your own! Besides the mom list she writes about life in such a way that you can't help but read. I've always wished that I could be a good writer. I always struggled with typing a 2 or 3 page report in high school, I am very short and straight to the point. Somehow I doubt Jennie ever had that problem.

I asked Jennie to humor me with answering some interview questions and she didn't disappoint.

Q. What's your favorite thing to blog about?

Jennie: While *I* think my kids are the most adorable, exciting, hilarious subjects in the world, I know that not everyone agrees. So, from time to time, I love to write about anything that inspires me, whether it be something serious or funny or downright outrageous. I know it sounds totally cliche, but I have only understood what it means to be inspired since I have had my kids. They make me see the world in a whole different light.

Q. are you as funny in person as you are in writing?

Jennie: I highly doubt it. In fact, I question whether I'm funny in writing, but I very much appreciate you thinking so! (And I'm not really sure how to answer this without sounding like I'm calling you a liar...I promise I'm not! *wink*)

Q. does your husband read your blog?

Jennie: Yes, he does. He doesn't really comment on it, and I don't really ask him what he thinks about it for fear he'll tell me to stop putting our business out for the world to read. I'm always a little nervous to over-share things with a general internet population. (Really though, he's a good sport. And I think if he hated it, he'd have told me a long time ago.)

Q. what do you want to be when you grow up?

Jennie: Don't I wish I knew! I can almost assure you that the answer is not "Be a civil engineer" [like I am now]. If you asked me my passions they would be my family, helping others, and making/eating desserts.

Q. What is your favorite blog to read?

In the typical blog-surfing fashion (which goes something like, 'click this random link, click next random link, etc, etc'), I stumbled on www.kellehampton.com a few months ago. It's called Enjoying the Small Things. The first post I read was Nella's Birth Story and, honestly, it changed my life. I have never read such a raw, unfiltered, emotional account of such a simultaneously beautiful and terrifying event in her life, the birth of her Nella Bunny - whom she did not know had Downs Syndrome until delivery. It made me crave reading more of her blogs from the past, and I've followed her every day since then. Kelle sees that life is truly beautiful. And it's the little things that make it so. (And her unbelievably amazing photography make the blog that much easier to follow!) I feel the same way about life, though my ability to convey this pales in comparison to Kelle's.

by the way the birth story she mentioned is here and it is long. I recommend reading it when you have a few minutes and a couple tissues. You will cry, I guarantee it.

Check out Jennie's blog sometime! Why not now?


7 comments:

Jennie said...

Hip hip hooray! That's so awesome, Sarah! Thank you. I'm very seriously flattered! I am honored to be a friend via babycenter/FB through the random happenstance that is our kids' birth month. I enjoy your blog (and particularly your photos) more than I have probably ever told you.

You just made my working holiday a heckuvalot better!

And by the way, thanks for making my inability to write concisely sound like a virtue! ;)

amy said...

Jennie is, indeed, as funny and wonderful in person as she is on the page. What a great feature!

Debbie said...

You couldn't have found a better blogger to highlight! I look forward to all of her posts, but WEDNESDAY is my favorite day of the week in Jennie Land.

Valerie said...

I too, love Jennie's blog. I totally concur with Amy about Jennie being just as funny in person as she is in her writing. I definitely look forward to Wednesday, but I also like flashback Friday.

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