Blog Of The Month: Just Another Day In {Our Midwest} Paradise

In honor of our country's birthday, I wanted to take a look at a blog (or 3) that belongs to our military's wives.

Just Another Day In {Our Midwest} Paradise

My Front Porch Looking In

What? Mermaids?

I have read these blogs for a while, and feel like I have endured the sadness and loneliness of having their husbands being overseas with them. But the support their friends give them, as well as their ambitions for themselves help them through the long departure.

What amazing, strong women! I have family and friends that are also military, or have been, and words can't express how much I admire the wives that have very little communication with their husbands at times, and cannot plan anything because the military can mess it all up.

But their blogs tell their story, show their strength and support. Also reminds me to hug my husband every night and be thankful that we are not separated, especially by war.

God, please continue to bless these 3 bloggers that I am featuring, as well as their friends and family. I thank you for all the wonderful families that endure this so that our country can have such a blessed thing: freedom.

Blog Of The Month: Hope and Grace

For this month, I read the story of Hope and Grace, a blog written by a beautiful Australian woman who has struggled with trying to conceive her 2nd child. The poor woman was a human pin cushion for so long, and the emotions she dealt with after trying to conceive and numerous miscarriages just brought tears to my eyes!

This online journal was short compared to the other blogs I have read, but you relate to this family none-the-less. Well, except for the exotic travel. She grew up in Australia, lived in Dubai for a while as a flight attendant, and married an American/Canadian. They now reside in Sydney...one of the places I would love to visit!

The last entry was on February 27th of this year, and at the time, showing that she now has a due date of August for her second. I am nervous because there hasn't been further information, so I do hope that the pregnancy is going good and strong, and that we will soon get to see her ADORABLE little girl become a big sister.

Hope and Grace, you and your beautiful family are in my prayers!

For next month, I'm reading:

Just Another Day In {Our Midwest} Paradise

Happy reading!

Blog Of The Month: Steece's Pieces

This blog came as a recommendation to me from my cousin, and I'm glad she recommended it!

Steece's Pieces is the online journal of Suz and Joe Steece and their precious, energetic 2 (almost 3!) year old quads. Oh my!

One thing I love about this blog is that Suz tells the stories of her little ones, includes tons of pictures, and even labels which quad is what...which has to be helpful considering two of the quads are identical twins.

Suz has a very happy, fun energy about her, someone I would have loved to have known growing up. It's a lot of fun to read about the day in her life, but it's even more neat that the blog started at least a year before she had kids.

Here is a snippet of her blog, when she met with other families that also has quads, and they went out to dinner:

http://thelifeofsuz.blogspot.com/2008/07/classy-steak-dinner.html

Reading this blog makes me wish I was either an RN (which was a pursuit at one time--not too long ago!) or a quad mom because her annual reunions in pictures seems so nice and refreshing--what an amazing thing to do with friends!

Such a friendly, down-t0-earth person who takes the Lord's blessings and makes the most of every bit of it. She is an inspiration, and I do hope that I am fortunately able to meet her and her little ones someday!

For my next blog, I am reading:

Hope and Grace

**Originally, I had plans on reading Kayleigh's Story, but as I began their journey, I found myself breaking down uncontrollably. It is a beautiful story, and if you can, I encourage you to read it. Perhaps someday I'll be able to read it all the way through myself.

Happy reading!

Blog Of The Month: cjane enjoy it

I have a confession to make: it took me at least 2 months to read this blog. She started it back in 2005 and has several entries, laying out her life for all to read.

This blog also inspired me to create Blog Of The Month. I woke up one morning, anxious to read more of her posts, and thought to myself: "I want to spread the word about her. How do I do that?" Hence this thing called Blog Of The Month.

I discovered this blog after I discovered last month's blog, Nie Nie. This is her sister, C Jane, who took in Nie Nie's children after the tragic event. She , with the help of her family, even told Nie Nie's story to the world until her little sister was able to do so again.

Easily in my top favorites right now, C Jane has an amazing combination of humor, emotion, hope, and narcissm bundled up perfectly in extremely clever writing--Oh how I admire her writing style! She inspires me to reach into the depths of my writing creativity and bring every sentence to life.

Here are 3 examples of her posts, that inspires one to just keep reading:

http://blog.cjanerun.com/2008/09/unexplained-infertility-now-explained.html

She originally started her blog to talk about her infertility and the emotional roller coaster she experienced. This post is about her niece, Claire, and her son after Claire's parents' plane crash. A very touching post.

http://blog.cjanerun.com/2009/06/nothing-to-hyde.html

As I read this one, I had running in my head, "This is exactly how I feel about Cary!". She somehow dove into my head, pulled out the words that somehow never had shape in my brain, and then put them onto her blog. I forgive her. Just as long as she continues to do it and I read it...

http://blog.cjanerun.com/2010/02/customer-service.html

This one just cracked me up. What a funny gal!

I hope these posts inspire you to start reading her story from the beginning. It might take a while but it is so worth it!

For next month, I'm reading:

Steece's Pieces

Happy reading!

Blog Of The Month: Nie Nie- Revised

I know I have blogged about this person before, but this lady (and her entire family) continues to impact my life.

Nie Nie's blog is so whimsical, so beautiful in every way. She has raised her 4 beautiful children to be creative, happy, and loving. And strong.

In August 2008, Nie Nie and her husband were in a private airplane crash and survived, but their friend did not. Months and months of therapy, ongoing surgeries, and adjusting to life with pain as a normal way of life. But inspiring. Oh how her writings touch my heart!

How does her blog affect me?

Most know that I am afraid of flying, but I refuse to let my life not be full of adventures, so I will step on the plane. With prayers, and holding tight to my loved ones. And every single adventure has been great, and I've never regretted it.

I did not come upon her blog until I read on another blog that posted about it. When I read about updates from her family, I couldn't help but want to know more about this person that had stolen so many hearts. So I went all the way back and started at the beginning. There I found a mom who loved to talk about her vegan diet, raising her children to play in the rain, and the big celebrations she had with her large Mormon family.

I now enjoy reading her updates and see how she is doing her best to raise her kids as a regular mom, even though she faces challenges that so many don't have to face daily. What a strong woman!

And a beautiful one as well.

For next month, I am reading Nie Nie's sister, cjane.

Happy reading!

LAAM Presents: Blog Of The Month Club

What am I doing up at 8 a.m. on a Saturday when our child is at her Oma and Opa's? Being inspired!

When I started writing my own blog, I would be between posts and want to read about other people's lives. So I started out with my cousin's blog and clicked on one of her friends, then clicked randomly on one of the blog links on the side of theirs, and either read that or continue the clicking onto blogs with catchy titles and so on.

If I really like the blog that I find and want to continue reading their story, I save them on my reading list and try to add it as a sidebar so that others will see it. But why not put in a word or two as well? Perhaps this can encourage people to branch out and find blogs they would like to read, as well as be inspired by, as I most definitely have been.

So, today, I want to introduce my version of Blog Of The Month Club. I will present a blog that I found and go back to the archives and read from the beginning, because it is so fun to get the full impact of them and their story. Then I will do a review, and hopefully if you find it interesting, you will check it out yourself. Or maybe introduce me to a few as well.

As a side note, I am not here to kick dirt at anyone else's blog. If I am doing a blog about one, it means it was enjoyable and significant to me. I will not speak ill of the blogs I do not relate to, because, like books and human nature in general, we are all different, and their lives are no less important or significant to them or me. I will simply click on another blog from their recommendation list and move on, not even revealing that there may have been one I did not read fully.

Just another task to add to my already busy life! Did I add the fact that I am already behind 1 week in my posting? Yep. About to add another weekend as well!

Happy reading!