The Best Mother

For all you mothers out there who know the ups and downs, joys and sorrows, and roller coaster ride of motherhood, I salute you. Emily turned thirteen this year and it has involved lots of time spent in her room, eye rolls, and, "whatevers." In addition, it has involved offers to help around the house, thank-yous for taking her to a multitude of parties and events, and "mom I need a hug" comments.

She has also started to show a maturity formerly not shown, so I have been able to leave her at home to work on her school work by herself. I have also been able to get her to do work on the evenings and weekends without complaint. This past weekend was such an occasion. I left her with instruction to work on history and  health, while I attended the SCBWI Ohio North Conference, so that she can forgo a day of school next Friday when we travel to Kentucky to celebrate her Great Aunt Zella's 85th birthday.

The conference was fantastic, I attended wonderfully informative sessions, caught up with friends, and left rejuvenated and ready to go back to the laundry, household chores, and my beautiful, funny, complicated teen.

So when it came time to grab the last book in my reading pile this week, I had to smile. Why? Because it was a book titled The Best Mother. The Best Mother is a tale of a girl who is unhappy with the mother she has and wishes to find a new mother that will give her own way all of the time. She believes she will find this new mother at either the park, the toy store, or the zoo. She questions many mothers only to find in the end that her old mother is really the best mother for her.

And you know what? I know that I am the best mother for Emily. I was not put on this earth to make her happy. I was put on this earth to teach her right from wrong,  to teach her about faith, to help her build her self esteem, to know she is loved, to expand her mind, to think for herself, to keep her safe, to learn how to make good choices, and so much more. And one day when she is a kind, compassionate, intelligent, productive part of society, she too will know I was the best mother.

Well, that about wraps it up for this week. Join me next week, same crazy time, same crazy channel. Also be sure to drop by Literacy Musings Mondays for more great blogs as well as my personal website Fun With Aileen where you will find more on reading, writing, and my very own chapter and picture books. And finally, you can find me on twitter if you want an extremely brief glimpse into my days.

Mothers, Bloggers, and Panera Bread

Yesterday I had the pleasure to join six other wonderful moms from around Ohio at the first ever BlogOh event. We met at Columbus which is pretty much smack dab in the center of the state and therefore not too much of a drive for most everyone. Another fun bonus was the fact that we met in the conference room of the local Panera Bread which was another first for this gal. I personally recommend the frozen berry drink!

Although I have been blogging for a couple of years now in a sort of hit or miss manner, I thought it would be great fun to attend this blogging event and maybe learn a little something along the way. The first thing I learned was that mom bloggers are way more serious about blogging then I ever imagined. I had no idea the extent of sway a really good mom blogger can have over an audience and I am in awe of the ladies I met.

Our organizer, Tonya, writes about her families travels @ her site The Traveling Praters. Jenilee the FaceBook friend who invited me, writes the most interesting antidotes about her family @ her site Our Goodwin Journey. Fellow mom, Stacey, writes a funny blog called I'm A Lazy Mom. Heather, from the Cincinnatti area, is working on starting a fresh blog. And co-bloggers Mona and Valerie blog about what's happening in Columbus on their site Social Moms Around Columbus. Although each attendee and their perspective blogs happen to be very different, what each lady has in common is an enthusiasm and joy for sharing their lives and connecting with others. Blogging takes hours of their time but it is done with such love and talent that the reader probably never takes thought into the effort that goes into each and every post.

What I personally came away with  from the experience was a group of new friends and a rejuvenated desire to blog and blog well. Not only does blogging help me connect with potential fans for my book, Fern Valley, but it also helps me to continue to perfect my writing. And if someone gets a chuckle out of something I say, finds a book worth reading, or a finds some useful tips to help them in their own writing journey, then that's just icing on the cake.

Signing off for now with wishes for a bright and beautiful day!