Back At It (hopefully)

Those that have known me a long time know that I have had, in the past, a love of blogging.  For years, I blogged almost daily... sometimes more than daily.  My blogs, all 3 of them, have been special to me.  Each met a different need.  They are each a place where I have documented my family's life. My spiritual journey.  The things that I love.  And the things that have broken my heart.  They are a place where I connected with friends and family.  And a place of solace.  I have missed the experience that they give me.  As life has sped up to lighting speed (and I thought that it was fast before!), I found that I had trouble finding the time and/ or clarity of mind to sit down and write a blog entry.  Add to that a computer that holds my photos that is (not so) lovingly referred to as "The Dinosaur" in our family, and I was a frustrated mess when it came to blogging.  So, I took a break.

Today, I thinking as I was driving home from taking one of the kids somewhere (which, as a side-note, could be part of my "status" every.single.day these days).  I was counting the things that I am thankful for.  Thanking God for His blessings in "the good" and "the bad" things that are a part of my life.  This is something that I do many times daily and much more than I ever have in the past.  God has used many things, including the book One Thousand Gifts, to revolutionize my life in the last couple of years, and being thankful in all situations has been an area that He has worked on in me at great depth.  Recently, I downloaded the One Thousand Gifts app to my phone, and I love it!  Like, really really love it!  Often, sometimes a few times a day, I will quickly add a photo and a few words (not paragraphs or even sentences) to my One Thousand Gifts app.  It is a chronicle of things - some big, but mostly little - that I am thankful for.  Keeping myself in a mindset of true thankfulness has changed the way that I live, the relationships that I have, and the atmosphere of my home.  My life.

The only negative thing about the app is that it cannot be printed at this time.  I know this because I tweeted the author Ann Voskamp and asked her, and she tweeted me back... which was followed by a high pitched squeal and a little happy dance by me... and told me that having the ability to print the photos/ lists was something that the app developers are working on.  So... back to my very long (and probably boring) story... Today, as I was driving I decided that I will try to duplicate what I think the app is lacking in the form of a new blog that I can primarily update from my phone.  I've never done that, so I am not sure how it will go... but here's hoping.  I would LOVE to be able to chronicle some things for my family.  Capture some memories.  And record some things that make me who I am and my life what it is.

I didn't want to just resume the blog that I previously wrote.  It kind of has a life of it's own that doesn't jive with the inspiration that I am feeling today.  It is a place that I wrote when I was in a much more broken place that I am now.  Parts of it, when I think about them, bring me to tears and almost feel sacred.  Not that this blog, at times, won't be as raw and honest as that one was, but I just want it to have a different feel.  Honestly, I almost feel like I am a different person than I was when I was writing the bulk of that blog, so creating a new blog to match me now seems appropriate.

So, for what it's worth, here we go... I'm back at it.  Hopefully.  And I am excited to be counting, in blog form, my One Thousand Five Gifts.