Saturday, January 16, 2010

Thoughts About Blogging - 2009 Collage


I was in a cut rate furniture store one time -- the kind that looks like a big, red barn. Behind the owner's desk was a large bulletin board which was covered with pictures of the same three children at all different ages standing on a dock, playing in the water, in front of an orange sunset. That picture collage had a profound effect on me. It spoke of a happy family in a nice home near the water. Years of happy times were depicted there. Since I had a rather lonely childhood, it represented a yearning I have always had.

This blog is my bulletin board. Someday I hope it reminds my children and grandchildren of fun and happy times we had together. My son recently said I must be in a sweet spot in my life. He was very perceptive. In spite of whatever troubles we may have, I am in a sweet spot surrounded by my home, my son and daughter, friends, husband and these dear children. I will never be famous and rich, but I do feel important when I can't even pull into the driveway without being swarmed by anxious children running to their Grandma. Okay, that doesn't really happen that often any more, but it has in the past. I was seriously afraid of running over one of them before I could stop the car and get out.

I have always kept photo albums and recorded events in daytimers to mark our lives, but when I discovered how easy it is to take a digital photo and print it out or send it to a friend or post it in a blog, I was hooked. Now the little flip video cameras make it easy to add moments of real life. I would also like to scan in old photos and documents and add music as well. That would make this blog a real family history to pass on.

I am not an expert in Blogger, but I have found it very difficult to search for blogs I might be interested in. I can't even find the ones I know are there sometimes. What happened is that my friend, Sharon, had her blog listed as a 'Blog of Note' and that inspired me to get started. Somehow you find one blog you like and that leads to another and another. That network opens up fascinating lives that are very different and far away from my own but which have become very important to me. I look forward to checking the blogs I follow and seeing comments on my own. I know that some people view blogging as a rather self-indulgent pursuit, but it has become so much more to me.

I recently added "My Farmhouse Kitchen" to my list of blogs. A title I couldn't resist. I also started following "City Views, Country Dreams" which is a great insight into living in an apartment in New York City and all that entails -- so different from my own life and yet, I feel I am there. I love synch-ro-niz-ing, Life at Willow Manor and The Lettered Cottage and Attic24. This is better than journaling, scrapbooking and penpal-ing all rolled into one. Sweet!

4 comments:

  1. So nice, Shari. Thank you for the mention.

    It's a very apt way to think of this place, a bulletin board, or a scrapbook. It's about self, but so much more. I have never had the world open up to me as I have these last 4 years of blogging.

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  2. Thanks, Ruth. I don't think I could ever stop now.

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  3. Shari Sunday..thanks so much for stopping by to visit at Farmhouse....and mentioning me on your post..very kind of you..

    and do try the spareribs....there wasn't a morsel left around here last night...

    i'll be happy to follow you too..

    more later

    kary
    xxx

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  4. It is, indeed, a marvelous community of caring and talented people who enrich my life on a daily basis!

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