Blogger Competition

This is a long one-- some thoughts on blogging. I'm not offended if you skip a post with so many words and no pictures. I might.

I was skeptical at first. About this whole blogging thing. Thought there was no way I'd keep it up, and why would people take the time to read it? Missy was my guru and example, and I LOVED her blog... just seemed like an artistic way to write and create, and an easier method of showing pictures to Grandparents. I liked the fact that it would help me keep a record of my kids' lives (Sophia's at the time), and that I'd have this beautiful product as a result. I decided to start one just to have a lovely place like Missy's to keep my thoughts and pictures for myself first. Didn't tell anyone about it. Eventually I told Missy and Sarah and my family, then found dear old friends like Michelle from BYU Hawaii and had this new brilliant way to actually keep in touch. It gave me a way to chat with my brother-in-law Joe (lowdogg) since he blogs, (because really, who calls to chat with their brother-in-law?)

I kept connecting with distant friends, friends I wished I'd had more time to know in college, and then found lots of local friends who also blog... why not get to know everyone a little better? I've realized it's a wonderful way to keep in touch almost daily with people you'd love to stay close to, but can't find a synchronized 5 minutes for a phone call. This way if your 2-year-old starts screaming at you like the world is ending while you're leaving a comment, you break--- and come back later. If you want to tell a story but there's simply not a big enough lull in your day to tell the whole thing at once, you can write it in pieces but people receive it whole. If you want to share just how cute your new, red, Steve Madden flats are, or how crazy-fat your son's wasp-stung lip is, or how beautiful the cherry blossoms are in Spring, or just how great your new house is, or how PERFECT your new baby's rose-bud lips are, you've got visuals. Not the case with the phone.

Having said all that, if you were already a phone friend-- you'd better stay a phone friend. Typing can NEVER replace a warm voice you're used to.

None of that really hit what I wanted to talk about-- but now I've written so much I fear I've lost most of you anyway. (Ever notice how many comments you get on a short post?) But with all the perks of blogging, come some negatives. I've heard more than once that people feel depressed looking at other blogs. All the perfection; the perfect kids, house, vacations, tiny bums, even the perfect challenges-- could it be because we all post our best pictures and moments, so everyone's life seems flawless? Except for the flaws we share for entertainment's sake of course. I know I'm guilty, because I've been accused before. But here's the thing-- it's not false or pretentious, not in my book -- it's a public record of our lives and thoughts... so we focus on the positives. They're REAL-- they're just the positives. I don't want to be responsible for bringing everyone down with too many bad days and complaints, the bulk of those are reserved for my husband, my mom, and sisters. :)

I remember my sis-in-law Brooke, who lives in Seattle, admitting she had to take a break from my blog in the summer because all the sunshine and pools, which she didn't have in her rainy state, bummed her out. Yes- the same sis-in-law who's cool, cloudy weather AND Pilates-trained figure I covet beyond healthy levels. (I know her figure has nothing to do with our sunshine... but it seems appropriate to illustrate my point :)) I'd have killed for rain, and I'm sure I said it in my blog all the time, but I couldn't write ONLY of my hatred of the heat, so I focused on cute pictures of my sweet little girl in a swim suit, pool days, and trips to San Diego.

Summer in the desert pregnant??--- the moments IN the water were pleasant, but the rest of every 120 degree day was miserable. The beauty of the blog??-- It's for more than my eyes, so I focus on the good parts of every day, the parts where Sophie's staring in my eyes and cupping my chin softly (I love this) rather than swatting at my face and screaming at the top of her lungs; the part where Mila lets me sleep at night rather than the moments during the day when I have to carry both crying girls at once, throwing my back out, in order to get Sophia to refrain from throwing the day-ruining tantrum after I tell her I can't hold her; the parts where Ross takes the kids like the perfect husband (that I must say, he really is by all logic), rather than the parts that advertise our possible need to perfect each other’s love language. :)

I focus on the positives for anyone who reads this, but also for me-- what can be bad about something that forces you to count your blessings, to document them in words and pictures, so that when a day feels comprised of ONLY sleep deprivation, mommy-abuse, miscommunication and frustration we can look back at all of things that really do spell happiness--recorded on our blog and splattered all over the internet? :)

Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm going to assume that everyone whose life looks perfect on blog subscribes to the same theory as I do. That we're all focusing on the blessings in our lives for each other’s sake, our own (and that of our posterity-- if this is indeed the new journal.) Let's just agree to have an unspoken understanding that NO one’s life is perfect, that while being more digitally skilled does equal cuter blog, it does not equal happier life. I feel like it took me a good year of blogging to accept this and limit my envy. (Notice I say limit and not eliminate... still working on it.)

If you actually have perfect skin, a perfect marriage, perfect angel-children, and a tiny bum, don't tell me. And let's just all agree to understand that EVERYONE has their things, and enjoy blogging for it's ... positives. :)