Inspired.

I am loving these thank-you-mom posts inspired by theMotherhood and P&G’s ThankYouMom.com! As I was deciding who to thank, I knew it had to be someone who had not just inspired me as a blogger (because there are many of those) and not just inspired me as a mother (I have many non-blogger mom heroes), I needed to find people that were MOMS and BLOGGERS and had inspired me in both arenas. So far, I’ve told you about my mom blogosphere mentor, Jo-Lynne; my non-mom-blogging-community mom, Rachel Coleman; my real-mom-blogger friend, Amber and today I’m going to thank a new friend, Kat. She has been blogging on her personal blog, The Secret Life of Kat since 2005. (Yes, I’m pretty sure she was using a stone and chisel to be blogging way back then!) And last November she launched a new blog—a niche blog. Couponing? Green living? Simple life? Technology? Fashion? Cooking? Nope.

Kat’s niche is to inspire moms. And not with Angelina-Jolie-adopting-12-kids kinda inspiration. She inspires with “incredibly practical tips”. Her blog? Inspired To Action. Don’t you love it already?

I first heard of of Inspired to Action on twitter. Some famous bloggy folks were tweeting things like, “My awesome friend Kat is giving away a free ebook for moms!” I clicked on it, read it and *gulp* was immediately convicted…no, not convicted. I was INSPIRED. The ebook is called Maximize Your Mornings and is basically about waking up before your family so you could have some time with God and to get prepared to sieze the day as a mother. It doesn’t sound all that profound. But for me (and for hundreds of other moms based on her subscriber numbers) it is!

If you’ve been following my do-hard-things and i-want-to-be-wilder journey, you’ll see that this introduction to Kat was actually a small stepping stone to this big journey. Waking up early to be alone, plan my day, exercise and focus on God has been the first “hard thing” on my trek. It’s the first step in what I feel is a bigger and more intense walk with God.

Kat’s Inspired to Action blog is exactly what her byline says, “incredibly practical tips for inspired moms”. I love her ideas about retreating as a mother. I’m still mulling over her mission statement how-to posts. And she’s hugely honest and open.  After reading one of her posts I want to stand up and say “Yes! Yes! That’s what I’ve been looking for!” And I love reading through her comments because you can see what a difference she is making in the lives of so many women.

For some unknown reason, Kat started commenting on my Impress Your Kids blog and soon we were having comment, twitter and email conversations. I asked her to guest post on Impress  Your Kids and she did so joyfully (well, it felt joyful to me anyway).

I am just inspired by her at so many levels—she started a niche blog (so she sees the value and bredth of blogging), she started a niche blog to inspire moms (so she sees the value really great mothers bring to the world), she started a niche blog to inspire moms to do great things for God and their families (so she sees the value of following God and His ways first).

Kat, thank you for inspiring me. For inspiring me not just so I’ll keep reading your blog. Or so I’ll feel happy to be a mom. You’ve inspired me on a deeper and more long-lasting level. You’ve inspired me to action. Thank you.