Why Your Mom Friend Is Choosing to Hang Out With Other Moms Over You

This next sentence is going to ruffle some feathers. (And I'm not sorry about it.) If you aren't a mom, your mom friends are choosing not to hang out with you.

Yes, you read that right. Have I made my non-mom readers mad? Let me explain.

Going out with a baby is hard. It used to take me 20 minutes to leave the house. Now I need at least an hour, more like two if I'm going to go anywhere for any length of time. So those last minute texts to meet up from out non-mom friends? They aren't happening. In fact, we feel guilty about saying no and sometimes even frustrated/angry that you, dear non-mom friend, think we could pull that kind of feat off. Also? We really, really want to be there. Those last minute "let's hang out!" texts are a brutal reminder of a life we wont have again for 15 or so more years.

Let's say you do give us proper warning for a hang out. We're so excited to see you! But dangit, our baby is teething and consistently interrupts our conversation. You don't know if you should stop talking or speak over the screams. It's awkward. We moms are only listening to you with one ear. The rest of our concentration is going to getting this infant to stop making ALL THE NOISE and the rest? Well, we're scanning the restaurant to see how many people we're pissing off, and at what point we need to bail to keep from getting food thrown at us.

When *this face* appears, your quiet baby time is limited. Or, just over.

When we go out with other moms, it's like magic. Other mom's know when baby reaches *that octave* and she should stop talking. She usually pitches in at the first sign of baby-distress with a toy from her diaper bag or even a piece of her sandwich to keep the baby happy. If the fussing is so bad that we have to leave, she gets it. It's nothing personal, she's not overly disappointed, we just reschedule for a better day.

It comes down to this: our fellow mom friends spring into action. They're "do-ers" and damn, that's so helpful! Our non-mom friends ask questions. "Do you want some help?" We can tell that you don't really want to, or don't know how to, or are just trying to be nice, or maybe all three of those. But our mom friends? They know we need help, they know how to help us and they'll do it no matter what the task. Baby blew out her diaper? Our mom friends already have the wipes out and grab the dirty clothes (yes, they grab the poopy clothes) to be put in a plastic bag for later cleaning.

I mean, hey. It takes a village.

Non-mom friends, we moms do indeed love you. Love you. One day, when all of this passes, we'll be able to go out with you again. We can talk about fashion and we'll actually be able to contribute to the conversation. One day. But for now, we need our mom-friends on all sides of us to push us through the work of raising young children.

Top Five Bloggers of the Week

About three months or so before I launched this blog (almost one year ago!) I was desperately seeking other bloggers to follow so that I could get some ideas of what I'd want my own space to look like.

I was so green to the blogoshpere, I didn't even know where to find them! And then I found bloglovin, but didn't know how to find bloggers with similar interests and fun writing styles. You know, the bloggers you want to follow.

Well, you're in luck. In the spirit of promoting other bloggers and spreading the love, I'd thought I'd make it easy for you. Here are my Top 5 favorite blog posts this week (along with some of my all-time favorite bloggers that you'd be cray cray not to follow)

Best Blog Posts of the Week - in random order, of course:

1) Camp Patton || Prepare The Way
This warrior mama is due with baby #5 in June... Which will leave her with five kiddos under the age of five! How she maintains sanity, much less the time to blog, is beyond my one-baby-seriously-considering-adding-number-two mind. She moms, she blogs, and she's hysterical to boot. She talks about empowering her own minis to make their activity bags for church. I'm totally stealing this idea for when my own mini(s) decide wet wipe origami is for the birds. Currently, wet wipes are the bees knees for toys, so I'm in the clear!

Grace from Camp Patton

2) Meet at the Barre || Don't Sell Yourself Short - The Dark Side of Blogging
First, Amanda is a fashion queen. She can take just about any image (of a sweater, boots, skirt, etc) and find where to buy it and how much it costs. How's that for internet skills?! In this blog post though, she talks about making money blogging. She and I had been exchanging texts about this exact topic and I was so glad to read this post! Amanda has pretty much grown her blog from a hobby to a business in a year, and I love it when she shares tips, tricks and secrets for the rest of us to follow!

Amanda from Meet at the Barre

3) Miranda Writes || Spicy, Tangy Deviled Eggs
Deviled eggs are one of those classic foods that everyone loves, and everyone forgets that they love. Miranda incorporated some horseradish into her recipe, which I find genius. She's smart, savvy, and links some of the best reads to her blog (seriously, get in on her coffee chats - you wont be disappointed!) Miranda Writes will keep you sane just like Miranda Rights will keep your arrest record safe... See what I she did there?

Miranda from Miranda Writes

4) Life Could Be A Dream Blog || Growing Baby #2 30 Week Update
I know not everyone likes reading pregnancy updates. But if there's one thing you know I love, it's real, honest mama's. Not the ones who say pregnancy is the best thing ever and being a mom is Jesus-level joy (although it can be!). Jana broke down her update post with a dose of honesty I admire through and through! She also has fantastic recipes, a Tuesday fashion link up and is always interesting and insightful in her posts. Put her on your rotation, stat.

Jana from Life Could Be A Dream Blog

5) Making Mrs. M || Fill Up Your Makeup Bag for Under $50
No best blog post would be complete without my girl Jaelan. She was my first follower. We text each other all day, bouncing ideas off each other, sharing best-practices and new blog resources with one another. She's a beauty guru, but is also well-spoken on a number of other topics. She wrote the first ever USEFUL beauty post - none of this "Check out my Sephora haul!" materialistic crap from this fine lady. Lover her. Hashtag bloggerBFF.

Jaelan from Making Mrs. M

I hope you enjoyed checking out these amazing bloggers! Seriously, add them to your daily reading rotation. They never disappoint!

Per usual, linking up with my other Friday Favorites gals - Amanda, Karli, Friday Five and H54F!

Springtime Nails with Jamberry

By this point, most of us have gotten Facebook invites to someone's "Jamberry party!" All of which I've deleted or ignored.

And then Lizz emailed me about Jamberry. She told me how they stay on for at least two weeks and are easy to apply. She kindly offered to let me pick out whatever color I wanted, and she'd send me everything I needed to get started jammin' on my nails. See what I did there?

Jamberry nail kit

I'll be painfully honest (sorry Lizz!) I had always found all the loud Jamberry patterns obnoxious. My personal style is simple and classic and I just didn't see those types of nails on me. Ever.

But low and behold! Jamberry offers classic nail wraps, too. There's solid colors, including the color of the year, Marsala, and french tip wraps too. Ooookkkk, sweet and enthusiastic Lizz, you got me! I had her send me Haute Pink to celebrate Spring's arrival.

Now I don't have time to be futzing with my nails with a ten month old monster running rampant in my house. I got my first set of wraps done in under 30 minutes, and once they were on, I was set - no drying time! No "they're dry enough..." and then you smudge them time!

I have to say, I'm now a fan. I usually wear gels on my fingernails, but after two years of gel wear, my nails were destroyed! These wraps wear like a gel, and don't destroy your nail beds. And I won't even touch the cost savings of these little gems. Mostly because I'm embarrassed with what I've spent on my nails professionally.

Jamberry "Haute Pink in Glossy" on my nails

If you think Jamberry is all loud prints and designs, you're wrong! They have classic and beautiful colors too. Also, if you want to give them a try, Lizz is an absolute peach and I could not recommend her more.

Wanna see more? Shop Jamberry here: LizzSather.JamberryNails.net
Have questions on this product? Email Lizz: JamminWithLizz@gmail.com

*I was provided Jamberry products courtesy of Lizz. All opinions are my own.