–1–
Segullah: Though the writers are Mormon and I am very much NOT, it’s a wonderful blog to read because I can identify with a lot of the posts. One of the women is a pre-eclampsia survivor (her beautiful girls are 4 years old now) and others are stay-at-home moms who encourage me greatly. There’s a lot to be said for the commonality of motherhood. (Thanks Ann for introducing me to this site!)

–2–
House of Estrogen: This is Ann’s blog and she talks about life with three daughters. (The title comes from the fact that her husband is the lone male in a “house of estrogen”.) I found Ann through The Simple Woman’s Daybook and I love the way she blogs honestly about the seemingly mundane stuff in raising her daughters. (It feels like she and I are the only ones who aren’t conservative Catholic/Protestant homeschoolers.) I feel a lot of times like I have no idea what I’m doing in raising Daniel and Ann gives me a lot of confidence.

–3–
Scenes from the Wild: Michelle is one of the Segullah bloggers (she’s one of the blog editors, actually) and I just found her blog in the last week through Ann. (Her blog sidebar links are great — what else can I say!) I just got done reading through all the archives and I’ve put it on my feed reader. Michelle has six kids — five (!!!) boys and one spoiled princess. I love that she’s not a perfect mom and that she admits this (a little too freely — she should give herself more credit). She reminds me that part of being a mom (a large part) is just showing up and being present for your kids. I just hope Daniel turns out as well as her sons have. Oh yes… she is an AMAZING photographer — her blog is surfworthy for just the photography.

–4–
Fear Not Little Flock: The preoteasa is another find from The Simple Woman’s Daybook. She has four kids, homeschools them, and is also the wife of a Byzantine Catholic priest. She’s become a dear friend because she understands the crazy dynamics of being a clergy spouse and she’s a fellow NICU-mom and pre-eclampsia survivor. I’ve learned a whole lot about Eastern Catholicism in the last 4 months and have gotten tips on how to keep my house clean. 🙂

–5–
Permission to Live: This is another pastor’s wife and a mom who deserves a whole lot more credit than she gives herself. I learned about “gentle parenting” from her blog and it’s been invaluable with a two year old to be able to put him down in his crib and give him “a moment” when he throws a tantrum. (I’ll also sometimes give him his bottle and let him self-calm if it’s appropriate.) She grew up in a fundamentalist Christian household and is dealing with the fallout of it, so she is especially interesting to read when it comes to faith issues because she is brutally honest about where we really fall short as believers. (This is a *good* thing.)

–6–
Elizabeth Esther: I love Elizabeth because she talks a lot about being a mom and dealing with her fundamentalist upbringing. (I’m not from a Christian background — I’m a convert to the faith — but I had a lot of friends who grew up in similar families.) She writes a parenting column for the OC Register and posts some amazing insights on her blog. I have learned a great deal from her and her musings about parenting her five kids.

–7–
I Have to Sit Down: I read Simcha not for the parenting advice but for her sense of humor. Her posts are fabulous but what got her on my feed reader was this quiz. I was reading it one of the nights Daniel was in the PICU and answer 3c made me cry from laughing so hard. (I didn’t know that one could *DO* extra-credit at a Santaria club.) She has eight kids and she admits to her house being crazy, library books being ruined, and a whole lot of things that would probably faze me if I didn’t know that they were just par for the course.

(For more of this, head to Conversion Diary.)