I have boxes of journals in my closet dating back more than thirty years. The first one is smoke stained; it was sitting by the door when our neighbors were pulling what furniture they could from the front room before all was lost to the fire that destroyed our home in 1980.
That journal lasted me until the age of eight, at which point I began to write prolific adolescent entries. Then there are my young motherhood journals and scrapbooks, from back in the day when I had time to do such things. And while there is still a journal by my bed that contains deeply personal thoughts, it occurs to me that most of what I’d want to share with my children is on this blog.
It also occurs to me that there are a lot of things not on the blog that I might want them to know, but don’t particularly want them to search for in my more personal entries. (And yes, I kind of sort of hope another disaster claims the boxes in my closet. There might be some worthwhile things there, but most of it is probably teenaged drivel.)
So.
I spent an entire day this week cutting and pasting the past three years of my blog into a Word document. (Don’t tell me: you know of an easier way to do that…)
And I have a new blogging plan for 2011. My approach will be geared more towards my family, less towards random rambling thoughts and not at all toward social networking. Which, let’s face it, I abandoned long ago. I read a very few blogs anymore, and comment hardly ever. And I hate feeling like I can’t write in my own blog because I’m not holding up my end as a reader of other people’s blogs.
Here’s my plan so far (feel free to snicker up your sleeves when three postless weeks go by and you realize that once again, all my resolutions have fallen flat):
Saturdays: I will profile one of my children. I know, I know, yawn–it’s the digital equivalent of flipping out the ole wallet full of photos, but looking back over the archives, it’s something I wish I’d done more of.
Sunday: my post will reflect some of my deeper convictions I would like to pass on to my children.
Mondays-Fridays: I have a topic for every day that reflects my goals for this year, not all of which you probably want to read about at this point, but if you follow along, you might catch on to a pattern.
January 2nd, 2011 at 4:14 am
I love it!
January 2nd, 2011 at 11:24 am
Daughter2 has a strawberry mark on the top of her arm and everyone used to ask what had happened to her arm, but over time it has lightened a little.
Son was about that age when he went all things lego too. A good time.
January 3rd, 2011 at 4:06 pm
Yeah–they love the legos–we built an entire city this weekend, complete with a graveyard and a bizarre cross between a fast food joint and a starwars inteplanetary spaceship.
January 2nd, 2011 at 10:26 pm
Sounds like a great plan. I look forward to seeing what you come up with!
January 3rd, 2011 at 3:59 pm
Thanks! So do I!
January 5th, 2011 at 4:04 am
You should go to blurb.com. I made my blog into a hard bound book. Well, 2007’s blog. My intention is to do a book a year. It is fabulous. I cut and pasted too. It’s my 5 year olds favorite book to read. I’m going to try to follow your example and blog more. I want the memories captured. Just to prove they happened I guess.
January 5th, 2011 at 4:45 pm
Seriously??? The last time I looked at Blurb, they didn’t slurp from wordpress. That’s so awesome! Thanks for pointing it out–knowing I can put it into a real book will help motivate me to keep writing this year.