Support a fellow Momma and Chica

I started Bloggin' back when I was preggers with Mimi.  After having her and spending hours a day nursing with no cable TV, led me to reading blogs and joining the "mom" community on youtube.  Through these two outlets I've met some really great Mommas that I would truly consider my friends.

I first got in touch with Courtney from KyleandCourt in 2009, when she left me a really uplifting comment when I found out Mimi was breech and that I would be having her via csection.  Since then I've met her several times "in real life" and now I've even moved to Texas and get to see her all the time.  I consider her a dear friend and thank God for bringing her into my life.  She's one of only a few people I feel like I can be myself around without judgement.

I also started following Meg from BringingupBumble at about the same time as Courtney.  This girl is so sweet, so honest, and so heart warming.  I'm sure you follow her already, if you don't go check her out.  She leaves me the most delightful and uplifting comments of support and humor on almost every blog post of mine.  I want so much to meet her and little Carter someday!  Hopefully I will, because my brother in law lives in her town...now if I can only bring myself to visit my brother in law and his wife so I can finally meet Meg! lol  

I don't even know how I found the infamous Jess Craig, but I've been hooked on her blog for years now (well as long as she's had it!).  I have watched her grow from a new mom, blogging about the days where she doesn't know how to deal with motherhood, to enduring a lengthy separation from her military husband, starting her own design business, now and Aunt to little baby Q!  I love her brutal honesty about how she tackles losing weight, toddler issues, wife issues, and feelings about life, inadequacies and success.  I love her cooking posts, and beautiful photography.

Now I could go on all day listing more of the mommas i've connected with through blogging and youtube.  Please dont' feel like you're not special to me because I didn't mention you today.  My point is that the online mom community, even though it can be a ruthless place of overly constructive criticism---it can be a place of support and bonding and friendship.  A place where we can connect with each other over our common interests and support each other when we're really in need of some.

Jess really needs our support now ladies.  If my memory serves me correctly, she started blogging while her husband was deployed and she was home full time with her small infant (Wyatt).  From humble beginnings, her blog has grown into a place where she shares about parenting, cooking, weightloss, marriange, photography, and now graphic design.  She has a massive following and continually was updating her header with fun new creative graphics depicting photos of her with Wyatt or fun quirky graphics. She carved out a niche as a blogger header and button designer, where she makes a small income at home while watching Wyatt full time.  She wants to travel to the Altitude Design Summit this January in Salt Lake City Utah.  I won't do the description justice, so check out the summit description here on their site.  This conference will help Jess come together with other bloggers, connect with marketers, and discuss how she can make her blog grow and thrive.   Anything I an do to help another mom carve out a career where she can be at home with her baby I'm game for.  Growing her blog helps her become sustainable all while getting to raise her child, you don't get that opportunity a lot in the US.

Help a girl out.  
I don't normally support things like this--but Jess deserves this!  When I was just losing my weight last winter and was falling out of my size 16 and 14 cloths, with no real wiggle room in my budget for all new stuff--Jess sent me a GIGANTIC box of her clothes that she wore when she was a size 12 before she lost her weight.  All sorts of cool stuff from Gap and H&M and old Navy.  She never even asked for anything in return. She payed it forward--now I am.  I've donated $40 to Jess to help her go on her trip.
If you have any wiggle room in your budget, and a soft spot in your heart for a fellow mamma, blogger and chica, consider donating to her "trip fund."  It's safe easy, here the link.

Thanks for reading and have a great day!
(Now I'm gong to get back to work on my dissertation so I can help pay the bills someday!)