On Blogging...

I keep eyeing that shortcut button to Treasured Chapters that sits on my browser's Bookmark Bar. It occasionally taunts me, really. I've come to the conclusion that I no longer blog for three main reasons. First, I still hold a huge grudge against Google+ for making it so easy for me to inadvertently delete all of the photos from my blog. As a perfectionist, it's difficult for me to continue a project that has holes in it. At least I know I can keep busy during my empty nester years restoring those photos. (Of course, my premature worries about what in the world I will do with myself once the kids have flown the coop is fodder for another post altogether. Or 100 posts. Or maybe just material good for a reclined position on a psychiatrist's couch.)

Anyway, the second and probably most influential reason I haven't been able to pick up my blogging pen much is that it's just not as easy to blog about older kids. Dare I say they don't do things so cutely anymore? That's not to say my joy in sharing life with them has in any way been diminished; in fact, I am enjoying them more now than ever. They are witty and insightful and funny and just a lot of fun to be around. Just not cutesy, which is kinda what I used to focus on.

Facebook wasn't around yet when my babies were babies. I feel like I missed out a little because I didn't get to show off adorable photos of my babies on a daily basis. Of course, that very point serves to emphasize the third and perhaps equally as important reason I've been avoiding Treasured Chapters. I have such a love/hate relationship with any media that falls under the social label. It's hard enough being a patient homeschool mom to four kids and a loving wife to a traveling husband without being barraged by daily reminders from photos and status updates about how incredibly awesome other moms are, what supermoms they are. Of course, they probably think the same about me; we tend to post the highlights of our lives that we think others will admire. It's more difficult to be real and thus vulnerable in front of others. I know from experience that the devil uses this to cultivate a culture of comparison with a huge dose of feeling like you can never measure up.

I'm working on combating the devil's schemes by spending less time on Facebook and other social media. At the same time, however, I feel like time is flying by so very quickly and I'm not capturing enough of those quick moments in a way that I can savor them more fully later.

So I am back with my random ramblings, my photos, and my desire to save these moments in a way that I can better treasure them.

Treasures

"I write to hold what I find in my life in my hands and declare it a treasure" (Lucy Calkins).
That is my writing mantra, yet I've failed miserably at living up to it. I'm not referring so much to the writing part of it as that is rather inconsequential. I'm referring to the part about glimpsing the treasure, even in the seemingly mundane moments of life. It seems the last few months, even the last several, have been rather stale. Not that anything has been wrong necessarily, nothing specifically negative...just a dry spell, I suppose.

It feels like I spend most days just going through the motions, checking things off of a list, but not really holding on to the moments in order to remember them and give them meaning. I suppose that is why I haven't been here. Because who wants to hear about another tedious day of school? Or a lazy afternoon? Or a trip to the mall? 

See? I'm missing the point. I'm missing the treasures. Instead of that tedious day of school, I need to focus on the fact that I found a new way to teach long division so one of my boys could better understand it. I should tell about how the kids created a crepe paper laser beam obstacle course to take up some time on a rainy afternoon. I should highlight the big smile that we couldn't erase from one boy's face when he got his new Transitions lenses on his glasses. Or I should tell about how one of those tedious days ended with my baby saying to me, "Mommy? I love you so much!" 

These are the treasures I'm missing because I've no longer been intentionally making the effort to see them and mull them over and cherish them. Moreover, I've no longer been putting forth any effort to create experiences for the kids that generate these treasures. I can't believe how quickly they're growing up. Everyone warned me. They just warned me when I was up to my elbows in spit up, dirty diapers, and crumby floors. So I didn't believe them. Now I've forgotten to remember how fast it goes by.

It is time now to start recapturing the moments and declaring them treasures.