Getting Real: My Threads and My Voice

I'm willing to admit I have rough time being a stay-at-home mommy at times, with the last few months being more rough than others but I'm on the upswing now . . . someday I may go into all that . . . someday. During my "rough patch", I considered a lot of things like giving up scrapbooking, quitting my blog, getting a second washer and dryer, running away forever (just kidding). But I now see that blogging and scrapbooking are sometimes the only threads I have of me. I need to create, I just do, I love artsy-fartsy stuff like gluing paper and sewing scraps of fabric together. I know some people don't get it, just like I don't get shopping as a hobby or just sitting and watching TV. Something I created from nothing into something that means something to me. I guess the kids are the same as scrapbook layouts and quilts since we created them too but I can't put them in neatly away and just look at them when I want.

Blogging seems to be my voice. I like to voice my opinion, my thoughts, my ideas. I know like 5 people read it (Thanks, if you do but I don't do it for you) I do it for me. It's fun to go back and look at my posts last year, it helps me remember that there's good times and bad times, and life just goes in cycles like that all the time. I feel like I am out in the world and that my thoughts are being heard because God knows there are many times here when you can't even hear your own thoughts over all the yelling and crying and laughing and giggling in this house. My blog is like me yelling out the window at the world (at the 5 people in my world). I really have a great life and consider myself lucky to be a mom and get to stay at home although that also seems it will be the death of me sometimes too.

I really am real on here -- this is me. My sis and I have been discussing how some blogs are getting on our nerves lately with their perfectly decorated homes and all the time spent on decorating (gag!) and people who ask for prayers every 5 seconds for everything under the sun and then quote Bible verses right and left (no offense, but moderation is the key in all things including religion), and my biggest pet peeve is the fake blog where all their children are delightful and wonderful and every project and activity, fun and enjoyable. Pluh ----eeeeeese! I think I've hit a new chapter in blogging and will be deleting many of 130+ blogs I read. Instead I'm on the search for the real-deal moms and here's my new favorite one. This post got me hooked and I sticking with her. She says she has 458 kids but I think it's 4, so she knows me, and I know her. She might be my new BFF and she cusses some on her blog which is not a bother to me, hell I may start cussing more here too. Check her out for some laughs and see how she holds on to her life everyday too. I'm off to go get creative for more threads to hang on to.

I'm a Junkie

I have a problem, an addiction really . . . I'm a blog junkie. I hate to admit this but I have 108 blogs that I subscribe in Google Reader. That means anytime any of those blogs update I know it and I read them ALL. I don't skim, I read. Sometimes when I'm sick or busy or gone I get behind and it's a job to get caught up but I always do. I'm embarrassed it's that many. But there are so many cool people out there. I don't discriminate against blogs I have a wide variety of scrapbooking, to crafting, to decorating, to recipes, and photography, and people who internet surf/shop to tell you about every great thing there is to buy that you can't afford, organizing, and then there are some people who I don't even know how to label I just think they are interesting. I add new ones all the time. I even *star* the posts I want to reference later but I never organize them, then I can't remember who wrote what and where I saw that idea -- someday I'll organize all that info . . . someday. Because I'm out there in the blogging world exploring everyday, I kind of know who has the "it" blog of the moment. One I want to share is someone I became aware after they were in a tragic plane crash: Stephanie Nielson writes her blog, The NieNie Dialogues. She just returned to her blog this week (her family and friends were updating since the accident).

I never read her blog before her accident but I plan on looking back through her archives she is a mom of 4 young kids and quite crafty with them and her house is full of cute ideas and she loves life before and after the plane crash. Many, many bloggers (including my sis) donated items to auction off for her to help support her and her husband in recovering through their ordeal. So now she's become one of my favorite blogs -- one I get excited when I see she's updated. One that now puts my life in a little better perspective and helps me realize how great I have it and how I need to appreciate each and every moment. Check out Stephanie here to follow her through their recovery and to see what a great person she is . . . and maybe you'll see how easy it is to become a blog junkie.