When I started blogging on Jan. 1, 2004 95% of the people I knew did not know what a blog was, they had never even heard the word. It was a little embarrassing even mentioning it.
A few of my Well Trained Mind friends had started blogs. The two I most remember that started before me were Carmon author of Buried Treasure and MFS author of Mental Multivitamin. They both did such a beautiful job with their blogs that I decided to give it a try.
I had a purpose and I know I would never kept going for this long if I did not have that purpose and remind myself of it when I felt weary.
In 2004 we attended a church where I was not allowed to serve because I was not a member. That was the rule and I respected that. However, I very much wanted to encourage women to love their husbands and children. Elisabeth Elliot spoke over and over on her radio show about how we older women needed to encourage the younger women. Since I could not do this in my community, I formed my own little community on my blog.
Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands.
~1 Thess. 4:11
I was able to link my blog from The Well Trained Mind website so many friends for the forum came by and started reading. I shared my blog address with my sisters and brother. Hey! My blog was even in a magazine one time; Homeschooling Today.
I wrote very pure, earnest, serious posts for many, many months. They were the real me, but I must admit I was careful not to offend.
Then I confessed that I liked to watch TV. Like Chance the Gardner from Being There.
Since then I have let people in on that nutty, tv watching, fashion loving side of myself, too.
I have tried not to complain too much and believe that I must never speak smack about my spouse.
I have been blessed by kind and thoughtful readers.
I have learned from, been comforted by and laughed at comment after comment.
Sharing my life on this blog, with you, has been remarkable.
With you.
You are the key.
When I want to quit because I feel boring and redundant, Stephanie yells at me in big capital letters that I am not allowed to quit.
So if you like it here...you have Stephanie to thank. I can not let her down, younger woman that she is.
I have loved sharing poems and quotes and scriptures, fashion, movies and songs.
Sharing my joys and happy times has been a blast. Graduations and weddings, babies and vacations.
All great, great joys and blessings.
When Suzy got that horrible brain tumor and died so quickly my heart broke as did my spirit.
Your prayers and words of love and support and encouragement helped me more than you will ever know.
You prayed when I could not and I will never, never forget it.
And so I will go on, I guess.
I don't know what I would do without you.
I would miss my girlfriends:
The young moms and faraway friends, the homeschool buddies and the blog-sistahs.
You have encouraged me over and over. I hope I have done that for you once or twice.
Thank you!
Love you.
Mean it.
Donna
Favorite Quotes about writing.
"There is one type of writing, however, that may have more to offer than most movies. It is called personal writing, or writing that comes from within, carried out because you have a personal need to explore or share your experiences."
~Writer's Inc
"Put it before them briefly so they will read it, clearly so they will appreciate it,...and, above all. accurately so they will be guided by its light."
-Joseph Pulitzer
First Recipe
Cooking from Quilt Country by Marcia Adams.
I have altered her recipe by adding cauliflower for some variety.
Broccoli-Cauliflower Salad
1 bunch broccoli
1 head cauliflower
10 slices bacon
1/3 cup raisins
1 large red onion
1 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup toasted sunflower seeds
Chop up broccoli and cauliflower. (Eight cups all together.) Fry bacon and set aside. Chop onion. Combine broccoli, cauliflower, onion, raisins and bacon. Whisk together mayo, sugar, vinegar, and pepper.
Pour dressing over vegetables. Refrigerate. Top with sunflower seeds.
Often prayed and quoted poem;
For Our Children
Father, hear us, we are praying,
Hear the words our hearts are saying,
We are praying for our children.
Keep them from the powers of evil,
From the secret, hidden peril,
From the whirlpool that would suck them,
From the treacherous quicksand, pluck them.
From the worldling's hollow gladness,
From the sting of faithless sadness,
Holy Father, save our children.
Through life's troubled waters steer them,
Through life's bitter battle cheer them,
Father, Father, be Thou near them.
Read the language of our longing,
Read the wordless pleadings thronging,
Holy Father, for our children.
-Amy Carmichael, from "For Our Children."
****
A poem for me and Katie
Us Two
Wherever I am, there's always Pooh,
There's always Pooh and Me.
Whatever I do, he wants to do,
"Where are you going today?" says Pooh:
"Well, that's very odd 'cos I was too.
Let's go together," says Pooh, says he.
"Let's go together," says Pooh.
"What's twice eleven?" I said to Pooh.
("Twice what?" said Pooh to Me.)
"I think it ought to be twenty-two."
"Just what I think myself," said Pooh.
"It wasn't an easy sum to do,
But that's what it is," said Pooh, said he.
"That's what it is," said Pooh.
"Let's look for dragons," I said to Pooh.
"Yes, let's," said Pooh to Me.
We crossed the river and found a few-
"Yes, those are dragons all right," said Pooh.
"As soon as I saw their beaks I knew.
That's what they are," said Pooh, said he.
"That's what they are," said Pooh.
"Let's frighten the dragons," I said to Pooh.
"That's right," said Pooh to Me.
"I'm not afraid," I said to Pooh,
And I held his paw and I shouted "Shoo!
Silly old dragons!"- and off they flew.
"I wasn't afraid," said Pooh, said he,
"I'm never afraid with you."
So wherever I am, there's always Pooh,
There's always Pooh and Me.
"What would I do?" I said to Pooh,
"If it wasn't for you," and Pooh said: "True,
It isn't much fun for One, but Two,
Can stick together, says Pooh, says he. "That's how it is," says Pooh.
-A. A. Milne
-from Now We Are Six
Wisconsin love:
If a man can't be happy on a little farm in Wisconsin,
he doesn't have the makings of happiness in his soul.
-Nick Engelbert (1881-1962), farmer-artist
Go Pack Go
*****
The way we were...
Anthems
Love Wins. Add to the Beauty. What happens Matters....
Encourage one another,
Donna
