Recommended

Regular visitors will notice that I have recently added a recommended list with links to five blogs over on the right. In the absence of any other inspiration in a busy, work-oriented and not particularly interesting week, I thought I would take this opportunity to say why I believe you should take a moment and check out the five sites.

The first is the blog "How Did I Get Here" by our friend "Stinkerbellmama." Not just a friend, she also appears to be, at the moment, our future family member as Owen has been best friends with her daughter since before they could walk and said daughter and Owen have talked frequently over the years of their desire to get married to each other some day. Things even got to the point where Owen had names picked out for the two sets of twins he was planning for them to have. The first set is going to be named Alice and Cooper (no he does not know who Alice Cooper is - just an amusing coincidence). The second set is slated to have the more unfortunate names of Coasterball and Googly-Goo. I will admit that now that these names have had a chance to roll around in my head for several months, I am starting to find them sort of cool in a quirky, futuristic way - kind of like Dweezil and Moon Unit Zappa. Doubtful anyone stuck permanently with the name Googly-Goo would feel the same. Anyway, Stinkerbellmama, although she posts even less frequently than myself, cranks out some entertaining and thoughtful rants when the mood strikes that are definitely worth a read.

The second link is to Laid Off Dad. Although I have had trouble finding other daddy-blogs that I much enjoy, LOD is an exception. Funny, well-written and all around good reading.

Nothing But Bonfires I read simply to revel in Holly Burn's outstanding writing. I don't know what it is about her writing style that resonates with me but I just love it. It is just so lyrical and good that even when she is on about shoes or hairstyles or, even worse, the Bachelor, things I could not care less about, I read every word just for the sheer joy of it.

Next is Post Secret. Not a blog, per se, this site bills itself as a "an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard." A different group of postcards with secrets is posted once a week - every Sunday. It is sometimes funny, often heartbreaking, and always thought-provoking (and addictive!).

Lastly is Sweet Juniper. With the (sort of) demise of Neal Pollack's Alternadad blog as he focuses his writing talents on higher paying regular writing gigs at high-profile parenting sites, Sweet Juniper has to be considered the premier parenting blog out there. In fact, you would be hard pressed to find another parenting blog that does not link to it. And why shouldn't they, I say, as the Sweet Junipers' are consistently brilliant (and prolific!