Do you Blog Stalk?

This question came to my mind after a parent at my children's school said she noticed my blog updates on Facebook and "poked around the blog a little. But not in a bad, creepy way!"  It made me smile to think that someone actually took the time to check this ol'rag out ... let alone tell me about it! And honestly, isn't that why one blogs in the first place. For the READERS! Who cares if the only reader is your cousin from Wisconsin or your best friend (because she has to!) ... we want our thoughts heard, and comments aren't bad either. So, that brings us back to the question at hand, do you blog stalk?

So do ya?.... Com'on... We're all friends here.... You can tell us me!

Are there any sites you stalk...er, read regularly? Like every day

Twice a day?

Twice PLUS stalk the Facebook updates?!

Yeah.... me neither. HA!

What? You don't believe me.... well, shucks, I'm guilty. I love good blogs! Here are a few of my favorites and a little bit about why I like them.

I'm A Lazy Mom...
HELLOOO! The name says it all, doesn't it! Stacey is a riot! In fact, to use a Junie B. Jones term, "that lady cracks me right up!" I love her light hearted approach to parenting, laundry, and life in general. As the wife of a pastor, mother of three (super cute) kiddos, and a well-known review blogger, she is ripe with commentary designed to keep your funny-bone in action and your outlook on life a lot less serious. I get all giddy when those emails pop up and tell me that she has posted another Lazy Recipe (MUST contain 5 ingredients or less... genius!) or a great Lazy Mom Confession. That's right, we tell all of our dirty little secrets and jubilate as we realize, we aren't so weird and slacker-like as we thought! If you need a moment to get back to reality and want permission to say, "I don't have to be perfect to be a wonderful Wife, Mother, Neighbor, Friend, and Sister!" Come on by I'm a Lazy Mom and see what all the noise is about {I promise it's not my kids this time!}

71 Toes
I saw Shawni and her mother, Linda Eyre from Values Parenting, at a women's conference a few years ago and was immediately impressed with their relationship and parenting styles. I saw a story I could relate to, a daughter who looked up to her mother, and wanted desperately to raise her children with all of the love, strength, faith, and stability she had experienced in her parents' home. Shawni is down to earth and honest about her shortcomings (read her "disclaimer" here). Her writing style is very sincere and well put together, I really admire people who can post almost daily - with pictures even! I can't hardly post once a week month! One of my favorite things on 71 Toes are the posts about what she calls Deliberate Mothering. It is a conscious effort to parent children in a way that brings them joy, self-awareness, safety, and cultivates their loves of learning, faith, and family. On my other blog, I wrote that I want to be a mother who teaches her children on purpose, meaning that I want to deliberately have a focus and goal in mind all through the year that I will teach my children about and help them to cultivate in their own lives. This is important to me and I appreciate Shawni for her insight and example of real mothering.

NieNie Dialogues
Stephanie (Nie) Nielson is one of the most inspiring, faithful, intellegent, compassionate, and beautiful women I have ever heard or read about. Noted by several sources as a "well-known and admired Mormon mommy-blogger", Nie began keeping an online journal about the devastating plane crash in 2008 (involving she, her husband (Christian), and their close friend and flight instructor) which left her deeply scarred over 80% of her body. I first heard Stephanie and "Mr. Nielson" talk about the accident in an interview on the Mormon Radio program Conversations, however, she and her blog have been profiled on numerous television shows such as: 20/20, Oprah, TODAY, and Glenn Beck. She has a new book Heaven is Here: a memoir will be available this April; available for pre-order here.

I had not been very blog-savvy pre-2008, so I did not have the pleasure of reading her insightful musings before the accident. Hearing her speak about the miraculous occurrences in her life, her struggles, her faith, her love of family gave me a huge desire to "get to know" this amazing woman. The blog is full of the same things, each post radiates love and gratitude. Some are simple with only a single picture and a few lines of text, many others are unique glimpses into the joys and struggles she faces. As a mother of four, and expecting a new baby in Spring 2012, Stephanie has many day to day posts that strike a chord with me and inspire me to be a better mother. A more involved, more faith oriented, more (yes, deliberate) mother, as well as a better sister and daughter. She says that the honest reason she is still blogging, is that she knows people feel the Spirit when they read her posts and her purpose is to bring people to Christ. She will send a Book of Mormon to any reader who asks, she has sent close to 1000 copies to readers all over the world since 2009. This is amazing to me! It took me nearly two years and several pleadings from my sweet little boy to pluck up the courage to give a copy to my neighbors this Christmas! I love the words inside the Book of Mormon: the special witness of Jesus Christ, the affirmation of the presence of a loving Heavenly Father, and especially the promise of eternal families that it contains. I hope one day, to be able to have the ability to be not only open about my faith, but to have a missionary heart! Stephanie's story is one of faith and hope, if you are in need of inspiration or diversion, please join her journey.

Thanks for reading through my obsessions *grin*. I hope that you will enjoy these blogs and share with me the ones that bring you joy. *Please note, the opinions stated within this post are strictly my own. I was not solicited or paid to write positive reviews for any of these bloggers, they had no knowledge before hand in fact, I truly admire these women and said what I felt needed saying. Thank you.*