Friday, June 27, 2014

Amazing Reads: The 6/27 Edition

It's been a while since I've shared my amazing reads of the Interwebs with y'all and so I figured I'd give the book recs a short break and talk posts with you today.

So first I'd like to bring up the topic of trophies for kids. I tried to comment over at Brittany Bullen's place this afternoon but I'm not able to. But she has an intriguingly titled post up that is a letter to all coaches: Dear Coaches, Please stop giving my kid trophies.

It's interesting, and something I talk about often with my husband. One of my best friends and I talk about it A LOT, too. The thought process changes often, but at the same time we fall on similar sides of the idea. I say, yes, I get it when the little ones get their trophies, sometimes they need the reinforcement, especially the teeny tiny ones. But older kids? Don't they need to learn that trophies aren't for everyone? I think so - but I also think there's more to it. It could turn into an entire post, so I'll just encourage you to read the one I've linked to and let me know your thoughts about it. Or don't and let me know anyway. I'm up for chatting about it. 

Next there's this beautiful and heavy post over at When At Home titled Are You Lonely, Mama?

Read it and weep. Or don't. But you'll feel it. 

I think every.single.mother out there has felt this at some point in their life. Enough so that HuffPo picked up the piece. I'm just deciding to link out to Kristen's website so she gets the hits. We bloggers need to look out for each other like that. You know how it is. 

Anyway - it's so hard. This motherhood thing. Sometimes we feel like we have the friends we need and want and sometimes? Well, we just don't. Sometimes we find ourselves connecting with old friends in a way we wish we had every minute of every day.  Sometimes we find ourselves longing for friendships we can count on and miss that they've been there all along. And sometimes we simply hope that our friendships will last forever.

So yeah. I talk about friendship a lot. 

Could you tell? 

Lastly I found this great post over at Keeping up with Mrs. Smith. Her post is titled Mrs. Smith sucks at keeping score. And it's like we have the same brain. A little bit, anyway. 

It's all about the competitive nature of blogging and how that takes some of the joy out of it. I'm fortunate in that I don't have those kinds of bloggers in my life. I just ignore them, I guess. For me I know they're out there - I also know that I'm NOT one of them. 

There - that felt good. I love sharing the love to people across the web. It just feels nice to spotlight people that aren't me. And yes, I did my fair share of spotlighting myself a bit, too. It's just how it works. Sometimes you might find something you've missed or you're a new friend and so you'd like to see what's important to me. Or whatever. It's a force of habit, if I'm being honest. And this is the first time in a while I've made my own links open in the same window. How do you prefer that? Do you like new tabs/windows so you can finish what you're reading and then click to the other page or what, exactly? Let me know, okay?

So - how about you? What have you been reading and connecting with this week? Fill me in. And if you have something you've written you'd like me to see and possibly spotlight - send it my way! I'd love to check it out. TGIF, mah peeps. Catch you next time!






6 comments:

  1. Andrea, thanks so much and thanks for the heads up about my comments! I'll go check that out now.

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  2. Thanks for you roundup. It makes finding the best on the web easy to find.

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  3. I think the blogosphere is a wonderful, fun, interesting and supportive place. But I've certainly crossed paths with an awful lot of toxic bloggers too. Way too many. I choose to just turn around, walk away and concentrate on all the talented writers in the community.

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  4. I've been lucky so far. No toxics here! Just the most supportive, encouraging bloggers you could possibly find! And thank you for the recommendations! I'm heading over now . . .

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  5. I've been lucky so far. No toxics here! Just the most supportive, encouraging bloggers you could possibly find! And thank you for the recommendations! I'm heading over now . . .

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  6. Thank you for sharing these great reads!
    As far as the trophies, I completely agree with you. The tiny kids need to know what it feels like to win and the older kids need to earn their trophies.
    I have come across a couple of toxic bloggers but most of them are so nice and I want to meet them all in real life.

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