Which Blogs Inspire You?

I am sending this award around today to some of the people who inspire me.

I've been blogging for a while now and even though I often have a lot to write about, I don't always know how to write it. And I regularly find myself drawn to blogs who just do it so freakin well and who inspire me. They make me want to be a better writer, blogger, and even most times, a better person. So I thought I'd take this moment to share a few of them with you because I love to spread the bloggy love around a little and I haven't in a while and I have all this pent up bloggy love inside to get out. So I'd like to share this little award (made up by me) with some of the blogs I find so inspiring. I know it's not like a million bucks and you can't really do anything with it, but it's my token to you to say, Thank you. For making me want to be a better blogger and person. Here's a little bloggy bling for your sidebar.

-Maggie at Maggie's Mind: Maggie is in Japan right now. Literally, she can make a picture of a wall look cool. And she can write a haiku about a wall that would be sheer poetry. She inspires me daily to find the beauty and funny sh*t in odd places.

-Lissa at Whoooo's That Girl: That hooker's another one with the to-die-for photos. Of course, she is a photographer... But I have to say, between her ginormous family and her blogs and her photography, I have no idea how on earth she does it all, but darn girl, you inspire me. I feel like I've been following her for a hundredty years, but her partying and foul mouth writing makes her a woman after my own heart.

-Brooke at Smart + Strong = Sexy: Brooke is just so darned sweet and charming and supportive, she makes me want to keep going. With whatever. She should also get the award for most-commenting-blogger, because whereever I go, she has already left a comment and it's always a sweet and heartfelt one. Talk about sharing the bloggy love! Plus her stories are just so cute. Tell me the engagement story already, gosh!

-Pubsgal at Opposite Life: Blogging isn't just addicting because there is this whole other world online (although that's part of it). There are real (virtual) friendships made here. Pubsgal's about to do her first tri (in 10 days!) and we've been egging each other on the whole time, from the crazy conception of the very idea. Not to mention, she's hilarious with her cookie face pictures and cans on the beach.

-April at Did That Just Happen?: My bloggy twin! I swear, we have so much in common, especially in our weightloss. If past lives existed I swear we would have been friends in one of them. Like the blog version of the women in the Victorian Era or something. Maybe we telegraphed and crossed wires at some point or something. Anyway, I heart April.

So thank you ladies for being so inspiring. I am quite sure I'm not the only one who thinks so. So, sometimes when there are awards abound, people have rules, but I don't. Except one or two. And you can copy and paste it if you wish:

Rule #1: If a blogger has inspired you, tell them. Whether it's one blog or five, show the bloggy love. Send them this little token.

Rule #2: See rule #1.

ps. I'm always looking for new blogs to read. Anyone got any favorites?? Please do share!

That is all.

Which Blogs Inspire You?

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Linky Love Tuesday

One of my dearest friends has come to the dark side!

Now she too will know what it is like to have those age-old inner conflicts: Hmm. Laundry? Or blogging? or... Ok, I'll just leave one more comment. or....I'll just sit down for a minute while I drink my coffee and I'll log off as soon as I finish it. or...I'll be off in a second honey! I'm looking up something really, er, important! (Meanwhile, 4 hours later...)

Because guess why? She has just given birth to a brand new blog, 4 W Questions! Yayy!

My good friend Jen is one of my favorite people ever. We met in Student Broadcasting Society in college and thank God we did because eventually when I moved up to New York for a producing job, she moved back up north to be near her family in New Jersey and boy did we have some fun. New York City was our little playground.

In fact, she broke a bone on one of our little outings that's how much fun we have! (She may or may not have stumbled in her "sexy shoes" while crossing the street at about 2 in the morning. And she may or may not think of that experience as "fun". Sorry Jen!) Unfortunately, that was the second time she broke a bone and even more unfortunate is that the first time she broke a bone, I also happened to be there (it was an unfortunate rollerblading pile-up on Miami Beach during one of our dork Student Broadcasting conventions.)


We've lived parallel lives in many ways. It's pretty amazing, actually.


We both met our husbands in college. (I was actually friends with her husband before I was friends with her). We both dated our husbands-then-boyfriends long-distance while we lived in New York. Our husbands both took forever to decide we were "the one". Something like 10 years. And there were breakups and some seeing-other-peoples in between, but both of us ended up right back with the same guys. I guess they just couldn't live without us. Yep. So we had dated our husbands for.ev.er. and then, amazingly, we got engaged within a month of each other. We both left whatever we were doing in whatever state and moved back to Florida to be with our husbands-to-be. Shortly after, we both got married. Then we both got pregnant (and both with boys) and then, if that's not amazing enough, we both had preemies. (This one I could do without having in common but it has been a blessing having each other to talk to about it.)


In fact, when she went into labor 10 months after I had my preemie, my heart broke into a million pieces and I actually screamed out in anger and mad at the world at why this would or could possibly happen when I hung up after getting that phone call at midnight. And I prayed. And I rushed to the hospital as soon as the sun came up.


Her little man was in the NICU for a couple months, but he is a year and a half now and adorable and healthy and big and wonderful. And by the way, I've written about her a lot and you don't even know it! She's the one who talked me into the meetup group and also the one who took me to Pearl Jam a few months ago and she was the one who was involved in the failed great dancing experiment of '08 with me.


We have fun together. She is hilarious. And that's why I am giving her the linky love on Linky Love Tuesday because I think you'll laugh out loud to her too. So head on over to 4W Questions and say hi! Ask her how long it's been since she's had a hamburger...

Linky Love Tuesday

https://babytealeaves.blogspot.com/2008/09/linky-love-tuesday.html?m=0

Linky Love Tuesday

Ever feel like you do so many things but you don't do any one thing right? That you do little tidbits of everything but never finish anything? Because by the time you're halfway through whatever it is you're doing, you're onto something else and then all of a sudden you have a pool full of a million half-done things and they loom over you and you don't even know where to start?

That's me. I feel like that today. Inadequate.

So I sat down with my coffee to do a little reading before I start my long day of tackling and found this for little old me. It completely made my day.

It's from Moze Esme', (thank you so much!!!) who I was ironically going to talk about in today's Linky Love Tuesday. Because she is not only an amazing mother and writer, she's doing good things for the people of Mozambique with her 16 month old daughter in tow. Besides her great story telling, she's also very involved in teaching her little "sponge" everything; every week, she has "letter" days where she does all these crafts and projects that start with the letter of the day and it's wonderful and inspiring! To see this learning process and the experience of living in Mozambique through the eyes of a 16 month old is truly priceless. I admire her for the work she's doing there and especially for taking her daughter along to share in this experience that changes lives -- for everyone! She is a must-read. If you haven't found her already, please head over there and say hi. She's wonderful. Truly. And thank you so much for the award!!

And to nominate some other blogs for this award, because I get to give out some more love myself:
-Wee Little Me @ Little by Little because she inspires me from all the way across the earth
-MizFit @MizFit Online because ditto, but just across the country. She just rocks.
-Maggie @Maggie's Mind because I think I tell her she's brilliant daily. (Does that make me stalkery?)
-Robin @ Welcome to My World because I think we were twins separated at birth (fraternal because she's 8 feet tall and I'm 5 feet nothing, and well, besides the occasional braids, we really don't look alike)
-Jen @ 4 W Questions because her questions for the universe make me laugh and I love her.
-ET @ Titus 2:3-5 because I like to lose myself in introspect at her blog
-Janeen @Our Story because she is who she is and I love that.

Here are the rules for the award:
-Put the logo on your blog
-Link to the person you received your award from
-Nominate at least 7 other blogs
-Put links to those blogs on your site
-Leave messages on the blogs you've nominated

That's it! Happy Linky Love!

Linky Love Tuesday

https://babytealeaves.blogspot.com/2008/08/linky-love-tuesday.html?m=0

Tuesday's Bloggy Lovefest- A Potpourri

Look, I got some bloggy bling! Thank you, Maggie! And if you've ever read Maggie's blog, Maggie's Mind you'd know what an honor it is to get an award from such a kick-butt writer/blogger/poet. Thank you Maggie! This is the Arte Y Pico Award, and it was created to honor bloggers who have inspired others through their creativity. The best part about it is the fact that now that I've received it, I get to pass it on to 5 others! And since Tuesday is all about the lovefest, this is perfect! Can I give it back to you Maggie? Because honestly, you inspire me with your writing and your photos in almost every post.

One of my favorite blogs is We are THAT Family. Kristin's stories and energy inspire me daily. She is so genuine, open, and just downright hilarious. She makes me want to be a better writer. Oh, and by open I mean that she doesn't mind admitting that she goes to Chick Fil A so often the drive-thru lady knows her name before she sees her face. I mean, by her voice when she's ordering. Funny! But I have literally laughed and cried to her stories and she is so worth a daily read. Lots of other people think so too. You can tell by the sheer masses of comments she gets.

Another blog I really like is CanCan at Mom Most Traveled. She offers a lot of tips and giveaways, but that's not really why I like her. I like her for her bravery. She is a mother of two very youngins and is about to travel with them to Asia. She is not afraid. She's traveled with them alone. I'm afraid to take just one of mine on a two-hour flight alone, much less a something-teen-hour flight. Anyway, she also works a lot at being more "green" which I am starting to try to do myself but for me it's baby steps. I just bought the re-usable grocery bags and I'm feeling pretty good about myself.

I've already bared my bloggy heart to SJ at My Big Fat Irish Blog and And All the Jones Men, so in hopes that I don't seem stalkery, I must say she has some serious picture-taking abilities. Her photos always make me want to do the Weekly Winners meme but I don't think I can add another meme to my repertoire right now. But she does inspire me to take more pictures and try to catch "those" moments. The ones that make good pictures.

I have two more blogs to give this award to and I will finish this week. Though that is not in the rules below, I hope they will forgive me. Here are the rules for the awardees (if you should be so inclined to pass the award on to others).

1) You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award, creativity, design, interesting material, and also contributes to the blogger community, no matter of language.
2) Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.
3) Each award-winning blog, has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself.
4) Award-winning and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of "Arte y pico"blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award.
5) To show these rules.

Before you go, I have some more bloggy love for you, and this is bloggy LUV. With a U-V.

Do you use Luvs or know anyone who does? Wednesday, they're giving out $5 coupons at their Web site! They're an already inexpensive diaper (and they're actually really good -- and I'm not just saying that. We used to be Pampers-only people, but we've added Luvs to the mix.)

Anyway, bookmark the site and remember to go there Wednesday for the coupon because the coupons will run out. Also, I will have a Luvs giveaway soon, so check back here for that! Meantime, while you're at it, click on mom-comedianne Anita Renfroe's new video below which is part of the Luvs promotion -- but the song itself is pretty funny.

Tuesday's Bloggy Lovefest- A Potpourri

https://babytealeaves.blogspot.com/2008/06/tuesdays-bloggy-lovefest-potpourri.html?m=0

Tuesdays Bloggy Lovefest

Today's Bloggy Lovefest comes to you from my love/slash/hate relationship of running. I say love hate because I don't really like to run. Sometimes I do. But other times, I want to die while I am running. It is not always fun for me. Plus, my body is not really built for it -- I have no meniscus or ACL in my left knee, I have had two knee surgeries and well, I am not the long and lean type either (to say the least. The word stumpy comes to mind when I think about how to describe my legs.) BUT it works for me when I am losing weight. Of all the things I do, running works and I don't know why. So I don't fight it. I just build me a playlist and I go with it.

Anyway.

A few weeks ago when I was bouncing around from blog to blog one morning, I ran across a bunch of blogs who were also doing the Couch to 5K running program. Oh how I wish I had known this when I started, I would have been able to bit&% and moan throughout the process when the going got tough! (Which was like every run when I got to the nitty gritty end).

Nonetheless, I stumbled across this cute little blog called Little by Little. She goes by "Wee Little Me" and low and behold, she was doing the Couch to 5K and also running a 5K (at the end of June) but this one is her own -- what a good idea: a Virtual 5K! This is where runners around the globe who are also doing the program can map out a 5K distance near them and run it as their goal! So runners the world over like me (and I use the word runner loosely for me at least) will all run this 5K on our own in two weekends and post our results! How much fun is that?

But moreover, I like her because when she's not seeing movement on the scale (me) she finds happiness in the small victories. Kind of like I do. Like fitting her wedding ring (for me it was fitting those pants I tried on every day for months). Or not recognizing herself in the store window. Anyway, head over there and leave her a comment because she loves the comment love like I do. And she's doing a great job! Hopefully she'll join us for the Summer of Me! Only it's the "Winter of Me!" for her because she's wayyyy down under!

Oh yes, and one more note: through her, I found a great site for runners called "Runner's Lounge" where you can log your runs and chat with other runners. I love it! It's worth checking out if you're any kind of runner whatsoever.

***

Don't forget to sign up for the Summer of Me Weight Challenge that starts MONDAY! Already! Anyone who wants to sponsor the contest with a prize for our Friday's weigh-in drawings, please e-mail me at christieo_7 at msn dot com or leave me a comment.

Tuesdays Bloggy Lovefest

https://babytealeaves.blogspot.com/2008/06/tuesdays-bloggy-lovefest_17.html?m=0

I Heart Blogging (A little Bloggy Love Tuesday)

I mean, where else can you read about someone trapsing through hot springs in Japan naked? Or a pimply teenager losing touch with a little girl she tried to help -- only to be reunited with her years later? Or about a family who still manages to find the happiness that is a free splash of vanilla in your coke after finding out what could be some scary health stuff? All in one morning.

You see, friends, this is why I love blogging.

Friday I was zapped. A morning full of ups and downs and tears and laughs, and I hadn't even spoken to anyone in real life yet! I was wiped.

I don't know whether it's that everyone is just in an extremely collective introspective mood, or if everyone is just taking turns being inspired or what. Maybe it's the summertime seeping in. No one ever seems to be this passionate or dreamy or inspired in the winter. Or maybe you just read about people's lives so much that you become vested in them and their experiences.

Whatever it is, that Friday morning it all happened at once. Back to back blog posts that reach down from somewhere deep. And that deep place always seems to be where the best writing comes from. I love that place. No one has to work for good writing when they find that place. The material is just there. I went from one blog to the next on my sidebar, laughing, crying, applauding from the comfort of my couch and my laptop. I must have experienced every range of emotion. My goodness. It was so funny the gamut that I ran that I had to blog about blogging.

So if you have time and want to be inspired, grab a cup of coffee...and read an amazing story about how God works in truly mysterious ways at We Are THAT Family, or send a prayer to Robin and her family at Welcome to My World, one of my very favorite places to go in the bloggyworld, or laugh about which mom you dread being: the haggard, the yeller, or the ignoramus at Musings of a Mamma of Many. This is my little version of around the bloggyworld Tuesday. Enjoy!

I Heart Blogging (A little Bloggy Love Tuesday)

https://babytealeaves.blogspot.com/2008/06/i-heart-blogging-little-bloggy-love.html?m=0

Tuesday's Bloggy Lovefest

I'm starting a little bloggy love here.

When I started blogging almost two years ago, I was unaware of the "rules" of blogging. Of the different kinds of etiquette that exist within the bloggy world. I started blogging just to keep my family in the loop on the kids and then motherhood gave me a lot of funny material and allowed me to keep writing as a stay at home mom after leaving the news writing business. And well, I've been blogging ever since. It has, to me, become an addiction, like it has to so many other people. I love to write. And I love to read good writing.

So then when I became more involved in blogging and saw that there was this sort of bloggy language out there, I had to sort through all the "rules" and come up with my own "style". I had to answer questions for myself like when do I put someone on my sidebar? Do I let them know? Do I expect them to put me on their sidebar in return? How do I comment on a new blog without seeming stalkery? Silly, I know.

After this long trek through the blogosphere, I realized I do have my own little style and it just sort of hashed itself out. And I realized that everyone is different and has their own style. Isn't that funny? There is a bloggy language that people just kind of learn. It seems funny to even write about, but everyone knows it and it's true.

So what do I do?

I tend to read a blog for a while before I decide to put it on my sidebar. I don't really know why I do this, I think it's because to me, the sidebar is like the blog equivalent of saying "I love you" and I'd hate to be the guy on the date who expresses their love immediately instead of waiting the recommended time period after which it is socially acceptable to share it. But that's just me.

And when I put a new blog on my sidebar I let them know, not because I want anything in return because I don't. If they want to read my blog, then yay! But if not, that's ok. I write a lot of fodder and I know that. But I still like to read theirs. I just like to let them know that they've inspired me or that I really like reading what they have to say.

And when do I comment? I comment on things that people write that speak to me. And that means pretty much every time I read their blog. (After all, that's why I read them daily!) On the other hand, I don't like to comment just to comment, because I don't want to be a fake commenter. I want to leave a genuine comment. Sounds stupid, maybe, but it's like conversation. You don't want to just sit there and nod blankly at what they have to say, and leaving a shallow comment just to leave a comment is to me, the equivalent of the "nod and smile." It just occurred to me that maybe I overthink things.

So when someone is going through something difficult and they blog about it, sometimes I read it and have to think about how to say what it is I am thinking and return to comment because I don't want to say something generic but I want them to know I am thinking about them. And sometimes I leave long book comments because whatever it is that someone said really spoke to me and I just can't seem to write enough about it. And sometimes I don't comment even though I want to, because I have writer's block. But I really like to comment as much as possible because if they are like me, it is so nice to see that little comments number at the bottom of a post grow to be a big number instead of a 0. I don't care who you are, when you have comments, it makes a person feel good and I like to make people feel good.

So, in sum, a blog makes it onto my sidebar, not because they give things away or because they comment on my blog, but because I love their stories and they inspire me and I connect with them in some way. And I have met a lot of new people recently through the Summer Slimdown here, through my giveaways, through the Couch to 5K program that I'm doing, and just through other bloggers and when I realized how many more blogs I read and like and that my sidebar needed to be updated, I realized that what a better way to let them know they've inspired me than by sharing them with everyone so that other people can be inspired too!

So every week -- and I'm going to get ceremonious here-- I'll feature a new blog that I read that I really like and that in some way has or does inspire me that's going on my sidebar. And sometimes I'll pull one that's already got a home on my sidebar because I want to give out some extra love and I just love their writing so much. You know I just love to share my favorite things with the world. So this week I'm going to feature two, a newbie and an oldie, because I can't help myself.

The first one is the newbie; SJ of My Big Fat Irish Blog, where she journals about her quest for weightloss and posts recipes and interesting articles (one of my favorites was about a ropeless jumprope -- yes, a rope-less jump rope -- you can read here about my first foray into jumproping which was a huge embarrassing failure and see why I find this amusing). I found her (actually she found me) through the Summer Slimdown here. But her weightloss blog was what led me to her other blog, And All the Jones Men where she blogs about her life in a household full of boys/men -- a little something I am learning a thing or two about. I love her stories and her pictures (she takes a lot of great pictures) and we have a buttload in common. You should really check her out.

The second one is Maggie from Maggie's Mind and I just can't say enough about her. She is an amazing writer, the kind who writes exactly what you are thinking about something you've done or experienced but in a way you couldn't possibly form into words. Almost Seinfeldian if there were such a term. But she's also genuine. She can take any experience she has had and truly tell a story with it, whether it's about a woman working at a drive-thru (read this touching post), or the time she lived in Japan. And her ability to haiku??!! It's seriously uncanny. Maggie is the epitome of a storyteller and a poet. Some of the things she comes out with make me laugh out loud. Other times, it makes me cry. And I'm not the only one -- that's probably why she was nominated for the Best Blog of All Time Award. I just love reading her blog. You will, too. Trust me.

Tuesday's Bloggy Lovefest

https://babytealeaves.blogspot.com/2008/06/tuesdays-bloggy-lovefest.html?m=0