Write What You Know . . . and Then Some

“Write what you know.” That has got to be one of the most oft-repeated words of advice when it comes to writing. It came to mind today after five-year-old Penny wrote her first ever novel. Mini novel? Novella? Short story? Well, she called it “a book.” It consisted of three sheets of printer paper folded in half and stapled at the seem, and it told the following story:

Shark lost a tooth.
The shark was asleep and the tooth fairy came.
Shark woke up and there was his dollar.
Shark was running so fast to his mom.
His mom and dad were sleeping so he had to be quiet.
Shark ran to his mom and showed her his dollar.
Shark ran to his dad and showed him his dollar, and his dad was so happy.
The End

It was complete with pictures of shark smiling at his dollar and tip-toeing past his two sleeping-shark parents in their shark bed. The wording was all hers. . . . Though, after several tedious minutes of telling her how to spell every word, I took over transcribing the story.

It made me chuckle because, my goodness, that was very definitely an example of writing what you know – Penny’s first tooth having fallen out, amidst much drama, only a week ago. I liked that she took something she knew and understood and then, stretched out beyond that and created a little more because, no, it wasn’t a little girl who lost her tooth and ran to her sleeping parents; it was a shark, with big triangle-shaped pointy shark teeth.

I recently read an article on the old “write what you know” philosophy. The author (Melissa Donovan) said:

It is true: you should write what you know, but you should also leave room in writing for the unknown, room to explore and discover new truths, ideas, and possibilities.

and

The most fantastical worlds in storytelling are beloved because they are full of truths. They tell us who we are as individuals and as a society.

It made me think about blogging and why I love it so much -- why it is, actually, one of the things I most enjoy doing. There is just something exciting and almost magical to me about this; so much anticipation in seeing a white empty computer screen and knowing I can transform it, that I can use words and even images of the things “I know”, and,  after a few minutes, change an empty and meaningless blank screen into a piece of my life and the life of my loved ones -- something to share and save but even more, something that might have drawn more out of me . . . or, maybe that’s the wrong wording, drawn more out of my life? My experiences?

I loved Melissa Donovan’s statement about not just writing what we know and leaving it at that, but stretching it a little further to things we might be trying to discover, to possibilities, to unveiling truths. I love that there is potential for that in just the run of the mill things that I know – clutter and Band-Aids, Play-Doh and piano practice, running injuries and bed times.

I know nobody reading this particularly needs to know why I enjoy this so much, why I would happily post something every day if I had the time, but I wanted to share why it matters to me. I wanted those I love to know what the draw is for me, why I find recording here to be so rewarding. It helps me to dig into this little, fairly ordinary life of mine and find spectacular and wonderful and perfect in the ordinary. Growth in the everyday. I don’t always do it well, or right. My images don’t always capture the moment exactly as I want to remember it. Very often it is only the exact face value of what I have put on the screen – a picture of my kids, a telling of an event; but, every now and then, it turns into something more. It shows me some truth about life or myself or people that my mind hadn’t before grabbed onto. It opens my mind to new ways of seeing things or allows me to reach, just a little, towards something unknown – something I might still discover – kind of like having a word on the tip of your tongue, but much much bigger. And the chance that maybe, just possibly, something like that might happen each time I begin clicking away at the keyboard? Well, it is too exciting to pass up!

Blowing Bubbles

Is it just my imagination, or did I just post a picture of my husband and kids riding their bikes the other day . . . in Utah . . . in December? Yes, I believe I did. We’ve had no more than a tiny sprinkling of snow this season (which probably isn’t great for Utah’s occasional drought concerns), but it has been kind of lovely outside. Cold off and on, sure, but also . . . very . . . not cold. My kids did indeed spend most of their Christmas break out riding their bikes. We even had a record breaking 57 degree day. All in all, it feels much more like the early beginnings of spring than the throws of winter. Typing that made me suddenly feel a bit nervous, like maybe winter overheard and is plotting a mid January revenge. In the mean time: early January 2012:

I won’t pretend that I don’t oft times go overboard on photo sharing here. I know it. But how can it be helped?

I realized the other day that my blog has evolved quite a bit since I started it back . . . oh, whenever I started it. And that makes sense because I’ve evolved too. Initially it was more just for the fun of writing. I do enjoy writing and I think my posts were often meant more to entertain others or simply to ramble something fun than to keep memories. However, as I’ve stacked my little printed blog books one after another up on my mantle, I have begun to care more about recording things that I want to remember; things I want my kids to be able to look back at, and, I realize, that many of those things are the very sorts of things that are not really of interest to the common reader (common reader? Huh?), but I don’t mind really. I don’t even mind if blogs completely fade away so long as I keep having a good format to make my little books. (And I don’t know why I am so sure that a printed book will last longer than something on the internet . . . I guess it depends on which I think is more likely a) my house burning down with photo albums, journals, blog books, etc. all caught up in the flames; or b) the modern world ending and all modern things like electricity, internet, etc. failing us. Hmm. It looks like I’m planning on horrible events of a more apocalyptic nature. Or perhaps I just really like flipping through books.)

Anyway, I’ve also learned a fair amount about photography the last year or two, and while I still know very little compared to what there is to know, it has become very satisfying to be able to capture more moments with my kids the way I want to capture them. Which might explain all the overabundance of photos I put on here these days. But, I’ve noticed something that I think is very good for me at this stage of my life. I’ve mentioned that recording little things my kids do, Mike says, etc. makes me appreciate the normal day to day happenings in my existence. Well, I’ve realized that taking pictures does that for me as well. When I was out yesterday watching my kids blow bubbles, trying to snap a photo right as someone reached for or blew the perfect bubble, it felt like magic – having these little people, watching them enjoy something as simple as bubble blowing. And I don’t know if I would have even gone outside to watch them, or watched them how I did if I hadn’t been trying to capture the moment through my lens. I really think it has been another means of helping me in my goal (that is constantly needing to be resolved upon again as I forget and fail) to enjoy now and enjoy the tiny normal moments that currently make up my life.

So, there you have it. I’ll post all the bubble blowing pictures I want to!


How about just . . . ummm . . . five more?

With all that said, I don’t intend to imply that this blog is now solely for recording family goings on. Oh no. I reserve the right to write any ridiculous thing that strikes my fancy at any time . . . simply because I like to.

The End.

I am Going to Blog . . .

EVERY SINGLE DAY until this baby comes. Wait. Why would I even say that. Is it a promise? A threat? What do I even hope to accomplish by doing that? Will it simply pass the time? Because heaven knows I have more than enough to be doing to “pass the time”. And what if I change my mind? What if I don’t want to blog one day and the absence of a post makes everyone assume I have gone off to have a new baby and so they all start saying, “I can’t believe you are off having your baby!” and really I am not off having a baby at all? I am just grumpily sitting in the kitchen eating Halloween Oreos and chocolate frosted cake donuts and Quaker Oh’s cereal because I’m NOT in labor.

Well, let’s just hope all those things don’t happen (only, the part about me eating Oh’s and cake donuts and Oreos already happened . . . today and yesterday. Luckily the kids discovered the Oh’s this morning – half hidden behind the Corn Chex – and they are now all gone).

Anyway. So. Here we are. With me. Blogging every day. What should we talk about (in a rather one sided conversation sort of way)? Well, yes, I suppose we could talk about just how long this madness of every day blogging is likely to last. It could last two weeks. I am currently two weeks away from that magical due date. So . . . it could also last longer than two weeks. Shudder. It could last less though. Today my CNM asked me if I wanted to be started. Just like that. I could be started if I wanted. Only . . . now that I know I could . . . and even though I said at the first of this pregnancy that I thought it might be a grand idea . . . suddenly I don’t want to be again. Which is weird because I also really WANT to have this baby right this minute. Hmm. I told him I’d wait it out ‘til my due date (should it come to that) and then decide how much more I could handle.

The thing is, it would actually be perfect to be a few days late as far as life is concerned. I’ve mentioned I have “stuff” to do. Activity Days I’m in charge of (my partner is about to undergo brain surgery, which, understandably trumps labor), I have agreed to teach Abe’s primary class this week and do a little presentation for someone in YW’s. The kids would love if we got Halloween decorations all up first (as we traditionally do on Oct. 1st), and there is still so so much to clean and organize. Only, I nested myself all out. Really. My forced nesting backfired. It feels kind of like how I felt 2/3rds of the way through my last marathon when I had run the first half way way too fast. I had pretty much nothing left to give other than making it to the end. That is kind of me now. I did a crazy amount of organizing and cleaning every second last week. Then our basement flooded. And, as I helped drag wet boxes of clothes and suitcases and Christmas wrapping paper outside to dry out at 3:00 am I decided I had no more desire or drive to do anything. I decided I wanted to go have my baby immediately if only so that I could sit in the hospital for two days with nothing expected of me. And maybe that is the real reason for blogging every day . . . because I am burnt out of doing what needs to be done. On a positive note, my windows are clean, my bathroom drawers and cupboards are organized, as well as the kitchen ones. What that has to do with having a baby is beyond me. And sadly, my hitting quit mode landed before I ever cleaned our showers or toilets. When I think of that, I think of the exact thing Jesse said this morning when he saw something interesting/possibly scary out his car window, “Oh my yikes!” Yes. Oh my yikes.

Well, we’ll chit chat more tomorrow. (And don’t go assuming I’m in labor unless this remains post free ‘til midnight). Farewell.

A Little Blogging Info

I am putting this on here just because I think it might be of interest to many of my blogging friends and family out there who have been wanting to make their blogs into printed books.

As I've mentioned, I've done two such books so far and am working on a third. I love having them right here in our home, but it is a lot of work to get them ready to print. I have been using the blurb.com booksmart software (I think most bloggers I know have used this). It does slurp your blog up, but you really still have to go through and edit every single page. Once you know how to really work with and change their formats, you can get your posts just how you want, and I do think it is really fun to be able to choose different backgrounds for each page, or have a picture take up an entire page, etc. Still, it is time consuming, and I think a lot of you have been wanting to do it, but putting it off because you don't want to dig in and commit to figuring out how to edit the pages, etc.

Soooo . . . that brings me to this: my cousin Jenn started blogging fairly recently, so I was a bit amazed when she said she had already printed off several books. That is, until she told me about this website for doing blog books: Blog2Print

I haven't done it myself, but it sounds ridiculously easy, so it might be the answer for all of you who want the book minus the work. My cousin said you basically go in, give them your blog address, choose the type of cover you want and picture you want on it, tell them which posts you want included in the book (like Jan. 1, 10 - Dec. 31, 10), and print your book. I think it basically just tries to keep the layout as you have it already in your blog.

You do loose a little flexibility -- for example, I think the pictures are all just a standard size and, at this point, you can't choose to make some bigger or to go in and change the layout of certain pages, but the pics she sent me of her finished book looked great, and for so little work, it might be worth it to some of you to loose a little of the say about each page's look.

Anywho, toodle-lous,
Nancy

A "Best Day Ever"

Once, in Israel, my roommates and I had a "best day ever." I don't actually recall what was so great about it other than every single one of us got letters and/or packages, and it just seemed like every corner we turned had some new happy surprise -- even silly things -- like returning to our room and discovering our curtains had been replaced with new ones. I have a picture of us all standing there in front of our new curtains -- joyfully holding up our letters and packages.

Today seemed like a "best day ever." So far every single thing about today has just been happy. I feel so happy.

h

1. It has been snowing -- ALL day. I know that running errands, etc. in snow is no fun, but my mom loves nothing more than a storm -- any storm -- wind storm, rain storm, snow storm; so we were raised to feel excitement at the slightest inkling of a "storm." Storms meant happiness, and fires in the fireplace, and stories to be read. Living close to the mouth of the canyon also meant most nights were quite windy. I was surprised when I married Mike and found that to him a wind storm meant something very different than being cozied up in bed with blankets -- happy as a Lark. It meant shingles blowing off of roofs, or tarps coming off our hay, or other stressful things. So, we would lie in bed listening to the same blustery wind -- one of us tense, the other smiling peacefully as if being sung to sleep.

I admit I don't love old slushy dirty snow, but I always feel a little sad when someone says, "I hate snow." You can say, "I hate driving in snow," or "I hate shoveling snow," or "I hate walking with snow on the sidewalks," but "I hate snow" seems a very rash declaration. When it is falling and covering everything with white. When there is nowhere specific you have to go, and especially if you have Christmas music playing; well, there is not much more lovely than all that white snow.

h

2. Christmas music has been playing all day.

3. My Mike is home with us, and with no other agenda than just being with us. Mike works such long hours, that he isn't just home all that often and when he is home, there is generally something that needs doing -- house projects, errands, etc. But, today is Abe's birthday, so our whole plan was just to be home celebrating that. I feel so much more content when I have my husband home with me.

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4. It's Abe's birthday -- and a happy one at that. He told me he woke up at 6:15 and couldn't sleep because he was so excited and couldn't believe he was nine. That is one of the best things about having kids -- you get to re experience things that you've long since outgrown -- like being so excited for Christmas or a birthday that you can't even sleep.

We don't generally have friend birthday parties for our kids. When Abe and Daisy were very small, I would do a big party for them in the day with cousins, etc. By the time Mike got home, it seemed they were all celebrated out. We decided then to make birthdays more of a thing to celebrate with our family. I do try hard to make the whole day special and about them -- the kids secretly make signs to hang the night before. We let them choose their favorite sugar cereal to have for breakfast and do games, etc. with our family.

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With that said, I'm not so rooted in our ways that they can't alternate every now and again. This year Abe asked if he could have a few friends over, and we were happy to oblige. Planning it wasn't easy because Abe questioned my judgement of "cool" at every turn, but in the end, we agreed on making candy trains and playing several games that passed his "cool" test. It went great, and Abe seemed well satisfied with the outcome. He has contentedly been playing with his toys ever since. Mike is sweetly making dinner (after all my party work), and we will finish the night with cake and presents and the birthday boy getting to stay up late.

5. I know this probably seems silly, but I was already thinking how wonderfully happy this day seemed -- with the snow and Mike here and Abe so happy and the party festivities having gone so well (and having been cleaned up), but then, much later than I thought UPS drivers would still be out making their deliveries, THIS came to the door:

I was so giddy with excitement that I could hardly contain myself. Clear back in May, I downloaded the blurb.com Booksmart program to turn my blog into a book. It was fun to work on for about three days, but then I started having dreams. All night long (for several nights in a row) I would dream out an event or happening; then that event would turn into an image that I had to format correctly into a book. It was maddening.

The program "slurps" your blog right up in order, etc. If you have a post that is just words, or just one main picture, or even words with pictures that don't have to be in any order, it works great. It is just that the Booksmart program doesn't work like blogger where you can just drag your pictures anywhere in your post. You have to choose a format -- and the formats don't always jive with your exact post and how it was laid out on your blog. You can just put it in one of their formats, or you can even create your own formats, but it can drive you a little crazy (hence my dreams).

There are advantages though. You can click a different background for each page. You can have pictures that take up entire pages or are part of a collage, etc.

I got sick of messing with it in about June and laid it aside til last week when I decided that I'd done enough to at least print one book. I've only done my blog from Feb. 2008 (when I started) to Oct. 2008, but I have so many posts and pictures that it was already a 180 page book.

Anyway, here are a few sample pages.

It just seems so fun to have it as a real concrete journal rather than just something floating out there in cyberspace. And I LOVE that I now have a journal that actually has pictures of what I am writing about right along with it. My kids were looking through it tonight reading out loud things I'd typed about them, etc. It really is one of the most satisfying things I've ever held in my hands. I wish I could order copies for all of my kids since it is a record of so much of the goings on of their own lives. Maybe I will sometime, but for now that would be a little pricey.

It is some work, but you can make it much easier if you aren't too picky about having everything placed just right. I highly recommend doing this for any of you out there who have a blog. It is such a perfect journal. I am in love with it and can't wait to get my more recent posts put into one!!

Lastly, and totally unrelated, I love to see my kids creative little minds at work. Daisy just whipped up this little hot air balloon for her toys tonight . . . and look, now this picture is here on my blog . . . which means it will eventually end up in a family journal book right in our own home!

What to Blog

Think. Think. Think. What to blog about? Hmmm. Oh, who am I trying to kid. More like: What NOT to blog about. I could blog about anything from my recent rekindling of an old love between myself and chocolate Twizzlers, to Abe's little army guy that I somehow vacuum up and manage to save practically every time I vacuum, to Daisy recently paying Abe to play with her, to Mike refusing to learn Pig Latin, to our dreamy new primary class, to my thoughts on certain words, to admitting that I am just like the rest of the world (when I know it is cooler to NOT be) in that I love LOST, to Goldie wanting a real fairy for her birthday. Heck, I could even write some spiritual insights I've had of late. In fact, I could even do a little bit of ranting about some issues that frustrate me a great deal. But I don't know that I want to rant here. Ranting is saved special like for one of my sisters to hear over the phone. You know, the conversations that end with, "Thanks for letting me rant and not thinking I'm crazy. I just needed to get that off my chest." Here a rant might just make some of you who don't know me better think I really am crazy and, well, heaven forbid.

Anyway, all I'm saying is, there is no shortage of things for me to post post post. I am generally not a very big fan of improv., but sometimes I feel like having improv. night here on my blog. You know, where you would just all throw out a subject and I would blog away. But now, oh dear, I've just mentioned all the things I could blog about and, without realizing what I was doing, left myself with exactly what I said wasn't the problem -- nothing to blog about. I just threw out my whole arsenal of topics that quick. Huh, well, if I haven't just blogged myself right into a corner, thrown out the baby with the bath water, and all of that. I've faithfully tramped myself about in nothing but a big circle I guess, because now I am back to this: Think. Think. Think. What to blog about?

A Fabulous Award

Oh how could I have forgotten about this?? Here is the thing, if you traipse about the blogging world very long you see some stuff. One "stuff" you see is precious little blog awards. They are just cute little decorative squares that say nice things like, "Best blog EVER," or "Super Cool Blog." . . . and actually, I don't know that they say those exact things. I don't know because I have never been awarded one of these darling little badges of blog approval. Never that is until NOW! And yes, it was from my very own sister. Still, how great it feels to have been given this: I'd almost say it feels "fabulous!"

Unfortunately these blessed little awards come with "rules" -- rules you are supposed to follow. I simply wanted the praise. Blast. The only part I have trouble with is the tagging others. Not that I don't want to pass this fabulous award along, I just get nervous to "tag" anyone outside of my sisters because blogs are personal (obviously I don't mean personal like "private" since the idea is that someone is reading these posts). I mean people do what they personally want with them and I don't know that anyone wants me to tell them what they have to post. With my own sisters they will simply ignore if they want. Still, I'll see what I can do.

Here are the rules to receiving this award:

You have to pass it on to 5 other fabulous bloggers in a post.

You have to list 5 of your fabulous addictions in the post.

You must copy and paste the rules and the instructions below in the post.

On your post of receiving this award, make sure you include the person that gave you the award and link it back to them.

OK, so I linked to Shannon above (and now here). She was the beloved sister who awarded me this fabulous award.

Some fabulous bloggers to pass this on to? Well, I love all the blogs of my friends and family. But for safety's sake I will say:

Megan first off. She is a fabulous blogger and sister in general for always doing nice stuff for me, and bringing me all her clothes she tires of (she shops lots more than I do), and being excited for me about whatever. She seems to switch her blog periodically back and forth between private and open, so if you click on her link you may or may not be lucky enough to see the girl.

Oh, and how about my nieces: Jessica, Ashley, and Kristen. I love when those cute girls post something and they certainly don't nearly enough, so perhaps this will give those fabulous girls some motivation. I've talked about my grown up nieces before, but they make my life so much more enjoyable than it would otherwise be!

OK, who will be the lucky last blogger to be awarded this tiny fabulous square? . . . I would say so many of you . . . ohhhh (biting my nails) . . . how about . . . Sara!! That is right, I am talking to you my niece on Mike's side. You are the lucky fabulous one. Are you even reading this?? Well, you better be and you better get posting your little award along with something else as you also seem to need a little motivation to get you posting more for your sweet aunty to read.

As for five fabulous addictions. Since when are addictions fabulous? Maybe if you are addicted to good things? Like addicted to reading your scriptures? (Oops, maybe that sounded sacrilegious, but it made me chuckle. Besides, I do like to read my scriptures, so there). Anyway, here are some addictions (though this is starting to feel like coming up with "quirks" which only made me feel so like a boring soul).

1. Running. There, that is a fabulous addiction. I haven't ran in three plus weeks now and it makes me so sad. Really, I do love to run. It is pretty much the only "me" thing I have kept doing since having children. But I feel forever blessed that I didn't make the volleyball team in 9th grade and so, heart broken, joined the cross country team. It is how I get my alone time, where I think some of my deepest thoughts, and of course, good for my health. It is hard to find ways to get out what with so many little ones at home and a husband who works long hours, but I love it. I actually feel little twinges of jealousy when I am driving somewhere and pass by someone out running.

2. Blogging. What a fun thing this blog business has been. Fun to read posts of friends and family, and a new "me" thing that I have added to my life -- being able to write little bits of stuff and get a few comments about it is so enjoyable.

3. Treats and baking. Sigh, that is probably not a fabulous addiction, but I do love it. I was always the dessert maker of the family. Sunday's it was a given someone would suggest I go make brownies. I really do have a horrible sweet tooth and while I don't like cooking meals much, I quite enjoy having the kids help me whip up a cake or cookies or some such.

4. Cute clothes for my kids. I'm thrifty enough and luckily for Mike I don't actually enjoy going shopping much (I know, weird) so I don't buy them clothes that often, but I do find myself wanting to buy cute little items of clothing for my kids whenever I see them. Nothing else in stores catches my eye or tempts me nearly as much as a darling little dress or sweater for one of my girls and I get so happy when someone passes on something cute for my kids (like my friend Jessica who just brought me an entire bag of clothes for Daisy that her daughter had outgrown! Thanks Jess!!).

5. A Good Book. I am not always reading. In fact often I am avoiding reading and that is because if I am reading a book that truly interests me I simply can't put it down. Mike will tease that I am the least present and fun wife imaginable when I am in the middle of a book because I will be sneaking it out when we are supposed to be watching a movie together or when he wants to tell me something interesting, etc. But I love how a story makes me feel and how an authors descriptions of children or love or whatever it might be makes me more aware of those things in my own life. I am often sad when a good book is over simply because I miss the people so much and know I can't ever know the rest of their story (and yes, that is how I feel even with fictional characters!). I once made my sister laugh at me for saying I wanted to send the missionaries to baptize Levin from Anna Karenina. And for days I was so sad and missing the family from How Green Was My Valley. Does anyone have a good book for me to read? Maybe you shouldn't tell me as I will then be stuck to it and unable to care for my poor young children until I've finished it! :)

There, did I do all that was required? I'm not sure. I hope so. I don't want this award ripped from my deserving blog by the award patrol due to failure to meet all the requirements!!

Ghost Blog

Poor lonely deserted blog. Does anyone come to see you anymore? Why would they when you have so clearly been abandoned by even your once faithful caretaker? When they can hear the wind whistle past them and see the tumble weeds blowing by sending a chill of loneliness to their core?

Perhaps it is with the same pull that compels one to dare themselves up the creaking slivered steps of a dark and, for reasons long forgotten, abandoned old house to peak in through the slats of a broken shutter; smell the odd, damp, musky odor; and jump at some unknown in the shadows.

Or, perhaps you have even lost that appeal and are looked upon instead with disappointment and a small sense of some loss as one might gaze upon the tattered, thistle and dyer's woad infested remains of what must have once been a well tended garden with pathways, stone benches, climbing roses and delicate small petaled flowers. One might wonder what had become of the clearly once beloved spot, why the stone bird bath now lay cracked on the ground, and who might have long ago sat in the shade of such a quiet and now sadly unappealing spot.

Worst of all, you may now go unnoticed entirely -- a small house that once had children and laughter with in your walls, a fire in the fire place, or a breeze blowing through spring print curtains; a rope swing in the backyard, a mother calling little ones in for bath time and a father hammering a nail in the wall to hang his wife's newly purchased painting. And now, forgotten; surrounded by large buildings, paint faded, left by your loving occupants and viewed simply as a cheap and temporary place to live by your present ones.

Poor poor blog, how could I have dealt with you thusly?

You know I could have only written something this kooky late at night as I pine for my far off husband and should be getting some sleep. All is well and we are well. Far from settled and quite in limbo, but still quite well. Someday soon I will reenter the entertaining world of blogdom.

The Fear of Very Minor Changes

I've noticed on a few blogs that the paragraphs aren't all squat like mine -- you know, everything actually stretches out to the sides. Anyway, I never mess around with different blog backgrounds or templates. I hardly even dare to consider changing my opening picture. I don’t know why. I am always afraid I’ll ruin everything and can never go back if I mess around. Even in my house, I don’t dare put something different on a wall or shelf even though it might end up looking 100 times better. My sisters are so good at changing things up a bit and things are always new and better and fun with their homes, bedding, hair, or even blogs. I don’t know why I am so scared. See that different picture of me on the “about me” section off to the right? I had to comment on Shannon’s blog 50 times with different pics because I was too afraid to change on my own. I was even nervous that putting those pics of my kids down the side might ruin everything. Huh. Weird.

The point of this is to say that I was looking at the basic blog templates last night and realized that my same template (plain boring white) was available in “stretch” mode. I thought it might be good for me because what with my always selecting “large” font as well as being incapable of brevity, my posts look sooooo long as you scroll down the page, but certainly, if you stretched it out so the lines across the page were longer, then as you scrolled down it would appear shorter. Never mind that it wouldn’t actually be shorter, you’d all feel like it was and like to read it more.

The trouble was that it said if I applied the template it would erase all my font choices and colors (and as you’ve noticed, my precious different colored fonts are all the variety I’ve got going here). I was supposed to be able to “preview” my blog in stretch mode, but it won’t work. I was torn. I couldn’t change it with out knowing I’d love it! What was I to do?!! Luckily Mike noticed the quandary I was in and told me to stop right where I was at. He assured me that long and skinny posts were always preferable to short and fat posts. He told me no one would ever consider reading a post if it stretched across my page. He said these short lines are much much more fun, and everybody loves white space. I don’t know if he meant it or if I believe it (since I’ve been drawn to those longer lines), all the same I was relieved. For the present time I won’t have to battle with the awful decision of whether or not I should make a minor and completely insignificant change. (As a side note, I am pretty good with big changes in my life – babies, moves when you don’t have a home to move to, etc. So, I’m not all bad).

The Blog Craze

I know blogs must have been around for some time because I rememeber hearing something or other about them long ago and thinking how creepy and bizarre they sounded. (The name still sounds creepy). But, for some reason, the blog has taken off lately (as far as I can tell). I only really started hearing of people I actually knew doing blogs in about January, but since then, it seems that nearly every person I know has their own special little blog. I guess it is fun for us all to feel like someone (other than the imaginary audience in our head) is interested in our lives . . . and for some reason, we really all do seem to be. It has been such a fun way to get a little feed back on my own thoughts, keep up on family and friends, reconnect with old friends, and even form new connections with those who (whom?) I am somehow connected to through family or friends. It sort of feels like we have all formed this little meeting place where we can have mom talk, spiritual talk, or a little humor -- with out having to actually meet (not that meeting wouldn't be nice, but you know . . .).

Anyway, after talking to a friend at church the other day about different people in the ward who also have blogs, I informed Mike that practically everyone in the ward now has a blog. Mike told me this was great -- he could just see the increase in home teaching percentages: "Sure I did my home teaching this month. I checked each of their blogs and left a comment." I'm glad he's finally seeing the beauty of the blog.

It's a bloggy blog world

1 – I’m not super fond of the word “blog.” I don’t know why, I just feel a little dumb saying it. I still do say it though, so I’m not too good for the word. My smarty-pants sister tells me it comes from “web log”.

2 – I like the word “post”. I think it is because every time I hear it I think of the slightly bizarre movie “Cold Comfort Farm.” The main girl was often referred to only as, “Robert Post’s child.” Sometimes I tell my sisters to go check out my new Robert Post’s child when I’ve added a new post.

3 – I used to wonder what the deal was with the strange curvy letters you have to type in if you want to leave a comment at the end of a post. I knew it was some type of protection and so wondered, “can ‘bad’ people not read these tricky letters?” My sister thought perhaps it was some form of discrimination against the visually impaired and any comments they might like to leave. Once again smarty-pants sister (that’s Perla for any of you who have noticed her here) tells me it is to avoid spam – as an actual person needs to type it in. Ah-hah!

4 – A good way to have the last word in any conversation (especially if your husband is treading on thin ice with some smart-alecy remarks) is to say, “HA! I’m going to blog about that!!” -- Even if you must say the word “blog.” It always makes me laugh like, "just wait, I'll show you!"

5 – People seem to feel silly leaving comments if you didn’t specifically invite them to your blog, but that is only because they don’t realize a comment (especially unexpected) is like a little treat left on your door-step, and you like that they have been sneakily reading your blog.

6 – Everyone I know who started up a blog (or “jib” as my sister calls it) after first seeing mine, made their own ten times cooler looking. What gives?

If there is anything else you've thought of when it comes to blogging, feel free to tell me in a comment.