Blog Report: Mommyblog Bonanza

Generally speaking, we tend to skim over the local parenting-and-family-specific blogs, the “Mommyblogs,” on each week’s blog report. It’s not that we don’t like these kinds of blogs — far from it — but rather that their content tends to be so focused and specific that it’s almost impossible for a new reader to understand what any of the posts are about.

There’s a great depth of backstory here, you see; the regular — often daily — accounts of stay-at-home moms raising their kids. These are blogs where the big topic of the day might be a 4-year-old using nursery rhymes to keep from peeing in the car, or the impact of the end of flag football season. Unless you have some context for what’s going on, posting about a single update would be strange indeed.

This week, however, I’d like to give credit where it’s due, and salute a few of our local Mommybloggers for their dedication to not only their families, but to the local blogosphere.

A Window Into Our World … follows the developments with Summer Laney’s two girls, as well as her family at large. Most recently, her blogs have been about her father’s recent stroke and the start of his recovery.

Not surprisingly, the Bloggings of an Army Wife‘s Christan Trotter regularly posts about the trials and triumphs of being the wife of a member of the armed services. She also regularly posts photo series of her three kids on their various adventures.

Candice Brevard likes to tell us what it’s like to be Candice Day to Day on her blog. Recently, she posted a list of that day’s accomplishments that should be familiar to any parent. Let’s take a peek, shall we?

*Took the kids to school today, forgot Skylar’s show and tell, had to go back home and bring it to her… it was a hat, because H is for hat H says ha ha ha.
*Got home started laundry
*Got to work for profit strategies
*swept and mopped kitchen and bathrooms
*made the bed and straighten all the bedrooms
*worked on Thursday’s discipleship assignment
*picked kids up from school, tried to get Maddox to go pee pee in the potty…no such luck today, at all today. teachers say however that he does potty at school.
*Put away all the laundry
*fixed dinner. I grilled a chicken marinated in peppercorn and garlic marinade. grilled mushrooms with season all. mixed asian vegetables and broccoli rice …

We start to get into serious parenting skills over at Hanging With the Hoffmans, as blogger Barbara Hoffman writes about the challenges of keeping the lives of her four kids in some kind of order. She recently posted about being the target of a very goofy kind of revenge.

Although it hasn’t been updated in a over a month, Jayden’s Journey tells the rather compelling story of Norman and Angie Band, parents of several girls who desperately want to raise a boy. Eventually, this compulsion too them to Vietnam to adopt a toddler named Le Thang Hau — soon to become Jayden Walker Band — and documents every step along the way. Why not start this story at the very beginning?

Life One Day at a Time follows a more traditional Mommyblog style. Semi-mysterious blogger “CnJ’s Mommy” keeps the details few, but is more than willing to share when it comes to the kid pics. Take this example of her son and daughter having Halloween fun.

When it comes to cyber-savvy moms, you’d have a hard time finding someone more up-to-speed here in Sparkle City than Jonna over at Me, Myself and Jonna. In addition to writing about topics such as funky finger fungus and the lessons learned in three years of motherhood, she’s also one of the area’s most active Twitter posters.

My Journey is an interesting blog in that blogger Dawn “vannasmom” Scruggs doesn’t seem as kid-focused as some of her contemporaries, instead focusing on a variety of topics, including scrapbooking and other craft hobbies.

Not to be confused with another local parenting blog, One Day at a Time follows Mommyblogger Julie Thomas as she writes about topics like flu shots and high school reunions.

If anyone can rival the Hoffman family for parental one-upmanship, it’s Rita Schwarz over at Schwarz Family Sojourn, as she also wrangles her four-child family through the days, while trying to keep the faith at the same time.

Count Dawn over Show Me the Way in with the kid-photo-posting crowd. Of recent, she’s also been posting about her troubling issue with a liver mass. (Best of luck, Dawn!)

Although she’s technically a part of the club for covering family-related topics (like she does for us each Tuesday here on the Spark ), Sylvie Galloway’s Sylvie is a blogger is more than your average Mommyblogger. Why? Her kids are older, and she’s a newly appointed grandmother, so she’s got a little more perspective on the subject than other Mommybloggers who are caught up in the thrilling immediacy of it all. She can see the lighter side of the topic, like in this recent post about her newest excuse for typos; her granddaughter.

Teresa’s Thoughts is a blog we’re just learned about recently here at the Spark, so it’s probably not fair to try to generalize much about it. We are encouraged, however, to read this post about the massive savings she recently encountered at Publix.

Another blog we’ve just discovered is The Family Stone, run by blogger Candace Stone. Faith, kid photos and travel seem to be big on her list of topics. Interestingly, Candace Stone appears to be one of the most active blog-comment posters in the Spartanburg Mommyblogosphere (try saying that five-times fast), and so you’ll probably run across her thoughts on other blogs as well.

The Haynes Family documents the story of husband and wife Tracey and Tracy Haynes (which is enough for a blog right there, I’d say) as they raise raise their two daughters with an eye towards their faith. And soccer, of course.

We’ve only just learned about The Phillips, but new mom Carly seems to be cool with the photo-crazy crowd. The more photos the better, right?

And last, but certainly not least, we have Sparkle City Blog Award-winning Mommyblog The Pit Stop, written by Lydia Pittman. Kid photos? Oh, she’s got kid photos. Health-care anecdotes? You bet. Video? Oh, she’s got video.

The local Mommyblogging community in Spartanburg is vast and rich, and we’ve really only skimmed the surface of the subject here. Know of a local Mommyblog we’ve overlooked? Post a comment and let us know. We’ll add them to the Mommyblog section of Sparkle City Blogs so that others can learn about their stories.