happy blog birthday to me

This blog is officially one year old (its blogiversary was Monday; we made a peach coffee cake for it).  Originally this was to be a joint effort, something Jake and I would both use to preserve some of the memories from our family’s daily life.  But once school started Jake had a ton of class work to do online,  and he didn’t want to spend extra time on the computer blogging.  I don’t blame him — computers, like television, will suck your life away if you’re not careful.  Anyway, this blog is pretty much mine now (though Jake is reserving the right to post when and if he chooses).  And I thought I would take this opportunity to talk about why I blog.  So if you don’t mind indulging me in some rambling, I’ll try to make it worth your while by throwing in a few pictures of two very cute girls.

Why I Blog.
Well, here are the first two reasons:

Really this blog is for and about my children in so many ways.  Perhaps it seems strange to say it’s for them, since neither of them can use a computer or even read yet.  But writing a blog never interested me at all until I found out there are ways to have your blog printed in book form.  I consider the documenting and recording of this family’s memories one of my most important jobs.  I don’t do scrapbooking, and I do keep a journal but it’s nothing special really (I know some people do really creative arty journals, but I don’t) and I often go for months without writing in it.  Blogging seemed like a way I could combine pictures and words fairly easily and eventually have it put down on paper for my family. 

And I think blogs are different from both scrapbooking in that you can focus a bit more on quotidian details that might be otherwise overlooked.  I mean, sure you could make a scrapbook page devoted to that awesome chili you made last night — but would you?  And you could mention it in a journal entry, but in a plain old journal like mine there wouldn’t be any accompanying illustrations of my family sitting around the table enjoying said chili.  So this is a place where I can record things that might otherwise be lost: rhythms of our daily life, small conversations, a meal shared with friends.  Ok, time to break for photos.

 

But this blog is for my girls, and my husband, in another sense.  I hope that generally this is a happy space and not a complaining one.  I try hard to focus on the positive things going on here.  This blog is not a total reproduction of our lives — I try to leave out the grumpiness, the tantrums, the harsh words, the poopy diapers, and the many tears that are definitely a part of daily life with small children.  Being a parent has me riding the biggest up-and-down emotional rollercoaster I’ve ever been on, and I’m not trying to deny that the downs exist.  You can’t have ups without downs, and I’ve come to accept them and try to embrace them the best I can.  But I don’t want to dwell on them.  Sure, I could just tell myself to focus on the happy stuff, but having a reason to seek out the good parts of a day and a place to display them — it really helps me to have that incentive. 

When it seems like Adeline and I have been at odds all day (or all week!) and I’m past my wits’ end and I just don’t know how to deal with her anymore, it helps me to get out the camera and take some pictures of her being goofy and write down some of the things she says that make me smile and create a post like this one.  When I feel like all I’ve done all day is carry/feed/change the diapers of a 2-month old baby, I can stop and take a look at a post like this.  I like challenging myself with regular posts like Soulemama’s This Moment, so that every week I’m on the lookout for the good stuff that I really want to capture and remember.  All this makes me just a little bit happier, which in turn makes me a more pleasant mama and wife to be around.

{Adeline’s sheep was a gift from Jake’s aunt.  The girls each got one and they are adorable!  They are from this shop.}

A blog has the added incentive (for me) of being a way to communicate with friends and family we don’t get to see very often (and you know how grandparents need to see pictures of their grandkids!).  I’ve made a few friends through blogging.  And it is fun to be a (small) part of the online crafting community.  Blogging is also a way for me to occasionally exercise my writing skills, which have mostly been rusting away since I graduated from college.

I must admit, for all the happiness it brings me, sometimes blogging can get in the way of my actually living my life.  Either I get really caught up in trying to get a really great photo while we’re supposed to be out doing something fun, or I get bogged down with uploading and editing photos, or (as in the case of this particular post) it ends up taking me a really long time to say what I want to say and other things (dishes, husband, etc.) get neglected.  So at those times I have to tell myself to stop and take a little blog break, and maybe write a few really great posts in my head and then let them go because I just don’t have time to document everything.  I try to remember: the title of this blog is Making Life, and I don’t want to spend mine sitting in front of a computer monitor — I want to be fully present living it with my family.