This week, I exchange questions with the lovely and thoughtful Brittnei from Homemaking with Style. She’s sweet, caring and loving. Her blog broadcasts love and truth. We co-host Creative Style Linkup together and had started with hosting Countdown in Style. She is the proud mother to one, and pregnant with another. She has opened herself up to the judgment of others with so much grace. I am proud to think of myself as her friend.

1)  What are your favorite types of blogs to read? I like all sorts of blogs, op-ed pieces, mommy blogs, and humor blogs, just to name a few. I read blogs that fit my mood or help me change it. As a stay at home mom in a new state, I don’t really have any friends. Having friends across the US makes it hard to communicate because when they are ready to talk, I’m ready to go to bed.

2)  Do you have favorite bloggers? If so, what do you think it is about them that has drawn you to them? I like bloggers who are truthful, who share their story, who share their struggles, who tell me that I’m not alone or weird. It may change based on what’s going on in their life. There are too many to count, and I don’t want to name them because now I feel bad that I don’t get over there as often as I’d like. I don’t read blogs for fun as much as I used to since my Butterfly is mobile and trying to walk.

3)  Motherhood has its ups and downs.   For you, what is the most challenging thing about being a mom? Managing all of their personalities. With Bee, her personality is so strong, and Butterfly still needing me physically, I tend to push Bunny to the back burner. Once Bee has a meltdown, pretty much everything else goes downhill. Whether I turn all of my attention on her or send her to her room, the response is still the same: Butterfly starts crying and Bunny feels excluded.

4)  Are there things that you do now as a wife or mom that you never could have seen yourself doing before you had a husband and kids? LOL! EVERYTHING! I never pictured myself being a wife or mother. I did not like my upbringing and figured that I could be a hot shot, jet setting lawyer who never put down roots, had a maid and cook. Now, I’m a mom, I cook (which I pretty much only learned during marriage), I clean, and I wipe bottoms! I always thought I was too selfish to have children, now I would give my life for them.

5)  Most people who work a consistent full time work schedule tend to have a favorite day of the week. As a stay at home wife and mom, do you have one? If so, why that day? Anytime I can get both of them down to sleep. It’s really hard because Bee doesn’t like sleep. She doesn’t like naps, wakes up in the middle of the night multiple times, comes in my bed and tosses and turns. I may get three hours of a break in a 24 hour period where both girls are sleep in their beds.

6)  I saw you posed a question on Facebook about whether or not people homeschool and you mentioned you were thinking about homeschooling your two girls. Do you want to expound on that and share where your family’s decision might be leaning towards if you know at this point? Well, my son is in public school. This year, for the first time, he has entered a charter school. Although I find the charter school much better than the public school, the amount of “stuff” that I have to deal with doesn’t seem worth it.

Right now, he eats school lunch, but it’s microwaved, which I don’t like. I would like to make him lunch, but I know he’s not the kid who will be comfortable going against the grain and eating food from home.

There just doesn’t seem to be something that’s great for my son. It seems like it’s just a touch better than the last. I think something is good, but then talk to a parent who compares it to another school and I start wondering, “Should my son have that too?”

Also, as a charter school, we get asked to pay a lot out of pocket. I mean, the club options are above and beyond what his last school had, but it’s costing us too. Since the school is new, there’s no real protocol for getting information to the parents, so after two months of school, I don’t really know what they do in the clubs. Having the girls somewhat prohibit me from “dropping in” since they can be a distraction.

The desire to homeschool just might be my desire to control. I don’t know really. We’ll play out this year and decide before he goes to middle school.

7)  Does your family have a favorite meal that you prepare that they all love? LOL! I don’t think so. I think they are willing to eat most of the things that I make, but no, I haven’t had any special requests. As I mentioned above, I didn’t learn to cook until I got married and quite frankly, I haven’t really even tried to do more than the same five or six dishes until we moved to our home here.

8)  If you could have a chef, a maid or a personal stylist for your family but only one, what would you pick and why? Maid. I don’t mind cleaning, but it seems to be never ending. I spend most of my time cleaning up after someone. My husband and I get into that never ending conversation of who cleans what, how much and how often. I hate the conversation because unless I clean right before he comes home, he doesn’t think I do much of it.

I like the idea of the chef, especially since I don’t like cooking. Yet I spend so much more of my time cleaning, it just wouldn’t make sense. I could learn how to cook better in the time I spend cleaning. Plus the maid could clean up after me.

The personal stylist wouldn’t be any good because unless s/he laid out my clothes every day, I would likely put on jeans and a t-shirt when I wake up in the morning regardless of how many nice clothes I have.

9)  What is your least favorite thing about blogging? Goodness, the time it takes to actually put a post together. Images, linking, referencing, and promoting, it’s just a lot of work. I wish I had an assistant to do it for me. LOL! I like the release of putting my words and feelings on the page, but I wish I could just write and have someone else take care of the rest.

10)  Have you ever been to a blog conference?  If so, how was your experience? If not, do you have one in mind that you would like to go to one day? No, I haven’t had the opportunity to go to a blog conference. I would like to go but unless it’s local, I doubt it would be in my budget in the near future. I haven’t researched any of them because I don’t window shop. I don’t want to see what I can’t go to. I don’t know what they are about or where they are, although I should look to see if any will be near me. Maybe I should start one!