Blogworthy

The other day, I placed an online order for a book.  This is the 8th year I have placed an order like this in January (handily utilizing a 30 percent off coupon of course).  Every January, I order a blogbook - a book which contains all my blog posts from the prior year.

On an end table in our family room, the last seven years' worth of blog entries lay in book form, fanned out for effect (but don't look too closely, or you will also see seven years' of dust for effect as well.  Okay, maybe not seven years.  Maybe seven weeks?). The blog books chronicle our little corner of the world; our family as it grows, changes and well, gets louder and crazier.  The kids often pick up a random year, choose an entry and read about our life at that moment.  Since I don't use names on the blog, the kids have to determine who the entry is about from the year it was written and the age of the child mentioned.  (So basically, it's a math lesson. Listen - I am constantly infusing our moments with learning.  Don't be jealous.).  They laugh, they tease each other, and they remember the past.

And I LOVE it.  I only wish I had been blogging since we had our fist child.  I'm sure it was invented, but I am not exactly a technological goddess and did not even have email in the year 2000, much less a grasp of the mysterious word blogging.   I always wanted to be a journaler (is that word?  Spell check says it isn't, but I think it should be), but I never really succeeded.  As a result, many, many memories are simply gone.  I thought I would remember them, but in those sleep-deprived days of babyhood, toddlerhood and general loss of sanity, they disappeared.  And that makes my heart heavy.  I am so very thankful for this glorious thing called blogging which has for some reason pushed me to be a journaler now, and I am prompted to record our family's memories here.

Each blog book has a dedication.  Usually I write something about thanking the children, without whom I would have little to write.  But this year I wrote the following dedication:

As the years pass, this blog becomes more and more dear to me.  What began as a lark - an effort to "give blogging a go" has become a chronicle of our family life.The memories recorded here, both heartfelt and funny, reveal snapshots of our days. I am ever so thankful for my family, precious and fiercely loved. It's all grace.

I must have been feeling nostalgic or philosophical or something, because this theme was prevalent in my mind as I compiled 2015's book.  When I started blogging, I had four children, the youngest of whom was one.  Now I have five, and the youngest is six.   SIX!  It rather blows my mind when I ponder it.  Life in so many ways was so very different then, but it was also very similar.  Hard days, and easy days, crying and laughter.  

This blog, while it started out as a lark, because I enjoyed writing and everyone was blogging, has become many things for me.  It is a writing discipline (I aim for succinct, interesting posts - as you well know, dear reader, my success is varied), it is chance to slow down and notice what is happening around me, and it helps me put a positive spin on sometimes trying situations. But most importantly, this blog has chronicled our lives for the past 8 years.  I'm incredibly glad I decided to give it a go.