I couldn’t get online Friday because my cable company broke the internets in my area. Then, Saturday I went to BarCamp Nashville and I spent all day Sunday recovering. Seriously, people, drinking three beers (and a whole lotta water) over the course of a day shouldn’t cause a massive hangover, but maybe I’m getting old. Or maybe I was just dehydrated due to the heat.

BarCamp, despite the somewhat misleading name and my earlier mention of beer, isn’t all about drinking, it’s a tech un-conference. I actually presented at the smaller venue, Cafe Coco. Here’s a picture of your girl Ivy telling people how it is.

Now, I know you’re thinking, "Where are the links, Ivy? I don’t care about what you did this weekend." Maybe you don’t, but mommy bloggers are an important part of the blogosphere and one that is often overlooked. I hear a lot of "I don’t read mommy bloggers" from my fellow blog buddies. Well, they should. We hit on so many of the important political and social issues, that even if you’re not a parent, you should be reading mommy bloggers. Look for a "Top 10 Reasons You Should Be Reading Mommy Bloggers (Even If You’re Not A Parent)" post later this week.

With that in mind, here is what I’ve been reading and loving lately:

Via White Trash Mom, an article on moms who have to send their kids to school and daycare sick, or face losing their jobs. I could write a whole post on this myself. When I was a po’ college student, I had a very sickly kid. I couldn’t afford to take more than X days off school, so I sent my kid to daycare sick, thereby making everyone else sick. It was a vicious cycle. I ended up with lower grades one semester when my son was especially sick, and the semester my son had to have surgery, I lost the entire semester. Perhaps things are easier now with online classes, but I expect there are still problems with this.

The "Standard School Attire" problem in Metro Nashville Public Schools. What’s next, requiring solid colored underwear? Wait, they already do- look at the sections about tights and undershirts. Ridiculous.

Blonde Mom has a link roundup worth linking to in its entirety. See more about the SSA issue, and also see about a fellow blogger in need.

Via Like Merchant Ships, here’s an awesome post about why the best homemakers don’t necessarily keep the most spotless houses. I write about cleaning all the time over at Home-Ec 101, and I can tell you, I don’t even have the cleanest house ever. In fact, Martha would DIE if she saw my house right now. Some things are more important than having a spotless house, like snuggling with your babies and blowing bubbles.

Lindsay’s kid and my kid have very similar thoughts on the words to the "ABC" song. SpiderMan sings it "A B C D E F G, H I J K Elmo no no P". No matter how much you try to convince him that it’s actually "L M N O P", he insists that it’s "Elmo no no P". Poor Elmo and his inability to pee. (See what you’re missing by not reading mommy bloggers?)

Here’s someone I didn’t meet at BarCamp Nashville, although he was there. I added him to my feed reader, I needed more daddy bloggers in there!

In case you didn’t read it somewhere else already, Zutano is having a fab summer sale! Go check them out, there’s lots of awesomeness to buy there.

Finally, White Trash Mom on the "Mom Uniform". I’m somewhere between PJs and t-shirt and jeans as I type this. (T-shirt and PJ bottoms today)

Have a great week, Shak-ers!