This was my first time joining the Ultimate Blog Party, hosted by 5 Minutes for Mom, and it was so fun to meet new people! So many people visited here *waving hi to new followers and subscribers* and I found some inspiring and encouraging bloggers to follow too!

• Prairie Lily Arts Susan’s blog is absolutely beautiful. Her photos are breathtaking, and her love of God and family inspire and encourage me in the hard work of motherhood. Finding her made the entire party totally worth it!
• Sneak Peek — Janis writes about the adventure, fear, challenge, and reward of raising a special needs child as a single mom. She had a really tough week last week — got some very discouraging news about her little guy. Visit and send her some love, will you?
• Who Says 8 Is Enough? (not this mommy or daddy!) — Oh. My. Word. Debi is officially my hero. She loves God, has a fantastic sense of humor, takes beautiful photos, and is a mom, foster mom, and adoptive mom of nine children, including twins and multiple children with special needs. She makes my energy level look like a coma.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get to “party” as much as I had hoped last week. Last week we were hit by a double-whammy: four of the five of us caught a cold or began spewing snot in reaction to all the blowing pollen, and my husband headed out of town for a three-day conference. So I was single-parenting, caring for sick kids, and trying to get myself better too. Oh yeah, and wrestling with some pretty significant spiritual questions too (more on that in a later post). Anyway, all you single moms have my utmost respect and admiration.

My youngest is still in high-snot-production-mode, an entire week later, but at least he’s sleeping again. And that means I am sleeping again. And that means I can start returning all your visits and sweet comments during nap time this afternoon! Woo hoo!

How was your week?