I was browsing the blog links in our sidebar (over there—–>) and came across several great posts from different bloggers that I thought you might like to read.

• Meditation Monday: Be Still
• Tasty Tuesday – Chicken Salad Recipe
• Megan’s Magical Method
• And Then She Quietly Came To Sit With Jesus
• Drink More Water!!
• They Say Genes Skip Generations…
• These Small Hours

What posts have YOU read (or written) lately that we should all know about?

Here at theNanaBlogs.com, we are offering free blog space.  Our goal in starting this website was to offer a way/place/setting for Grandmas and Nanas and Memas (and Mamas too) to have a wordpress blog for free, AND to be part of a larger community of Nana Bloggers (and Grandma Bloggers, and all the rest).

We call it the NanaHood Neighborhood.  And it’s just getting started!  The spaces are available, plenty of lots are empty here in the Neighborhood, just waiting for new Nanas and Grandmas to join us and break ground on their new blog home. Construction has started on quite a few, and we’re so excited about the new Nana Bloggers we’ve met lately.

Won’t you join us?  If you are interested, you can read more about how to sign up, here.  And you can always send a message with questions or concerns through our contact page.  If you need help with setting up your blog, adding a new theme, or just blogging in general, let us know!

This post is linked up at LifeasMOM.com‘s Frugal Friday post.

What Nana Bloggers Know Best …

10.  Causes. Women my age have sat through way too many PTA meetings.  We have volunteered countless, thankless hours at schools, and helped our kids persuade our friends and neighbors to buy everything from Girl Scout cookies to overpriced candles. At this stage in our lives we have a little more time and can afford to give of our time and talents to organizations that depend on volunteers to help others.  Pick one – Haitian relief, the Red Cross, Save the Children, World Vision, Compassion, the environment. Whatever you care about, blog about it.

9.  Men. Yes, they are from Mars. They think PMS is a television channel.  They don’t understand why women prefer Sleepless in Seattle to The Terminator or Rambo.  Young boys are made of frogs, snails and puppy dog’s tails.  Teenage boys are made of dreams of teenage girls, pizza and trucks.  Real men are made of Old Spice and M&Ms – they’re hard on the outside, soft on the inside, and they melt in a woman’s arms.  Behind every successful Grandpa there’s a Nana who helped him get there.  Where would they be without us?

8.  Kids. We push them in baby carriages, push them to join play groups, push them to get into the best schools, push them out of the house and into college, sometimes they boomerang and come back to us so we push them back out of the house… again, we push them into marriage and finally, we push them to give us grandchildren.  Then the mom pushes the baby out and, voila, we start all over again.

7. Medication. Ailments, we got ‘em: constipation, heart burn, heart attacks, cataracts, cholesterol, Geritol, colonoscopies, mammograms, menopause, migraines, hypertension, depression, diarrhea, bunions, root canals, insomnia, acupuncture, arthritis, bursitis, and colitis.  Been there, done that.  Nanas can give advice, loan you pills, and recommend a doctor, a hospital, a procedure, a surgeon.  Whatever malady you have had Nanas have either had it, know someone who has or know someone who’s going to get it any day now.  If someone in the family is sick don’t call the doctor first — call Nana.  She’ll tell you what to do (and you won’t even need your insurance card).

6.  Politics. Let’s face it: when it comes to politics the Nana Generation has seen it all. We’ve lived through decades of people who never should have been in politics but somehow ended up there.  We’ve had Presidents who were actors and adulterers. Presidents who thought it was okay to spy on the opposing party, and Presidents whose mouths needed to be washed out with soap.  Politics and politicians are fun to blog about because usually government is packed with very smart people who do really stupid things.  I mean, what woman would come home from having an affair and tell her husband she wants to work things out and she’s sorry she had a fling with her soul mate?  Absolutely no woman hiking the Appalachian Trail, that’s for sure.

5.  Sports. You think men are the only ones who can blog about sports?  Think again.  We don’t wear jock straps but we sure suffer with the jocks.  By the time a woman is my age she has endured enough little league, grade school, high school and college basketball ballgames that she could referee better than most paid officials from mid-court, using only a pair of binoculars (though I can’t run up and down a court without having a heart attack) and a whistle (the hearing isn’t what it used to be, either).

4.  Food. Even women who don’t cook love food and often get more excited over going to a 5-star restaurant than they do from a blue-light special at K-Mart.  Nanas love bargains but they love good food even more.  Especially when someone else does the cooking.  And you don’t need to be Julia Child to be a nana food blogger – you just need to be hungry.

3.  Decorating. Home improvements are fun to talk about because what starts out as a small project always morphs into a whole-house makeover.  Decorating comes natural for women with Martha Stewart genes but the rest of us have to find gay guys with good taste to help us out.  (Besides, gay guys are so much fun to hang out with.  Aside from having impeccable design sense, they’re not prone to plumber-butt… as some spouses, ahem, all too often are.)

2.  All women talk about the Big Three: boobs, butt and belly.  Whenever a group of women get together it’s just a matter of time before they discuss body parts.  They talk about the need and cost to fix them, and whether or not it’s worth it.  They compare whose are the biggest or sag the most.  Whose is wider or sticks out more.  It never ends.  No matter what we look like, we are never, ever satisfied.  Which is why cosmetic surgery appears to be one of the few truly recession-proof industries.

1.  And the number one thing Nanas can blog about better than anyone else: the grandkids (of course). If you didn’t guess that one, you obviously haven’t seen pictures of my granddaughter.  She’s the most beautiful, smartest, most talented child in the universe.  The only other children as beautiful as she is have not been born yet. They are my future grandchildren — and I can’t wait to be their nana, too!

About TheNanaBlogs

TheNanaBlogs.com is a new site dedicated to turning nanas, grandmas, memas (and moms) into bloggers.  The site provides them with the space and the technology to begin blogging. Nanablogs offer grandparents a voice, a place to share thoughts, a place to brag about grandkids – and a new way to connect with family.   Like its sister site, NanaHood.com, TheNanaBlogs.com is a creation of Teresa Bell Kindred.  Teresa is a wife, mom, author, and proud nanablogger.

This post is linked up with Works For Me Wednesday.

We actually offer two places where your blog posts can be featured – www.NanaHood.com and here at www.theNanaBlogs.com.  If you think you have an article or post that others NEED to read,  send an email with your blog link to submissions@nanahood.com

Topic ideas:

• Fun (and affordable) activities to do with (your) grandchildren
• Anything hobby related
• Challenges facing grandparents today (special needs grandchildren, raising your grandchildren, etc)
• Legacy – what do you want your grandchildren to know and value
• Bring on the funny – humorous stories about the grandkiddos
• Reviews – music, movies, art, tv, books – we want to hear your opinion

Please don’t feel limited to our list of topic ideas – if you have an idea, we hope you will share!

Again, the email address is submissions@nanahood.com What are you waiting for??

We reserve the right to NOT publish anything that we deem inappropriate for our website and goals.

If there is one thing we all have in common on New Year’s Eve (besides making resolutions)  it’s that we look back and wonder, ” How did another year go by so quickly?”  I’ve been asking myself that for 53 years now (well, truthfully I didn’t realize how fast it went until I turned 30…after that I think someone puts turbo batteries in clocks and the hands spin twice as fast as they once did).

Looking back at the year now is different than it was say 20 years ago. The older I get the more I feel the call to do more for others. It is so easy to stay wrapped in the cocoon of “my world” that often I fail to reach out to those in need, and I don’t have to look very far to see the needy. My grandmother would say, “What’s done is done. We can only move forward.”  While that is true perhaps if we take a look at what we did or didn’t do in 2009, maybe we can do better in 2010 and there’s definitely room for improvement in my life. How about you?

My 2009 thoughts….

1. I wish I had studied my Bible more.  I know where peace and hope reside and I could save myself a lot of grief and worry by studying more, praying more and trusting more in the maker of the universe to guide me. This is at the top of my list of things I will change in 2010.

2. I wish I had been a better friend. The last few years I’ve been spending a little more time with my girlfriends and it’s made me realize how much I’ve taken them for granted over the years. So many times I’ve thought I was “too busy” to take a weekend off and just relax with the girls. This is another area in my life where I want to do better.

3.  One of my biggest personal struggles in 2009 was deciding to leave education to pursue writing full time. When something has been a large part of your life for a very long time it’s tough to know when it’s time to move on, especially when you like what you do and you know that leaving it also means leaving a pay check. Sometimes we need a little push and for me that push came when the editor of the magazine I had written a column for for 13 years informed me they were “revamping the magazine” and my column was being discontinued. I couldn’t imagine life without writing and one day while driving down the road God whispered in my ear (I pray a lot while I’m driving and my brother has always said that’s a good thing) and NanaHood was born. The vision for NanaHood has evolved to one of friendship ( a cool place for grandmother’s and moms to hang out) mentoring (a loving environment where mom’s can ask for help, advice and opinions and receive a thoughtful, loving response) and praise (where every Tuesday we participate in Gratituesday with www.heavenlyhomemakers.com and give thanks to the one from whom all blessings flow!)

What were your greatest challenges in 2009? What do you hope to do differently in 2010? My wish for you this New Year’s Eve is this…

Happy New Year and may God keep you in His care through the year and the rest of your life!