Monday Favorites - A Blog Feature: Diary of a Stay-at-Home Mom

It's been a while hasn't it. There has been lots going on so I apologize for my absence.

Last week I was at all 3 of my jobs (Fieldhouse, Gale Woods Farm and Children's Place)...whew, had a soccer coaches' meeting, helped with 4-H events, met coach for Benjamin's soccer team and met the kids from the soccer team I'm coaching as well. Plus I managed to turn another year older in there. ;) We've also been following the news/Internet about the flooding in Fargo and other parts of North Dakota. Many of my friends still live there and have been in the midst of the flood fight. One friend has a secondary earthen dike close to her house, while another friend had to be airlifted by helicopter from the field across the stream from their house (which grew to a raging river) because they were surrounded by water. Lots of memories from 1997 when I was in Fargo and helping to sandbag then. Soooooo, now it's time to get back to normal (what is that again???)

Today's blog feature is: Diary of a Stay-at-Home Mom

This blog is written by Sandra, an Air Force wife. She is a stay-at-home-mom to 2 kids. Read more about her here. Sandra writes about a variety of topics, including book & movie reviews, cooking, photography as well as the adventures of her family. Here are a couple of her weekly features I enjoy.

Happy Homemaker Monday: Mondays she writes a feature where she talks about the books she is reading, movies she is watching, recipes she has tried, crafts she is working on, favorite photo from the past week, etc, etc. She is one busy lady!

Slow Cooker Thursday: This lady loves to cook! Every Thursday she features one of her favorite slow-cooker recipes.

Wanna-Try-That Wednesday: This is a new feature of her blog. Each week, she plans on listing an ideas she has come across that she wants to try. I'm always looking for new fun things to try and I can't wait to see what she comes up with. (Maybe I should try this blog feature too)

This blog of Sandra's is just the beginning of her mom-blogging life. She has a food blog, a reading nook where she reviews books. She also has several other features you will find on the right side of her blog under the listing of "My Places"

Thanks for a great blog Sandra. Check it out for yourself.

Monday Favorites - A Blog Feature: Northern Cheapskate

Today's featured blog is Northern Cheapskate. This blog is authored by Christina, a stay-at-home mom of 3 boys who lives in the woods in northern Minnesota. She writes articles on coupons, freebies, money-saving tips, living a frugal lifestyle. Basically, about anything that has to do with you and your money. Learn more about Christina here.



I really enjoy this blog because the information is more local. Several other blogs like this I read are more national in their offers, information, etc.. Christina does an awesome job of offering advice for people that don't necessarily live in a large metropolitan area either. Recently she wrote a thought provoking article about whether your kids creativity would be hampered by embracing a frugal lifestyle. Check it out here.



Thanks for a great blog Christina. Check it out for yourself.

Monday Favorites - A blog feature: MotherLoad: The MomAdvice.com blog

Welcome back to the continuing feature, Monday Favorites - A blog feature.

Today's featured blog is MotherLoad: The MomAdvice.com blog. The blog is authored by Amy Clark, who lives in Indiana. Amy is a stay-at-home mom who created the MomAdvice.com website when she couldn't find what she was looking for on the internet in one place. Read more about Amy here. MomAdvice is a collection of "well researched and in-depth articles on frugal living, saving money, work at home opportunities, inexpensive recipes, and tips for organizing your life."

Amy actually has several blogs that she writes, all which are part of her MomAdvice website. The blog I enjoy the best is the MotherLoad. Several days of the week she has different features that are interesting to read, including Amy's Notebook (see 3/4/09's entry here) and Freebie Friday (see 3/6/09's entry here). She just spent the entire month of February in a No-Spend Challenge too. I am going to participate in her Notebook Experiment sometime in the future since her blog is one site I have downloaded ideas, recipes from the most.

Thanks Amy for a inspiring blog. Check it out for yourself.

Monday Favorites - A Blog Feature: Because I Said So

In a previous post I mentioned that I read over 70 blogs a day. After my husband called me and said "you read HOW many blogs a day?!?!?", I feel I should clarify myself. (Don't worry honey, the kids are playing with sharp knives and matches while I'm reading.)


1. I don't read all of my blogs every single day. I would get exhausted after about the 10th one. I usually just browse through some of my favorites each day. Maybe I'm in the mood just for some humor or am looking specifically for a good deal on my next shopping trip.



2. Blog entries are various lengths. Sometimes they are a quick couple sentences or perhaps a longer entry. They don't take a very long time to read at all. I am a fast reader so I get through them pretty quick.


3. Most blogs have a feature that lets you know when they are updated so that you don't have to visit them everyday to see if the author added a new entry.


So you may be asking yourself (and if you aren't, why not?!?!), which blogs on your blog roll are worth reading. Therefore to help you with this questions I'm going to feature a favorite blog on my blog every week to help you get to know them. I figure that way I have at least 70 weeks worth of entries...LOL.

Here's my first one....

Because I Said So

http://www.becauseisaidso.com/

Because I Said So is a blog started by a mom, Dawn. According to her website & bio, Dawn Meehan (aka mom2my6pack) grew up in Chicagoland where she began her writing career at the age of 5 with her widely praised, The Lucky Leprechaun, an epic tale of a leprechaun who is– yes, you guessed it, lucky.
During her school years, she repeatedly heard the phrases, “You’re not working up to your potential” and “If only you would apply yourself, you could do so much better”.
Because of her less than enthusiastic response to school, Dawn opted to skip college and get a job instead. In 1992, she married her husband, Joe. The young couple talked about having children and concluded that they’d like to have 2 kids. Naturally, after the 6th was born, they decided they were done. For real this time.
Dawn started her blog in June, 2007 in an attempt to earn a little money while staying home with her children. She placed an auction for a pack of Pokemon cards on eBay which took off and went viral through cyberspace. It drew the attention of tens of thousands of people to her blog, including her wonderful agent and her publisher, Guideposts.
Today, Dawn stays busy changing diapers, cleaning pudding off her ceiling, tackling insurmountable piles of laundry, and pulling her kids out of trees.

This blog was first introduced to me by my cousin Stacey (Thanks Stacey!). I think that this is one of the most hilarious blogs I have ever read. Dawn is so funny and does such a great job of sharing her stories about being a parent. I know that many times I end up laughing so hard I'm in tears after reading it. Dawn also has a book coming out near Mother's Day, which many fans are excited to read

Thanks Dawn for sharing with us. Be sure to check out her blog.