Thankful Blogging

Since I entered Bloggyrealm last February, I’ve been introduced to a world I had never before known. Yes, I sometimes read blogs, but they were blogs about my friends’ kids or random links a friend referred me to. I was never much of an internet surfer-girl. And I certainly was not much for social media. I begrudgingly got on Facebook, because I worked with high school kids and knew it was the best way to connect with them and understand their inside jokes. But I didn’t like it.

When I told my brother, Jason, that I was thinking about starting a blog, he giddily declared that I could not have a blog without a Twitter account. Come on. Seriously? But I did it. Because I do whatever my brother tells me to do.

What I’ve found is a land of beautiful: Thoughts, photos, humor. And mostly, smart women…because they’re everywhere.

So here is my Thankful Tuesday tribute to some of the blogs (which all happen to be women…I can’t help it) I most love and am most thankful to have found in my new internet life.

• Surprised by Joy — Caroline is thoughtful, readerly, in love with her friends, Wendell Berry poetry, and full of beautiful food ideas. I love to just scroll through her blog to find photos of the food she has loved into something delicious.
• Tout Est Des Roses — I secretly want to be Sara’s friend but I will never be cool enough. In her “About” section, she declares how she pretended to be Josephine March as a child. In my secret land of best friends, everyone dreamed of being one of the March girls and can shout out at any moment our favorite Little Women lines: “Jo, how could you? Your one beauty!” Not only does she have good taste in childhood novels, she is homeschooling her kids in a way I find fascinating (“Slow Parenting,” anyone?) and teaching them to love books. She hasn’t used paper napkins in three years and she has a lovely sense of style. Again, way too cool to be my friend.
• Visiting Tout Est Des Roses will take you over to Kacia + Robot: The Blog, where Kacia, proprietor of Coconut Robot on Etsy makes custom baby booties that you will drool over, wooden baby name tags and other lovely baby goodies. She is Adorable and her blog is about “life. love. dreams. art. God + me.”
• Elizabeth Esther is funny, smart, the mother of a large brood, and is a recovering Fundamentalist. Her stories of faith are difficult but hopeful and her stories of motherhood are full of humor and joy. I think she’s great.
• Rachel Held Evans has already been mentioned here. But I will say again that I’m thankful she’s writing. Her book Evolving in Monkey Town is going into its second printing and I understand why. She is using her voice with gentleness, integrity, and honesty and, in doing so, is drawing in a growing audience of disenfranchised young Christians longing to find someone who speaks their language: a commitment to a critical examination of the Christian faith and justice.

Those are a few. Enough work for you on this Thankful Tuesday. Hope you hop over to one of these little gems and find some thankfuls yourself. Let me know what they are.

Love,

Micha