Darn. I missed it. Yesterday was Thank You Fairy Blog Mother Day. Thank you MommaK for kindly reminding us.

To those who aren’t familiar with this holiday, it is the day you thank the lovely folks who inspired you to blog, or helped you find comfort and guidance in the process. At least that’s the way I understand it.

Though she is more of an inspiration than a Fairy Blog Mother, the first person I have to mention is Catherine Newman, who writes an internet column for ParentCenter called Bringing Up Ben and Birdy. She also has a new book out, Waiting for Birdy. It is getting fantastic reviews. I’m almost certain she has never read my blog. She has 250,000 readers. I started reading her column when I was 8 months pregnant with Hannah. I found myself laughing out loud at a time when nothing else was very funny to me. (Let’s just say I’m not exactly pleasant to be around when I’m 8 months pregnant.) She is an amazing writer. Her journal made me believe that it is possible to write about the incredible high’s and low’s of parenting without having it be cliche. I started to pay more attention to the details of my daily life as a mother, started listening and remembering the words Rachel was using, and suddenly I was writing in my head. I started journaling.

Many, many months later, I read an article in the New York Times about moms that blog. I also learned I could start a blog without knowing anything about HTML. I opened one, copied my journal entries in it (for my family), and started writing new posts. No one but my family was reading it, but I was writing daily, so I kept up.

The blogworld, however, seemed a little cold and lonely to me. I didn’t know any bloggers and what I was reading seemed very snarky. I enjoy reading snarky in small doses, but it’s just not me. So I was feeling very alienated.

Then I found Michele Agnew’s site. I have already written about Michele here. I will just say now that I don’t know that I would still be blogging without her. Single-handedly she has created a vibrant, friendly community of very different people, all creative. Everyone is invited to be a part of it. All you have to do is follow the ground rules when you are on her site: be respectful of each other. So thank you, Michele. You are a fairy god mother to us all. I consider you a friend. If you have not met Michele, go over and meet her. You will feel welcome.

I don’t know whether to call this next group Fairy Blog Mothers or Fairy Blog Friends. They all came through my site when I was Michele’s site of the day. Actually, I think Paul Sveda came a little earlier. He saw a this post expressing my frustration with not knowing HTML. He was sick at the time. He offered to help and pointed me in the right direction. Then three blogging moms came through, put their arms around me and said “let’s be friends.” I can always count on them to help out when I need advice, or to just leave a comment even when I’ve just written the most boriing post ever. They are: MommaK, J & J’s Mom, and Average Mom.

Now, a month or more later, there are many more of you I can count on to come and read and say hello. I want so much to name all of you. I know exactly who you are. I am afraid that if I try I will leave someone out. So, when I get new template up I will start a regular feature that will allow me to thank each of you individually.

I will thank you all because I put my heart here on my blog. I put it here because even my closest friends don’t want to hear all of this stuff (Who has time?). And though I am often too intense, or sentimental, or boring, or cheesy, or goofy, you come back again and again and you muster up comments to let me know that you like me anyway. Thank you all, old friends and new!

if you are a lurker, please take this opportunity to introduce yourself. You may then feel free to go back to lurking and I will know to feel grateful to you, too.