Sometimes, I don’t feel like thinking deeply.

I worked a field trip all afternoon, corralling a group of 10 8th graders around the sculpture park at Meijer Gardens.

One of my son’s friends rolled down a hill for the sheer fun of it for the first time in his life. He’s a big guy with a visible mustache at age 14, and is rarely seen without a technological device in his hands. But after watching about half of our group, including the two other geeky dudes, roll down the hill and stumble around, laughing, at the bottom, he took his shot. The whole way down, he gave that high-pitched giggle that boys whose voices have changed can still produce. It took some doing to get him to stand (and I hope his mother isn’t upset with him for the grass stains on his pants), but he was happy. And I was happy watching these kids, normally so concerned with how “old” they seemed, fling themselves down the hill with such abandon.

But I’m fried. And unable to think clearly enough to write a “real” blog post, and I don’t want the week to go by without one. I’m so fried that I was convinced it was Friday, and was about to say something about the weekend, but realized just before I hit “publish” that it’s actually Wednesday. So instead of attempting something complex, I’m going to share the love and write about blogs by people I know. And like.

 HartyHaRHaR This one belongs to my cousin Rod, who writes about his life as an ex-court-beat newspaper reporter, current music store owner, and frequent victim of being run over by the rock and roll bus. Most posts are casual and funny (and way more frequent than mine), but he’s not afraid to bust out some more emotional or thoughtful stuff now and then, like this one about his daughter.

Make Time Make Art is by my friend Amanda, a graphic artist who blogs about creativity, detailing her projects and chronicling the inspiration she finds everywhere, including in a mossy crack in the sidewalk. And now and then, I get to see pictures of her kids, which makes me happy.

MeyerTurner No list of blogs by people I like and even love would be complete without this one. Although the author died earlier this year, her family is keeping the posts up, and I like to pop in and browse a bit. She was a wise and funny chronicler of her life with cancer, and a truly world class storyteller. I will always love this story about her and her dad.

Cole Ruth is a writer/sailor/chef I got to know right out of college. I was with her when she learned this valuable lesson: when catering a wedding that has food buffet-style, it’s better for your food planning to have caterers serving the guests, instead of letting guests choose their own portions. If I remember, someone had to run out to buy more ham in the middle of service. Now she’s got it all down and cooks with TV chefs and sails on boats with person-sized puppets.

Halfway to Normal Kristin is a friend from early motherhood days. We were in a playgroup and, for awhile, looked to start a church together. Now she writes about belief, culture, love — just those little things 😉

Urban Onramps is by my church friend, Rudy, who dreams big and encourages even bigger. He writes about urban ministry, business as mission, and curates content from around the web about justice issues, techie stuff, web stuff, lots of stuff. But I also like to see the pictures of his kids, half of whom I’ve had in children’s worship.

Open Doors and Blank Pages Jack and Kelly are two of the dearest young people (they’re half my age, I can say that) I know. They were college students when I met them and became two of my steadiest children’s worship leaders. Jack hold the distinction of being sillier with the kids than me. They got married and a few months later hopped on a plane to do ministry in Romania. This is a blog about their experiences.

And then there are friends who have blogs they rarely update, but I love it when they do: QueFascinante, Lovely and All We Have. Both of these women blog about spiritual topics (and not the kind of thing my Dutch grandmother used to call “spirituals” — i.e. after-dinner alcoholic beverages). Always thoughtful and thought provoking. When they write.

Seeking the Inner Ancient There’s one more friend, but it’s funny, because I’ve never met him. Vaughn is an online writer friend who, like me, has been writing novels with the hope of publication for many years (more than 5, less than 10). Although, when his books come out (they will!), I’ll be more likely to hand them to my fantasy epic-reading son, what he shares about his writing journey always resonates with me.

Top 40 This one isn’t a blog, but my husband put it together, so I have to include it: it’s his Top 40 favorite songs. He put them together the year he turned 40.

So there they are. Not so many. There are plenty of other blogs I love and visit regularly, but all those people are famous. And not anyone I could call friend.

Do you have any blogging pals you’d like to give a shout-out to? Let me know in the comments and, in the name of sharing the love, I’ll check them out.

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