The Women I Spend my Mornings With

One of the things I love about being a shepherd is the routine it imposes in my life. When I open my eyes in the morning I know exactly what I'll be doing for the next couple of hours- getting water, carrying hay, portioning out dog food and grain. The same goes for the evening. Whatever else the day may throw at me, I know how each day will begin and end.

Some people might chafe at that kind of sameness, but to me it is a great source of comfort. When I was going through my divorce a few years ago, knowing that the sheep had to be fed was sometimes the only thing that got me out of bed in the morning. Everything in my life was changing but my flock remained my primary responsibility and they kept me going. 

My desire for sameness is a source of hilarity to most of my family and friends. My mom insists that, as a child, I would have worn the same clothes to school every day if she hadn't insisted on fresh one. Even now, when Patrick is out of town on weekends, I'm likely to make myself the same thing for dinner three or four nights in a row until I am well and truly sick of it.

My desire for routine doesn't end when I reach my office in the morning. Everyday I start my work day by reading my favorite blogs and I thought I would share some of them with you.

NotMartha.org is always my first stop in the morning. Many of you already know about Megan at NotMartha because she helped launch our Yarn CSA by giving away a share to one of her lucky readers. (Congrats GoodKarma!) The thing I really like about NotMartha is that Megan writes about so many different things. She's crafty. She cooks. She is an amazing online shopper and she puts together links like nobody's business. She is the inventor of the salad bowl made entirely of bacon and recently wrote a hilarious post about the steps involved in cleaning up the remains of a broken compact florescent light bulb. Megan's blog is everything a blog should be and I highly recommend it to the two or three of you who haven't discovered it yet.

Angry Chicken is always the second stop in my morning blog stroll. Written by mother of three, published author and all around superwoman Amy Karol, Angry Chicken is chock-a-block full of sewing projects, recipes, funny stories, beautiful photos and cupcakes. 

Next up is soulemama, written by the impossibly young, endlessly creative Amanda Soule. Amanda's first book is being released in a couple of weeks, and if you haven't pre-ordered it yet from Amazon, you should. 

Amanda lives in Maine with her three amazing children that she homeschools, or, more accurately unschools. I don't have children (yet) but I am completely smitten by the Soule brood and hope to have a child even half as clever and creative as they are. Amanda's writing is thoughtful and thought-provoking and I know you will fall as in love with her family as I have. As an added bonus, Amanda takes beautiful photographs and never fails to inspire me to push my own photography further.

Do you have your own list of can't-miss blogs? Share them with the rest of us in the comments section.