Welcome to my 100th post party!! If you’re male…read the title to this post and type “ESPN” into the browser. Really. There’s nothing for you here. Stevie, you can stay. For all you women left, I’m so excited and have some fun surprises for you. First of all, I dressed up for the party. I washed, blow-dried and curled my hair. I put on cute boots and my favorite MAC eye shadow. Oh and a cute outfit too. (Okay I lied, I took these pictures after church yesterday) but since I’m normally sporting yoga pants and a pony tail….I thought I’d surprise you!
If I can just figure out how country girl gets those self-portraits to turn out so good.
Let’s see if I hold the camera like this and then….oh, wait I forgot to look up……
oh, just forget it…..on to my 100th post. Which is all about blogging. And how blogging has become my ‘well’. I take this analogy from a post I read here, and thought it summed up my feelings about blogging. This writer was an athiest and has now converted to catholicism. And a career woman now converted SAHM to three little ones. I am (was) a family practice doctor and am no longer working……so that I can stay at home with my children….and homeschool the two youngest. This transition for me has been the hardest one of my life. At least up to this point. I went from seeing and helping lots of people everyday…..to seeing and helping 6 people everyday. The same 6 people….who don’t always want or value my help. Let me first say that I LOVE what I’m doing now and am more than thankful to my husband that I am able to do it. That said, I have felt tremendous isolation and loneliness. Is there anybody else out there? who knows what it’s like to pray that you see a familiar face at the grocery store. At 5am? I’ve even made friends with the butcher. Great guy. Also named Steve. He saves me the ground sirloin that’s on sale. Am I crazy to be somewhat relieved when my faucet is leaking because at least the plumber will stop by? Okay maybe I was never that lonely…..but close. Then there you came. I was introduced to blogworld by my friend Denise. A thousand thank-yous Denise because I’ve met so many great friends. In the above mentioned article, Jennifer talks about how women have always socialized with each other….. and in ancient times, it was around the town well….to draw water to take care of their families. We need it. Each other, that is. Okay and water too. We were not designed by our Creator for isolation. So, what does a busy mom do who is homeschooling and preparing meals and taking care of her house and doing laundry, and feeling a little ‘thirsty’ on the inside? Does she sit with her loneliness and yearn for adult conversation? No. She blogs my friend. She goes to the well, for fellowship, for companionship, for the fresh cool psychological and spiritual water she is thirsty for. For me it looks something like this. I get up at 4:30 or five and after a little quiet time, I write my post for the day….or at least think about what I would write.
I then visit some of my favorite blogs. I laugh (Country Girl), I cry (NieNieDialogues), I learn (Restoring the Years), I think (Conversion Diary), I envy (The Nester), I wish I was a writer (Mabel’s House) or a great amatuer photographer (Confessions of a Pioneer Woman) and sometimes if I have something to say or some encouragement to offer….I comment. I’ve been amazed at the power of mom blogs. Just check out Confessions of a Pioneer Woman or Soulemama. Blogging is a powerful venue for the expression of ideas….and I’m happy to contribute my little two cents to the dialogue. I start my laundry and dishes and homeschooling and then around 10a at our first break, I check a comment from a sweet reader who wishes me well and loves my brownie recipe. At lunch, I do the same thing and maybe visit a few more sites I like. Just little 2 or 3 minute snippets at a time and soon, I feel connected. Part of a larger community of christian mom bloggers who may or may not work/homeschool. Sometimes I read serious blogs that challenge my thinking and make me do some research. A lot of times, I get fabulous decorating ideas and can’t wait to try them. But always…..always…..I feel thankful. That I’m not alone. That Jessica, Ang, Keli, Kelly, Brooke, Gina,Denise, JamieKnoxville, Cindy, Liz, Sandy, Carrie….and you and you and you are there.
I doubt the early bird will get the worm–kids usually like numbers bigger than one; but I’ll relish in the position knowing that I was the first to laugh and cry with you this day! Great post and so very, very true. I don’t know what I would do without the connections I have made and make daily through the world of the Internet–especially blogging. You keep it up, and I’ll be there at the 1000th post–hopefully, entering a better number for the scarf and mittens–and maybe some make-up and brownies?? Hugs to you and congratulations!
Edie,
I love your blog! You are the first blog I read every morning, and you never disappoint. I am a re-located East TN gal and when I read you I feel like I am right back in Knox-vegas! Thanks for your thoughts, humor, spiritualality, and especially this post. I can now explain to my dear husband what it is that I like so much about blogging.(I’ve only been blogging a month, and he doesn’t get it…or see why I stay up late to do it…or get up early…etc.)I’ll just have him read this little explanation. So congrats on your 100th post. I look so forward to the next 100!
Oh Edie, you tall, thin, beautiful woman you! I LOVE this post…sooooo much! I was shaking my head up and down the entire time I read. I am right there with you. This was one of my favorite posts OF ALL TIME! You’re the bomb and I love ya! Ang
Miss Edie,
Congrats on your 100th post! I am sitting here about to leave for work finishing my last few sips of coffee and reading your 100th entry. I love you so much and I’m so glad you’ve done the blog. Your a wonderful woman, mother, and friend. Our family loves you so much and I’m so thankful to know you. Thanks for making my mornings oh so much better. Love you! Cara
Well you did it!!! 100th…wow. Sis, I am thankful to have this time with you and that wonderful family of yours each day. Even though we don’t see each other everyday or everyweek, I feel like I get to spend time with you all through your blog. It makes the seperation better. I must say it though, Elea Grace can bust a move!!! Emme can too but Gracie, can shake it….You go girl!!! I am proud of you and what committment you have made to your family. You will never regret this time spent with them, even if somedays you think you might go crazy. Love you better than anything!
Oh Miss Edie, thanks for meeting me at the well and having so much to give when we get there. God is good and knows just what His faithful followers need. I have loved laughing with you, learning from you, crying with you, and enjoying sweet little moments of your life with you. Congrats of your 100th Blog! btw..you are skinny! much love!
I just left you a little sumpin, sumpin over at my blog. 🙂 Ang
Edie,
What a personal and heart felt post. I love that you aren’t affraid to share your feelings. I wish I was more like you. Being a SAHM can be very isolating. Making friends with the check out clerk at the grocery store, that was me too. A UPS delivery, was like the best. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, your beautiful scarf and your Egyptian moves.
You are just great…I love your blog…I love your sense of humor. I also love that black outfit with the brown shirt..so very cute!
-sandy toes
Hahahah! I love this! And do you know this post made me cry?! I was just telling Ang on the phone last night how I love blogging. The connections I’ve made with other Christian women are so special to me!
I can’t wait for my instruction video and do NOT let Ang sway you with an award! hee hee
Congrats on your 100th post. Although, I am a new stalker or i mean reader yours is one of the first I look at during my quiet time in the morning. Keep up the awesome work. I love reading your post.
Jen
This post made me a little misty eyed! I agree completely. Blogging is my daily joy, and at times, my lifeline to sanity. I’m always talking about a ‘blogging friend’ to Matt while he looks at me like I’m crazy.
And whatever. You are SO beautiful and skinny! 🙂
I love the dance!:)
That was Hilarious!Number 13 here, come on.( I Really like scarves).
I love the dance.:) Number 13 here. I REALLY like scarves!
I found your blog a few weeks ago and have been enjoying it greatly. I too love blogging and since we are a military family who moves way too often it keeps me stay connected to old friends and blog friends. I am wondering if you might tell me where the curtain/fabric behind you in the mirror photos is from…I think I need them. Help a blog sister..pleeeaaase!
Very poignant and heartfelt. Thanks for sharing the things of the heart today. Very appreciated by all, I’m sure. Count me as one. : )
M.L.
King Tut was cute but Dr. D and I are holding out to learn the east coast swing. Whenever I need an “Edie fix” I visit with you on your blog. You always make me smile and I love to see what is the latest delectable in the oven!!
By the way, I can celebrate my first ever blog comment on your 100th blog party!! Look out world I’m moving into the 21st century despite the fact I have 135 messages in my email inbox. OOPS
you are so beautiful inside and out. and i hope your day is as beautiful as you….
Hey Edie! Great 100th post…tell the girls that Anna loved the dancing!
Edie- Very sweet post and so true. Blogging is a fun little “outlet,” and heaven knows I wouldn’t be trying some of the fun recipes, knee deep in projects, challenged or reading some of the books without my sweet blogging sisters. You are doing the most important job you will ever do! Your girls are going to remember these years with their mama and be oh, forever grateful! Now, keep up your posting, and I am across town reading!!!! hugs and love!
Thank you girls….thank you all so much. For everything. Now, The girls have picked a winner. Elea is 6 and Emme is 8 so they compromised and chose number 7….which happens to be Ang. But I love you all and am so thankful to meet you here…and at your blogs everyday. Love and hugs and blessings!
Edie
Yes, why is it that teenagers are so naturally talented at getting the good self portraits. My 14 yo changes her default pic daily. Sometimes twice a day. 🙂
Aw, come on- that video was brave. And fun. What a mom!
I share your sentiments about blogging. What a well written post.
Found you through Mabel’s….What an awesome post. I know what you mean about the blogging community. What lucky girls you have to watch their mom kick it with King Tut for the world to see. Happy 100th post! I’ll be back. Cat ^..^
Hi Edie,
I found you through Mabel’s House and truly enjoyed this post. You are such a beautiful lady and Happy 100th post party to you!
Blessings – Debbie
all i know… you are FUNNY…
i felt like you walked right into my little head and pulled out some of my thoughts! i would read a little… my jaw would drop “YES”… read a little more… “she is so right on”… LOVED this post! and you ARE a GREAT writer! 🙂
xo
found you through the ever so lovely Liz! 🙂
I popped over to visit your blog after reading Liz at Mabel’s House mentioned your post.
This is a topic I’m very passionate about. I raised our children during the 1970’s when women were told that only the stupid stayed at home with their children.
I felt very isolated. I had 3 kids in 4 years. We were far away from all family. NO ONE was willing to babysit 3 kids. I wasn’t organized enough in the beginning to get all the kids dressed, fed and me too to get us to church so we didn’t have that either.
Then I read a book that explained women’s history in terms of the work that she did. I read how women had community with each other. Meeting at the well, supporting one another, giving and taking advice. We women crave the company of each other.
Then during the 1950’s women became isolated from one another through technology. We all bought refrigerators — no need for the ice man to make his deliveries any more. We bought washers and dryers so we no longer hung our clothes on the line and visited over the back yard fence. The list goes on in similar fashion. Women’s labor became easier through technology and so we were told that the greatest thing we could do was to keep these appliances and our homes clean.
No wonder women got mad and said “No”. But the mistake was in thinking that going into the workplace was the answer. We were looking for community and tried to find it among men.
Reading that book gave me a sense of an invisible community. A community of hundreds of years of women who had the same values that I did. It eased my loneliness enough that I could be a little less unhappy.
Don’t make apologies for making friends with the butcher. That is what women did — get to know the people in her community. The baker, the butcher, the ice man, the milk man, her dressmaker, her neighbors.
And now today — with the Internet and blogging we are again the community that God designed us to be. We draw our strength daily from one another. I am always encouraging women to start reading and writing blogs.
Rita, getting down from soap box now. 🙂
I just found your blog today but I am loving it already! I am adding you to my Google reader so that I can keep up with you!
PS-Can you do a tutorial on knitting? I have needles and threads and books…and no idea what to do. Help!
[I was blessed to find you through my dear friend Liz at Mabel’s House.]
Now that I’ve gotten the business out of the way, I want to say Edie that your post brought me to tears. I’m a wife, not a mom but I am self employed (wedding photographer) and working from home I deal with a lot of loneliness and feelings of being disconnected too. Like you, the blog world has been such an encouragement to me. Absolutely a well (I love that you chose this analogy as it is so perfect). There are so many times I just feel like an island and in those times often one blog or another has been a tremendous uplift for me. Today, your blog is my blessing and I am grateful. Thank you for blessing others, thank you for taking part in this human/computer network. It’s crazy sometimes, but there are pieces of gold if you sift through the river long enough. Just like the gold rush, you don’t always get rich quick…but the wait is worth it when you do!
God be with you.
WOW Edie…you have gotten great comments! Great post! I can totally relate with being home and alone..thanks for sharing your heart and what many women feel. Maybe this blogging is way to minister to women who miss the well or getting together to quilt. Reading blogs have inspired and encouraged me. Thanks for sharing.
PS..you are really skinny & strong; and I am sore from lifting weights with ya!!
This was a fantastic post. It really sums up how I feel. I wish I had had blogging when I moved to Colorado two years ago and spent the 1st six months feeling so isolated I would look out my front window and wish my neighbor would stop riding her bike with her daughter and come to my house. (Turns out she was new to town and had similar wishes about me…and now she is my dearest friend here. Lesson there, right?) Anyway, my point about blogging is that I totally understand where you are coming from Edie, and that I agree. You have precious little time and the blogs you choose to visit have to “connect”…so I feel glad to know you! It was fun learning a little more about you too. Didn’t know you were (are) a family practice physician! Thanks for sharing your heart!
Carrie
Hi Edie!
There are a lot of terrific camera choices around $1,000. Personally, if you can spend that much and you don’t need the look of a dSLR [meaning you aren’t going to be a pro with a studio] then I would absolutely go for a mid to top range leica such as this:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/586687-USA/Leica__D_LUX_4_Digital_Camera.html
If you really just want a dSLR then probably the 40D or Rebel XSi or XTi by Canon, such as this:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/518207-REG/Canon_1901B004_EOS_40D_SLR_Digital.html
Canon and Leica are two brands that you just can’t go wrong with!!
Good luck! And if you need any other tips or hints or more info…don’t hesitate to email. I love to help people jumping into the photography realm. kirsten@visible-images.com
The book that I refer to in an earlier comment is “Never Done: A History of American Housework” by Susan Strasser.
Thank you for your kind remarks left at Quirky Cottage.
Rita
I stumbled upon this after reading Liz’s post and so glad I did. Being a SAHM myself, I share your sentiments exactly. Its so good to know I’m not the only one who feels this way – and that IS what is so great about the blogging world.
Congrats on the 100th post.
I love reading your blog. You have a beautiful spirit. I'm a SAHM too and can relate to the loneliness. Sometimes the mail carrier is the only adult I see all day. You inspire and entertain me daily!
Wow-I found you through Just Something I Made, and I'm grateful to have found another kindred blogging spirit. I'm looking forward to getting to know you better by reading your previous 99 posts, and will look forward to the new ones in the coming days, weeks, months…
God bless you!
Anna
http://www.annasplaceofholding.blogspot.com
I just found your blog and am in awe. I love your southern charm and can't wait to read more. I am new to the blogging world and a little overwhelmed by all the cool stuff I am seeing. It is an entire new community. I am a Texas mom and looking for Christain moms to be inspired with to do this life.
Congrats on your 100th blog.
Nocona
thoughtsfromthetreadmill.blogspot.com
Great post – thanks so much for the "real" – I love hearing about your awesome adventures! and enjoy seeing that other homeschool families are also their "own kind of norm." God bless
Well I’m not sure you’ll even get this comment… you did write it more than two years ago; but I’m just discovering blogs. Somehow I stumbled onto yours just after Thanksgiving and have been creeping through your old posts regularly. Does that give you the heebie-geebies? Anyway, I feel like I’m catching up with a new neighbor. I keep saying things like, “I have two daughters too. I want to homeschool my children. I am Southern. I am Lutheran too. Now, I’m recognizing that I’m probably ADD.” Your list of ADD qualities made me laugh out loud! Anyway, this post moved me to comment. To say thank you for sharing your life with us out in computer land. I pray for you and your family during this difficult time.
King Tut! I haven’t thought of that in ages-! All of you are priceless dancing 🙂 Thanks bunches 🙂