Pink Pajamas

'Tis the season of giving and Kelli over at Cafe Kel is getting a head start on the fun! Read about how she fell in love with pajamas and find out how you can win a gift certificate to PajamaGram thanks to Miss Kel.

Let's Get It Started

Well, hey, y'all.

Wait. Are those crickets I hear? Am I all alone here after abandoning my post lo these many days, nay weeks?

I just haven't been able to get it together to write. I feel mentally fatigued. Lost. Wondering why I write and if I actually have anything of value to say. I was thinking about just walking away.

However, A. has a post on her blog that hit very close to home for me. I feel like I've been treading water in a sea of stress and dismay related to behavior problems (Brendan's and my own) and my inability to balance my part-time job, my duties as a wife and mother, and my desire to have a life that isn't solely consumed by cooking, cleaning, and child rearing. At least this blog gives me an outlet and keeps me connected with like minds – shoot, better minds! – and allows me space to figure out my purpose in this world.

Anyway, despite wondering how I can balance my need and desire to write and remain relatively honest with myself and you all with an apparently growing need not to offend or upset anyone else, I've decided to give this another go. I've thought about taking the blog private so that you'd have to register to read it, but that just seems too depressing. I might then find that no one actually gives a damn. I don't really want to do either of those things... Force readers to register or find out what a pathetic loser I am.

Or I could suck it up and be me, whoever that is.

So, I thought I'd start with a layout change. Unfortunately, I screwed up saving some of my links. If I've left you off my blogroll, please forgive me. I added the blogs whose urls I knew off the top of my head. If yours isn't there, it's because I'm going to need to find the url and add you. It's not that I don't love you to pieces!

Alright. Here we go. Again.

'Night, Y'all.

Listen to the Lion

So, I've been meaning to write about this and present this particular post for several days now. However, I needed to give this quite a bit of thought before I began writing.

You see, Rennratt gave me an award. It's the Roar for Powerful Words award, given writer to writer. And I am tickled pink as you can imagine. It's always a good feeling to know that someone likes and appreciates what you're doing. Especially when it's someone whose writing and talent you admire.

The award originated with a quite talented writer/journalist named Seamus Kearney and his writers' collective, Shameless Lions.


So, here's how it works, more or less:

"How does it work? Below are copies of the award that we can each distribute to those people who have blogs we love, can't live without, where we think the writing is good and powerful. I thought interested members could kick things off by publishing the award on their own blog, naming five people they would like to give it to (members or non-members), and accompany the image with three things they believe are necessary to make writing good and powerful. The recipients then do the same, passing it on to five other people, and so on."

Which five fellow bloggers do I admire? Who has the blogs I can't live without? Who writes well and powerfully? All good and interesting questions and ones I can't answer without acknowledging the fact that I probably shouldn't award the person who awarded me or anyone to whom she gave the award. So, that narrows my field by at least two. I just nominated a new favorite for a Perfect Post. So, with all that in consideration, here are some of my current favorites, though they are in no particular order (and if yours isn't here, that doesn't mean I don't adore you and your writing). I'm just being forced to choose.

Dancing On the Jetty:
I know Jeremy in real life and he's a good friend. One of the best, most salt-of-the-earth folks you will ever meet. When I worked as a copywriter, Jeremy was my proofreader. As long as I have known him, he has been a straight-shooter, but sincere and compassionate. His writing reflects those qualities. He has an infinite knowledge of music and film that seems to span every genre. He knows a ton about sports, especially baseball. He's more socially and politically-aware than your average bear and whenever I read his blog, I learn something.

Letters About Eve:
Letters About Eve chronicles the life of Jen, her husband Ben, and their beautiful daughter Evelyn. It's a private blog, so you probably can't access it, but I still want to acknowledge how much I love reading about Jen, Evie, and their adventures. Jen's husband Ben is in the Army and just came home after being deployed. They live on a farm with Jen's parents and reading about her wonderful family – Grammy and Grampers, Big Bro and Doc Rom, Uncle Stan – as well as the goats and other farm animals, Jen's work with an autistic kid, and soon her experiences in graduate school give me a peek into a life I will never experience. Her writing is so crystal clear and succinct. It reflects her joy of life without being cloying or sentimental. In essence, I think her clear, descriptive writing and the things Jen chooses to write about are illustrative of the true essence of the world family. Letters About Eve has become a blog I look forward to the way I look forward to a sunny day after a week of rain.

The Wonder Keeping the Stars Apart:
If I just stumbled onto this blog, I'd be compelled to read it, simply for the beauty of its title, which comes from this e.e. cummings poem. Again, I must admit that this blog's author, Suzanne, is a real world friend. We have a long and complicated history and she is someone that I genuinely love. Her writing is bright, witty, refreshing, and runs the gamut from her beloved Charleston, her brilliant legal career and her romance with Sweetie to national and international politics. It's like Sex in the City meets Face the Nation. But in her writing, you see her humanity...pain, joy, strength, vulnerability. Her writing is intelligent, often witty, and always cuts to the heart of the matter.

Suburban Turmoil:
Lindsay Ferrier is an excellent story teller. She has a natural gift for dialogue and a keen sense of the ridiculous in this world. I often find myself disagreeing or thinking that she's overly judgmental and harsh. Sometimes, she even comes across as mean-spirited. We're worlds apart on the topic of smocked clothes for boys. But still...I always come back for more. I think the ability to write funny, as it were is rare indeed. I would give my eye teeth to be able to tell a funny story. Sadly, I just don't got it! Lindsay does, though. The only blog that provides me with more laughs on a routine basis is Rennratt's. If you've never read it, you should definitely check it out.

A., Woman of Independent Means:
A. writes about as honestly and as much from the heart as any blogger out there. Her blog covers topics from raising her two children and life as the wife of a minister to her own career as a minister and the life she has put on hold in many ways to be there for her kids. She writes about the world at large and the world in her own home with care, passion, intelligence, and above all, honesty. She, like Jeremy, is a straight-shooter, but she is never snide, cynical, mean, judgmental or any of the other qualities that I find so distasteful about many bloggers. In fact, I tend to find A.'s writing inspiring and uplifting without being overly sentimental. Even in posts that express anger or dissatisfaction, I find comfort because I finally feel that someone else understands the maddening thoughts of my inner life.