Why a Blog? Why now?

Why in the world would I want to start writing a blog when I've got two little boys at home already? When I run our household as well as the Children's Church program at our church? When I am homeschooling our 5 year-old and tutoring his class in a Classical Conversations program? When I am already trying to build relationships in an intentional way around our neighborhood?

My sweet boys. The 2 reasons (of 3
main ones: Jason!) that I want to
stop wasting time.

Well, the answer is simple... and complex. As most things are. I want to write. I LOVE to write. Writing is therapy, for free! Writing is thought processing. Writing is sharing. Writing is what I would do if I had unlimited time and resources and could choose whatever I'd like to do with both of them. I would write. And I want to get better at it, and love it more. And I know there's only one way to do that: write more.

But where do I find the time to write when there are already 74,829,091 other things pulling at my life, my attention, my time? Well, up until a few weeks ago, that answer was simple: I don't. Unless my internal dialogue got so intense that I couldn't find a thought within the mess of my mind, then I'd sit down and write. In crisis mode, so to speak. It was the only way I could process through some of the more difficult situations in my life. But that's not all I want for my writing life. I want to write when I'm happy, and when I see something beautiful. I want to write to share knowledge and to gain more knowledge. I want to write with intention. I want to make space for writing.

Time-Suck-Book

So, I'll have to cut something out. That's how it works. And that has also been a tough decision. Starting now, and continuing through the end of this year, I will be "weaning" myself from Facebook. It is such a tough thing to get rid of, right? We (or at least, I) use it to keep in touch with family, and long-lost friends, and people you met that one time at an event. I use it to connect with my church family. To communicate with my CC campus and find ideas from other tutors. I have started a neighborhood Facebook group, where we can plan events as a neighborhood, reach out to each other, sell things, or ask for help. It's kind of integral to the things I do. But it doesn't have to be. And along with all those things that I use it for that are useful (most of the above, but not all), there is also the time-suck. The part of it that leads to mindless browsing, liking, and commenting, about things that DON'T matter. Or getting sucked into debates with people you hardly know. Or feeling like that amount of connection was "enough" even though Facebook is not how you build or even maintain relationships.

You do that in person. You do that on the phone or over coffee or with a hug. You do that with intentional living, and that's what I want to cultivate in myself.

I want to intentionally write about the things in our life. The kids, my husband, our triumphs and struggles, our adventures, our projects. I want to do that without caring at ALL about how many *likes* it gets or who commented or whether I responded well enough to each person. (Please tell me I'm not the only one who does this?)

So, I will write here, hopefully multiple times a week, and I will make time for that writing by getting rid of the time I waste on Time-Suck-Book. I will intentionally carve out about 20 minutes 2 times a week in which I log into that dreaded invention, take stock of the groups I'm part of, respond to messages and check on the people in my life that I care about, that mean something to me, and that maybe haven't made the same decision.

But my life won't be there. My life will be in real life. And here, when I make the conscious effort to write. And hopefully write well. Because that's where I'm called right now. To simplify and be intentional. Lofty goals, but good ones, I think.

15 Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.

~Ephesians 5: 15-16