Why?

Why now? Why ever? Why again? Why?

These were all questions that I've have struggled and do struggle with on a daily basis.   Let's face it....who doesn't? These questions have recently weighed on me for the past 2 years like the last 10 pounds of a bad fad diet; for a number of reasons, but all of them made me contemplate reviving my blog. And the word reared its ugly head again.....why?

Fast forward to a few days ago....a friend I met through others...whom I've become to know through the interweb....Laura....photog and blogger extraordinaire in my book.   She asked the same question....why?    But it was of herself and her lingering "blog block" (I might have to trademark that one :).   Anywho.....she was wondering if she should continue to blog.    It was my comment to her that provided the answer to my why.    I told her she was an awesome writer & she should do it for her.    Not sure that I qualify as awesome, but I love to write, and yes, I'm going to do this for me...well, me & my family.    So thanks Laura and here I go again :)

This do-over begins my labor of love and I can't help but be excited.    Because this time I have my vision and thanks to my recently answered 2 years of whys (of which will be its own separate post), I'm sticking to it.  

I vaguely remember the moment my mother handed me my baby book.   But I strongly remember my intent and desire to physically hand similar books to my children, should I be blessed with a family.    And with the blessing of my first child, Kaitlyn, I happily scribed all of the events that were important enough to have been included in the printing process of the book that I purchased from Stein Mart.   My own handwriting in the book went from being neat and precise to hurried abbreviations of moments or dates until finally I began stuffing pieces of paper in the cover of all of the things I remembered that I promised myself would be handwritten at a later date.   With later dates came 2 more children, Caroline and Noah, and 2 additonal books gifted from people who viewed it as the timeless tradition I once did.    Both books contain highlights and mainly scribbles of paper, but could potentially be re-gifted if I wanted to pass that guilt and torment on to another mother.   Thankfully, photography and pictures have always been a mainstayed passion to me to capture images of the years past & are available at my fingertips, so I'm not too guilt ridden as I do have visual representations of first steps & the like;  but alas no written transcript. 

Then it hit me....the moments that are important in families are the ones that never become a category for a line in a baby book, but rather the stories that are shared over and over again about the things, places, events and people that provoked laughter, tears, sorrow and joy.   The things that shape up and the things that brought us to who and where we are today.    I always thought of my writing as personal; for me; so why (damnit again) would I share, publish or post it to others outside my family.    Well, my initial & greatest source for inspiration about what to post and remember here will start with questions my children have asked: what did you look like when you were my age, how did you & daddy meet, what did you want to be when you were my age.   So yes, with 3 kids, I'll have plenty of material.   But I've seen and felt the power of shared words, and so although I'm doing this for me & my family, it will be just plain cool & fun to get sources for future posts from somewhere else.

So with that I'm back and I say why not?