Buried in Blogging Bliss

OK, I admit it...I've neglected my blog for a bit for two reasons.

One, because I'm working really hard at the sweatshop job (remember the hopefully-temporary one that's supposed to help me be available for the remainder of the interviewing for The Job I Really Want Till We're Out of Debt and Able to Homestead Fulltime?)

Two, because I've been happily occupied gaining from others' wisdom by reading THEIR blogs! (OK, you might see right through that noble sounding sentence and see the uglier truth that I'm addicted to reading them...and then following the trail of THEIR favorite blogs, and then following THEIR trails...) This has resulted in an overloaded bookmarking of Favorite Places links, which had to be trimmed to ones I enjoy best reading on a DAILY basis. That went ok, too, since when reading these, I'm in the presence of the Great and am educated, fascinated, encouraged, and entertained.

I've noted the similarities in many of the blog authors with my own likes and dislikes, right down to raising particular animals, preferences for organic this and that, and wonderful food creations that can be explored. I also love the fact that none of these, My Favorites, is a self-proclaimed guru of trendy and slick fad gardens, popular magazine-show foods, or snobbish adherence to a particular school of doing things. And ALL of the wonderful blog authors I love are Originals, be it a genius of improvisation, an experimenter with things-at-hand, NORMAL folks who have complex relationships and time demands, folks who may or may not be full-time "homesteaders" or cooks or gardeners, etc., but are full-time involved in the complexties of REAL life and are chronicling REAL life with certain guiding principles and goals in sight. These are folks who aren't very preoccupied with whether their drapes are nicer than their neighbors' and who might be considered quirky in some areas by your orthodox suburbanite. They are smart, witty, and wonderful folks (most often women, it seems, at least the ones I'm reading) who wrestle with home repairs, the vagaries of weather and budget, and going forward with their individual projects and goals with...humor, sometimes grumpiness, great strength, and a real comraderie in person and among the online community.

Hoorah to the REAL bloggers who make REAL life so much fun to share~!

I'll find time soon to put in the links to my (ever-expanding) list of favorites. I'm really new to blogging, and this will be a more amateurish attempt in comparison with many of these, but who cares? Just knowing there is such a group of greats to be inspired by is fun enough to keep on trying. I'd be doing it just for myself anyway. It's just so much more fun knowing I'm not the only "weird" one out there...weird" is the new normal?? ha ha

Here are some of my favorites, in no particular order and in no particular categorization. The Foodies will be mixed in with the Homesteaders and Organics, since they all overlap anyway! And if you know of any others that belong here, please send me the link. After all, the addict must have her fix...ha :)

1. Farmgirl Fare http://foodiefarmgirl.blogspot.com/
2. A Homesteading Neophyte http://a-homesteading-neophyte.blogspot.com/
3. Small Meadow Farm http://smallmeadowfarm.blogspot.com/
4. Path to Freedom http://pathtofreedom.com/
5. Bad Home Cooking http://badhomecooking.typepad.com/
6. Smitten Kitchen http://smittenkitchen.com/
7. The Unusually Unusual Farm Chick http://unusuallyunusualfarmchick.blogspot.com/
8. Not Eating Out in New York City http://noteatingoutinny.com
9. Slowly She Turned http://slowlysheturned.net/
10. Sugar Creek Farm http://www.osage.net/~themillers92/SCFBlog/scfblog.html
11. The Accidental Smallholder http://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/
12. South of the Gnat Line http://www.homesteadblogger.com/southofthegnatline/
13. Gracious Acres http://graciousacres2.blogspot.com/
14. Housepoor, Homesteading, Happy http://housepoorjo.blogspot.com/

Um, that's just to name a few....

Gotta go now...I spent too much time catching up on blog-reads while finding the links to each of these. You'll know where to find me ;-)