Two friends of mine who understand the way life should be are now over at a brand new site, RaisingMaine. Check out my talented friend Raye Tibbitts, who has brought the vibe of her cool print zine, The Bad Mother Chronicles, to the web. Raye is a really good mother, a college instructor, and part-time reporter; who, like the rest of us, struggles to find enough hours for her craft. Unlike me, she is one of those women you just sort of want to hate – you know the type, who most of the time cook from scratch, raise their own veggies, keep their kids engaged mostly without TV, who can sew/can/craft/make anything from discarded scraps, who shops organic, volunteers and who earned an MFA while raising two really young kids and giving birth to a third!

Problem is, I can't hate her because (1) she's a truly caring and kind person who is usually interested in anything I have to say (or whine about); (2) I love her writing; (3) I make a point to be really nice to people who might one day write a best seller and need a friend along on the book tour to turn pages. Raye's questioning musings on motherhood, marriage and work remind us that not only does she not have all the answers, but that no one really does. The "answers" may be in posing new and different questions. Read her honest, wry and witty blog here.

Then there's Sharon Ross, who is a marketing specialist, a reporter and who, as my student-guide during the first exciting, terrifying, confusing residency of my MFA program, somehow helped me figure out that I was not in the wrong place after all. Sharon is blogging about being a single mom in Maine. She's quietly funny as you'll see if you read her post, "with apologies to Lorrie Moore" here.