I’m thankful to be a mother because of my children. I love seeing their personalities emerge. I love seeing them discover new things and put together the pieces. I love helping them learn and grow. I love their hugs and kisses and the way their eyes light up when they see me.
Why are you thankful to be a mother?
Photo by Br Lawrence Lew, O.P.
How much of our time do we spend thinking about what it would take to make us happy? If we just had a little more money, if we just had more time off, if the kids would just go take a nap, if I could just accomplish this far-off goal . . .
Of course, I wouldn’t argue that we don’t need at least some of each of these things—but sometimes, 
as an OK Go song says, “If wanting ever taught you anything, it’s wanting more, (and more and more and more!)”
Agented author Natalie Whipple, whose blog I read, posted about this same phenomenon. On the one hand, she’s reached a major milestone in publishing—she’s gotten an agent. On the other hand, she has to still work on her writing and revisions and still has a long way to go to get published—and even then, the work will continue. She’s enjoying a modicum of success now, but it’s still so easy to fixate on what she wants out of the future (emphasis added).
But here’s the thing—my friends’ successes have not changed how they act or feel. Getting an agent didn’t transform them all into happy, perfect writers. Getting book deals didn’t stop them from worrying about the quality of their work. In fact, in some ways there is even more pressure to deliver perfection. . . .
Of course we’ve all had our low points and struggles—hard times are unavoidable. But it’s all about your attitude. If you aren’t happy now, getting an agent or book deal or whatever isn’t going to change that in the long run. You’ll just Want something else and withhold your happiness until you get that.
So for now, while I could always use a little more money, a little more free time, and a future goal to work toward, I think what I’m going to try to want most is to be content and grateful for what I have.
And that seems like an appropriate thing this week, don’t you think?
How do you focus on being happy with what you have instead of always wanting more?
Photo by James Jordan
Blogging isn’t always as easy as it looks. Now in my fourth year of blogging, things are a little different (as I’m sure many of you “old timers” can attest).
I still get a lot of ideas for posts. Sometimes, they’re thoughts that come out of the blue, and sometimes they’re good enough that I can just hang onto them until I’m ready to write them (I did that with yesterday’s post on hard work for about a week and a half). Some are inspired by others’ posts, others by my every day life or pictures I’ve taken of the kids.
Once I get a good idea, especially if it’s inspired by another post, I write up a little draft of it. Sometimes it’ll be nothing more than a phrase or a link.
And usually, that’s about where they stay, sometimes even after I write the post on that topic. So right now, I have over 100 unfinished blog post drafts.
On the one hand, hooray! I have so much stuff to write about! On the other hand, boo! I don’t want to go through 100 posts looking for something I feel like writing about today (especially not if I have to read something first!).
So today I realized, that’s where I get stuck blogging—taking it from idea/draft to post. (And it’s not like my every post is a masterpiece that I spend days crafting.)
Confession: I wrote this post a couple days ago and thought I posted it. I was all sad because I didn’t get any comments. Then I was checking something on the site and discovered . . . I never hit Publish. What a great illustration of this, LOL!
So today I’m turning it over to you for a little help. How can I take more drafts to posts? Where do you get stuck blogging? What blogging questions do you have?
Photo by Shovelling Son
Once upon a time, there was a mystique to working one’s own land. Owning a farm was considered by a large part of society to be the pinnacle of achievement—you’d “arrived” once you obtained acreage. Hard work was a virtue, and an aspiration.
I doubt that I have to tell you that isn’t the mentality today. Most of us have learned to work just enough to get by. Even in motherhood, sometimes it’s easy to let the “okay” (PBS) supplant the “good” (playing with your kids).
There’s no way around it: motherhood—maintaining the home, providing meals, rearing children to become productive adults, sometimes even providing income for the family—is hard work. Even if we do just enough to get by, sometimes the work of motherhood is emotionally and physically exhausting.
So sometimes motherhood gets a bad rap. But you know what? I think we had it right centuries ago—though it’s often not fun or even interesting, hard work is good for us. It makes us grow and makes us stronger.
And, honestly, I have to hope that anything that requires this much effort can only be worth every ounce of myself that I put into it.
What do you think? What have you learned from the hard work of motherhood? How have you grown as a mother?
Photo by Sasha Wolff
The other day I had a virulent strain of the hiccups. I groaned about it and Hayden asked, “What?”
“I just want these hiccups to be done.”
“Well,” he counseled, “they will just go away by themselves, when they’re done.”
Wise indeed.
Rebecca, meanwhile, discovered oven mitts.
Hayden has taken up “speaking” for his stuffed monkey, Marty. But since Marty’s mouth is sewn shut, Hayden keeps his lips closed and kind of hums.
We’re not sure, but this might be where Rebecca picked up the habit of squealing with her mouth closed every time she sees her favorite stuffed animal/lovey, Pinky.
Logical creatures, children.
What unexpected leaps (logical or otherwise) have you seen from your children?
Over the years, we’ve talked a lot about building communities around our blogs—connecting one on one with our readers, and encouraging them to connect to one another. I went back through some of the best posts we’ve had on those topics and gathered up the best advice.
From Michelle at Scribbit:
From MommyZabs:
From me:
I think it’s also good to let your readers know how they can connect with you. A blog community doesn’t just have to stay on one site—and neither do your friends!
Guest blogging is another way to find new readers who might like to join your blog community—people who are interested in what you’re writing about.
Finally, you can help to encourage more comments on your blog by asking questions in your posts.
And now I will: what bloggers do you think have great communities? What have you seen those bloggers do to reach out to their readers?
Photo credits: plug—Rennett Stowe; clasp—Bao Ngo