A few of my favorite posts of 2011

I'm sick.  The girls are sick.  There has been no school or outside of the house activities for over a week.  My head is so full of snot, I am pretty sure if I bent over to clean up the shreds of wrapping paper littering our floor I would fall over.  So.  No writing (or cleaning) from me.  Just reading.

If you're housebound as well and looking for good reading, here's my totally non-comprehensive listing of favorite blog posts from the year.  These are some of the posts that stuck with me, for whatever reason.  I am not listing amalah or dooce or anyone else with a quadrillion readers already.  Perhaps you will discover your new favorite blog.  They are listed in totally random order because I tried to alphabatize them and went cross-eyed.

This year I discovered Ann Wyse.  Her subtext?  Is so up my alley.  And when she wrote about moving away and being moved away from, or holding onto babyhood just a little longer, I was right there with her.

Check out my local friend Beyond Diapers.  I love this meditation on skin and this one on homesickness, the existential kind.

I happen to think that Erica is a spectacular twitter-er.  But her blog, well, that's great stuff too.  The girl is funny.  SO funny.  So honest. 
 
I've met B, over at Late Night Feedings, in person.  She's just as lovely as she seems.  This year I've lived vicariously through her and her new baby and I love this post about the baby-kid hybrid.

Okay, she has a million readers but still, if you don't already, read Swistle, who's always at her best when illuminating the little stuff that's actually huge.  Like this recent post about the differences between being gifted vs. ahead.  Or this perfect post, or this one with the best title EVER - OH NO WAIT -  THIS is the best title ever.  And if you want to freak right the eff out, go ahead and read this post.

Mo Mommy-  I do love when she puts on her thinking cap or gets poetic or shares her copious stores of wisdom.  She also has some of the most adorable, funniest kid pictures ever, like the last shot in this post.  

I love Princess Nebraska and you will too, if only for her hysterical Advent posts this year, including my favorite one.   But also her important questions, and posts where she feels like my sista and for when she makes me laugh and nod my head in agreement so hard my eyeballs start to make a loud squishy sound.

My friend Twisterfish started out her blog with a bang this year with polished posts like this one.   Her writing is deeply felt and opinionated.  What's not to love?

If there is a heaven, Doing my Best is going there for sure, not only for her Crappy Day Present exchanges ("Making the world a better place, one crappy day present at a time!") but also for her informative, necessary posts about cleaning toilets and dishwashers and for letting us see the beauty that is this homecoming.

I have decided Marie Green is my real and true friend, even though we've never met.  Because blogs are real life, okay?  They are windows in our real lives; we share our ups and our downs.  If I happened to live close enough, I would have totally broken down her door to hold her new baby.   We're all here, she said this year.  What a joy it is to have shared this part of her journey.

Another local friend:  Rebecca at Expedition Kids.  When she writes, I swear I can hear her talking, which is, I think, one of the best compliments to give a writer.  Check out "I am a Mother" and "Going to the doctor is like going for a job interview".
 
Hillary and Michelle at Not Raising Brats remind us that Disney Eats Brains (HA!), that the little heartbreaks are good training grounds, and moving on is almost always harder for us.

Whimsy.  She always, always uses her words like delicate sculptural tools.  Read her, remember, rejoice, and definitely envy her daughter's wardrobe.

Another discovery of mine this year: Pamela. I keep commenting on her blog about wanting her to write a book, by which I mean her words deserve a large audience and the permanence of the printed page. But it is not my intention to malign blogging, because it gives us gifts like this, and this, and this.  Those words don't have to be in book form to make them worthwhile, to make them magic.

Sarah, over at Semi-Desparate Housewife, is wiser than her years. She and I share an addiction to chocolate but even when we are so, so different (READ:  I am not a clean freak), I find her take on things incisive and always funny.

Speaking of funny: Tess.  Her blog is brilliantly, intimidatingly hysterical.  See: her treatise on Bucking the Rider.  And the laughing from this post woke my husband from a deep slumber.

Check out Amy.  I'm a fan of hers, as she has a gift for so often wrapping beautiful words around pain over at Chicken and Cheese.

After meeting her in Jamaica in 2010, Stephanie at (In)significant Detail, continues to inspire me with her crystal clear posts on subjects like fake spring and next steps.
 
D e v a n over at All D's sent me such an awesome Crappy Day Package and made my week a whole lot brighter with this post.

Oh crap, I'm running on fumes here but I haven't run out of inspiring bloggers!

Charming Gardener's thoughts on her next act.  Parking at Home has had a rough year, made better by a well-timed Crappy Day Package. Issa, on going off her anti-depressants.  Purdy Bird, on adjusting to life with two kids.  Gina, with a post that includes THE BEST caramel corn recipe, to which my expanded waistline can attest.  Alice had some of the best Halloween costumes I've ever seen.

Okay, my linking finger is officially broken.  Tell me:  who else should I be reading?