An explanation of sorts

When I started writing this blog, I was just going to "try" it. I thought it might be fun. It has turned out even better than that...the truth is, I love writing this blog...and I love that you read it. But you are #3 on my list of reasons that I write it. :)

Reasons I blog:
#4 - My creative outlet. I NEED a creative outlet...but with two kids, I need one that is fast, does not require small parts a child can eat, can be done in small sections as I find time, and ultimately is rewarding on some level deeper than just something to "do". I have found that this blog is perfect. It truly is one of the few things I do that I know I am doing in large part just because it is fun for me, but also accomplishes worthy goals like documenting our family adventures. :) I like to write. I enjoy crafting stories out of our "every-day" experiences. It has been a great outlet for me and a fun way to interpret our lives and decisions.

#3 - My friends. I think it is fun to hear from all of you and to give you a glimpse of life in our world in return. It has been really entertaining to get input and comments from all over the place. Truly, I never know who is going to respond to something I write, and I find it very enjoyable to interact in this way with people from all different stages and places in my life. Thanks for being one of those people who makes this worth doing!

#2 - My parents. They don't live near us. My Mom loves to see the pictures and hear the stories and it has been a fun way to keep them, as well as my other family members, "caught up" on our lives and kids and fun happenings. It has really been awesome to feel connected in this way, and so that is a REALLY big reason I do it.

But the #1 reason I do this blog:

#1 - MY KIDS. Let me confess something to you: I am not a scrapbooker. I am not a photo-album mom. I am not even a "let's save this picture you colored" mom. I wish I was...but I'm not. But I like computers, I like to write, I love to take pictures...and I can type pretty fast. :) So...blogging is our family scrapbook. This is as close as my kids are going to get to a photo album from me. This blog is the "memory album" that I want to give to them of things they accomplished, events that were significant to our family, funny stories that we continue to re-tell...the things that shaped us and happened to us along the way. This is the place that they will find all that stuff and more...from me...thier mom...in my words. I hope someday they enjoy reading it...learning about themselves...getting a glimpse into who their parents are and what we were like at different stages of our life. If they get even a little bit of those things out of it, it's totally worth it.

So, that brings me to this little explanation: I am going to be adding a bunch of "old" stories and entries from the last several months. I missed a lot when I dropped off the blogging radar after John was born. I will be writing these and back-dating them and putting them in the order that they "should" have been in had I not been slacking off. I thought about skipping all these things...but they are stories that I want Danika and John to have...stories and pictures and events that I want to record. And so, I'm going to do it. But that means that there will be random posts appearing on Facebook that are "old"...and that if you read this on the actual blog page, several entries that will be added over the next few weeks will be showing up in past months. So...I just wanted to explain why. When I print this year's blog into a book, those entries will be in the right places and tell the stories for those months that I wanted told. It's not really so much for you...it's for me and for them. :)

Hope you understand!

-Andrea