Tanis, a.k.a Redneck Mommy, will leave you gasping for air from giggling and frantically forwarding her incredible blog posts. But at the heart of her funny episodes, you'll also find a woman who actively seeks joy in spite of the overwhelming sadness of suddenly losing her five-year-old son. While she may write a post titled "Just Call Me Tits McGee" and open with a sweaty-boobs-in-public confessional, it's just as likely that her next post will choke you up completely as she discusses her plan to adopt a special needs child after the death of her own disabled son. It is this compelling dynamic that makes The Redneck Mommy one of the best. She comes alive on the page, at once sharing her fear that her kids will remember her staring into a computer screen rather than smiling at them, while next regaling us with the hilarity of dying her pubic hair blue to surprise her husband. She wades through "an ocean of grief" each day, proving that writing really can help one heal.
Read Tanis's favorite blog posts of 2009 and why she loved them:
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Plight of Pillsbury
" I chose this post because it makes me smile. It is something half the population of the world will experience and suffer from at some point in their lives, yet no one likes talking about it. (Especially the male population, who would prefer to live in blissful ignorance.) It was my mission to make light of the subject for womenfolk everywhere while educating men about the blight of femininity. And if my husband felt a wee uncomfortable reading the post as I did suffering through to be able to write it, well then it was an added bonus."
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Confessions
"I wrote this post after being up all night taking care of my disabled son who was extremely ill. As I listened to him struggle to breathe alongside the soft sounds of his siblings slumbering on, I wondered what my children were dreaming of. As I sat in the darkness and contemplated the road that had led me to this moment, I realized with a flash of clarity, just exactly what my dream was."
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The Tale of Blue Thunder
"This is a cautionary tale to women everywhere who are desperately trying to feel sexy. Or it is just a story of a woman whose husband works out of town most days, leaving her alone to raise the rabid badgers she calls her children, and obviously has too much time on her hands. Either way, welcome to my life."
