A Resolution, Sadly

This blog was originally started in the summer of 2007, as a series of emails. I took pictures of the boys with my Blackberry, wrote a little something, and then sent it to my sister, my cousins, some aunts and close friends. At the end of the Summer Holidays I wrote "The Last Update" and clicked "send".

From that "Last" one, I got heaps of replies, some from people I'd never heard of, friends of friends, saying "Don't stop!" and so, this Blog was born. I was writing for family at first, but soon I began writing for myself. My first post was one of the emails I had sent. I got hardly any comments in the early days, and only the occasional email, so I figured that since no-one was reading, I could write anything!!

But since I am a Mama, I tended to write about my kids, who were at the time young and completely oblivious. If they lost a snake in the car or injured their balls leaping into the water from heights, I wrote about it. If I wrote a drunken poem to Sharon about her toilet, it went on the blog. I wrote about my less than stellar parenting. Notes on Repellent Toddlers won international acclaim, and set me up for a life of famous blogging. Or not. Even Christmas Snot On The Ham got a write-up.

I documented the introduction of Digital Media into our previously Visual-Media-Free home and, a year later, the Report on how our computer impacted our lives and helped the boys to learn how to use expletives effectively courtesy of YouTube.

I've mused about unschooling and homeschooling adventures, written hundreds of book reviews and shared recipes and housework non-wisdom. I talked about how dreadful my children were, several times, and claimed that Debs cheats at Scrabble.

I got commenters! People were reading my blog and they were thoughtful, wise and friendly. I count some of them as Real Friends now, and value their advice with all my heart. I got MORE commenters, and was asked to write for other publications. Suddenly I was meeting strangers in my small island home who would say in the checkout line, "Ooooh, you're that writer!"

I suddenly started being slightly more careful about what I write, but not very. I managed to sell the Pardon-My-French Car, despite the terrible things I had said about it. Life moved on, and I began to realise that I love to write.

I love to write, but suddenly I find that there is less that I can say about my children. Chas and Sam are online more now, and they have friends who are web-savvy with facebook pages and unsupervised computer time. Many have phones with internet. The boys can go online at school, at the library, at friends' houses. My kids know about my blog. They know what it's called. I've often asked them for opinions on books they have read for my book reviews. I've asked them what they think about my writing, recently, and they like what they've seen. But one day soon, they will sit down and really read this blog.

I hope they don't notice the... I mean, *ahem* I hope they are not offended by, you know, embarrassing stuff that I may have written in the past. If they want anything removed, I will delete the offending articles. But for now, I'm going to leave everything as it is.

I can't write embarrassing stuff (or any stuff?) about the big boys here any more. They are getting all grown-up, and are no longer an extension of me, an orbiting moon. They are off into their own lives now, and future employers may not be as impressed to hear about their adventures in Homework Avoidance as the blogosphere was. Perhaps I can still squeeze a few articles out of Max, but not for long.

So where is this blog going to go? Well, it's been evolving for some time, as my life becomes less about 'My Children Need Me' and more about 'Me'. I'm allowed to embarrass myself on the internet, as long as it doesn't make my sons look uncool. I can continue to write about books, and share recipes, and I can certainly write about life in general.

So I resolve... I don't know what! We'll see, okay? I love the evolution, I'll just let it keep happening and watch what happens. And since this IS an interactive experience, my readers can have a say too. Do readers really want to hear my review on Gerald Martin's biography of Gabriel Garcia Marquez? (Ooooh, I'm excited to start reading this one!) Do you love the children's book reviews? Recipes? Musings on Life? Rants? Parenting Advice? England News? My readers have helped to encourage me to be a better writer, a better mother, and a better person. They have held my hand and let me rant, and they have told me that I am wonderful. Everyone needs to hear that! Thank you my friends! As the New Year begins, I want to say thank you.