How Do You....

...find the time to blog? I am often asked this rhetorical question at the end of an email with positive comment about a post. The answer is quite simple: time has to be made to do it, and some things go undone. Like housework, for instance. Cleaning cobwebs. Cleaning out the linen closet. Some people can't stand it unless their house is neat and orderly. I can't stand it if I don't write.

These blogs, like this one, write themselves. As I go about my day, a topic will enter my head, perhaps something that happened that day. As I work about the house or drive the kids to various activities, the blog writes itself using my brain and by the time I sit at the computer, I mostly just type out what is already written. Since I've started blogging and made it a habit, not writing causes the words to go into a spin cycle in my head and they won't go away. Once I've written them down, the words quiet.

Often, my family will say things like "this isn't going in the blog, is it?" or "that's blog-worthy", knowing that any occurrence is fodder for my blog. Often, I'll be at the computer and the girls will be ready to leave.

"Are you almost done?" I hear this question many times a day.

"Are we going to have any dinner?"

"Mom, William is peeing in the front yard." I keep typing. Right now, for instance, I am supposed to be getting everyone going to get the horses ready for a parade this morning. But, I must finish this first.

There is much written about the blogging phenomenon. There are now over 30 million bloggers. There has been condescension about blog writers, particularly mommy bloggers, but the truth is we are writing. It may or not be important writing, but it is an important process.

As a parent, it is important for my kids to see me write. How many of us expect children to learn to write, to learn the writing process, to turn in paper after paper, only to see that their parents, released from schooling, never write for pleasure or profit? Never make it a priority? Often people ask me how to get children to read more and write more, eat better food. My answer is always the same: model the behavior.

Well, this blog wasn't particularly well written but was begging to be put in type. Now I can move on to getting everyone up and ready for the parade, which should provide plenty to write about. Tell me, what possesses grown men to wear a fez (hat) and ride around in cars sized for their grandchildren?