Blogging

My favorite blogger, Pioneer Woman, recently wrote this post.  I found it inspiring and insightful, and it encouraged me to blog more, because the more I do it, the easier it will become, and the more natural it will be and it will better reflect me.  And then I didn't blog for two weeks :)

So, in the interest of writing what's on my mind, here is my reaction to her post.

1. Be yourself.  I try to be.  I hope I am.  My mother-in-law and Linda tell me I do.

And I do get along swimmingly with my sisters, and I sort of write like I'm talking to them.  But if I really wrote like I talk to them, you wouldn't be able to understand half of what I say.

2. Blog often.  She likens this to taking care of a plant... it needs to be watered every day, so blog every day.  This is the perfect analogy for me!  I have the best intentions of taking care of plants and letting God grow beautiful things, but I do NOT do so good with every day watering.  As you can tell by the frequency of my blog posts.  But I will try.

3. Be varied.  Sometimes my life feels monotonous, but making a conscientious effort to look for different aspects of life to write about would probably be a good exercise in seeing how interesting life really is.

4. Exercise more.  I am trying.  Really I am.  And Living History Farms Race is coming up and my dog is ridiculously antsy lately, so we will need to get into some kind of habit of running.

5.  Allow your boundaries to set themselves naturally.  Hopefully I do.  Not that I think a bunch of strangers are interesting in reading my blog, so I try not to obsess about it.

6.  Bring back retro phrases.  This coincides beautifully with an ongoing life goal my sister Mandy and I have, which is a strong desire to bring phrases "back". We have been known to watch older movies such as The Parent Trap with notebooks in our laps with every intention of writing down awesome old sayings we want to incorporate into our every day language.  Notice I said intentions.  See number 2 to see how I am about intentions.

7. Don't be afraid to embarrass yourself.  This is good advice for me, because I am afraid to embarrass myself, and I need to learn to laugh instead.  And perhaps I can bring laughter to someone else's life by posting some of my embarrassing stories.  Or maybe just make them feel awkward.  There is a fine line between embarrassing stories that are funny and ones that are not.   I also need to keep in mind that pretty much everyone who reads this blog already knows I am an awkward dork, so I shouldn't pretend I'm not.

8.  Try to spell words correctly and use correct grammar.  I do... I really do.  I read through almost every blog post at least twice before I post it, but I know that I make mistakes, so sorry.  Hopefully you can read through my meanings.  And I know I have run on sentences-- I can't help it.

9. If you have writer's block, push through anyway.  This is probably where the best blog posts come from. Kind of like how so many of the best moments in life are moments you didn' t plan.

10.  Value every person who takes time out of their day to stop by your blog.  I DO!  I can't tell you how much it means to me that people actually read my ramblings.  I don't know why I care so much if people read my blog, but I do.  I guess it makes me feel like people care about me and what's going on in my life, or that they somehow think I am interesting or entertaining.  THANK YOU for reading my blog!