Happy 2008! For many of us, a new year means big plans, staunch resolutions, and the feeling that we're on the cusp of change. For others, the new year doesn't mean much at all. For most moms, the standard joke is that the kids need feeding no matter what the date. (Funny how that works.)

Today I'm strolling through some of the blogs recently added in 2008 to the BlogHer Mommy & Family Blogroll. (Haven't added yours yet? What are you waiting for?)

What I love most about perusing the category that unites us in one place is how much we have in common and also what a wide variation there is in what these moms are blogging -- both from day to day on each blog and across the blogs.

Carol at Graceful Parenting missed a party due to some co-parenting miscommunication, but she made up her mind on how to deal with it next time. What an interesting solution, to schedule a date with her anger:

I’m going to work on handling my little anger first. I know what I feel like when I get worked up and to Just Say No to that business. Well, at least to do this - to say, OK, anger I’ll go out with you on Friday night. Not now, but on Friday. Until then, I’m going to talk to my husband and my kids and see if there is a way to handle the little anger and if none of that works out, then we have a date to get worked up later.

June is Busting Out All Over with her pregnancy, even to the point of being too fat for a cardigan (oh, honey, been there). After lamenting her recent expansion, tongue firmly in cheek, she moves on to some parenting books she recently checked out:

The sleeping book was full of useless information. I think that everyone struggles getting their babies to sleep through the night, and the sleepless parent market is an easy mark because they are a captive audience desperate to try ANYTHING to get their child to sleep through the night. I tried reading through it twice to see if maybe I was missing something the first time, but I ended up spitting out all seeds on that one.

[...]

The breast feeding book was enlightening, not because it had tons of new information that I didn't already glean from reading Moxie's blog, but because it was written in 1986 when no one was breast feeding. It's full of tips on how to get your doctor and pediatrician to get on board with your choice to breast feed, how to handle breast feeding in front of your husband, and how to handle your mother-in-law when she tries to discourage you from breast feeding. It's hard to believe that was only 20 years ago.

At Motherhood... Unscripted we are reminded that little pitchers have big ears (and a poor understanding of hyperbole):

I’ll leave you with a Steven story tonight. He went on errands with Steve today. Who was listening to Rush Limbaugh in the car. Steve realized that it was time to be more careful about what he listens to with Steven, the Literal Boy, as he suddenly (and in a slightly panicked manner) said, "The Democrats are trying to take away my FREEDOM???!?!!!??"

Whoah. No more Rush in the car for that boy.

Joanna at As the nest empties is adjusting to her nearly-grown son coming home from college and then leaving again:

It's not as if we did anything momentous or special together while he has been at home. He has been working every day and so have I. We have both been living our own daily lives, just being together in the same house. Somehow it is comforting to know he will be home watching TV, reading the newpaper, drinking milk out of the carton, and instigating trouble with either his sisters or the dogs. I guess I know deep down inside that there will not be too many more of these interludes where he actually comes home to live with us and I am not ready to face that.

(As a mother whose oldest child isn't quite 10, allow me to respond to Joanna's situation the only way I know how -- which is to plug my fingers into my ears and sing "La la la la! I can't hear you!")

On the lighter side, Minnesota Mom is expressing love for her husband's morning routine through haiku:

I hear you beeping
But he doesn’t until I
Throttle or smack him

Snooze that baby once
More and you can find yourself
A new place to sleep

I've actually read Micro Preemie Twins: The Story of Holland and Eden on and off for years, and was pleased to see that it's a recent addition to the BlogHer blogroll. I was less pleased to see that Billie is struggling right now:

The worst part of all of this, is not all the petty things that I don't want to do, it's that I am not sure I like the sadder, more introspective, heavy-hearted person I am becoming. I long for days past, when I felt so much lighter, without a care in the world. When I could rejoice with the people in my life, and share in their happiness, rather than always feeling that stab of nagging jealousy for what I will never have. I don't want to feel this way. Will it ever go away? Will I ever feel like myself again?

(Stop by and lend Billie a kind word or two, won't you? I don't know a mother in the world who hasn't felt that way at times, and to be a mom to special needs twins and not feel this way at some point would make me wonder if she was an alien.)

Rachael at antithete is a woman after my own heart, and not just because (as her tagline states) she uses BIG WORDS all the time. No, she's been struggling with balancing working from home and spending time with her kids. She says that a day off changed her life:

I've been ruminating on it for several weeks now, but I really didn't think it was possible for me to do this - extricate myself from my internet/computer/working environment (which REALLY means it’s gotten bad, *gulp*) - until it was Christmas Day and I kept my promise to my kids about not working that day AT ALL. And it was so nice. I forgot how nice a break could be.

One day off changed my life!! (Cue dramatic, emotional music.)

Actually, it did. I’ve been working so hard to make sure I’m taking care of them the way I should be, that I forgot completely that I also need to spend TIME with them when I am NOT working. Yes, I realize that sounds idiotic, because it does to me too now that I have gone and written it out. DEAR GOD, I AM DUMB. And also normal, or at least so I’ve been told.

(I had a similar epiphany this Christmas. So we can be normal -- or dumb, either way -- together.)

Keep those great blogs coming, gals. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Anyone who believes that every mommy blog is the same clearly hasn't been reading any.

Contributing Editor Mir also blogs about issues parental and otherwise at Woulda Coulda Shoulda and Cornered Office, as well as sharing the joys of mindful retail therapy at Want Not.