About the Blog

Welcome to Wonder, Friend!

You? I like you. A lot. Because you’re kind enough to poke around the blog a bit. Or maybe you’re just nosy, and I’m okay with that, too. I’m nosy. I get it.

This blog has been around since April 2010 (that makes it almost 20 in blog years). In that time, I’ve been through all the stages of blogging. More than once.

I’ve considered walking away. More than once.

Instead, I took a bit of time off in late 2011 and thought about why I blog. I’m not going to give you the I do it for me, and don’t care if anyone is reading or not line. I probably would write it even if nobody was reading, but it would not be very stimulating.

So the real deal? I blog because I think in written words.

I’m not a talker, or at least not a good one. Oh, to be a funny talker, as Mel Brooks says. But that’s not me. Words get stuck between my brain and my mouth, while they have a relatively smooth path from brain to fingers. So I blog in order to share my thoughts, to ask questions, to connect.

I’ve always agonized over having a rhyme and reason to my posts, and as I rarely have rhyme or reason you can imagine the turmoil. During my Blogging Hiatus of 2011, I came to the (it’s so obvious and why didn’t I accept this before) conclusion that this is my blog, and I can write about anything, everything, or nothing of consequence. The only common thread needed? Me.

Oh, and wondering. That’s a key element I try to always incorporate (it is in the blog’s name, after all). A lot of life leaves me thinking I wonder… how that works or why that happens or can I recover from this? Therefore, most – not all, but most – of my posts close with a question for readers.

My hope is that we can start some discussion. Perhaps we can have some dialogue, whether it’s serious heart-to-heart stuff or joking around. You in?

So back to how Wonder, Friend is now set up… I took a look at some old posts, and at my long list of drafts, ideas, and half-starts, and discovered that the things I care about can – nearly – be boiled down to four big groups:

:: Books & Writing - In an effort to keep my categories to a minimum, I’m lumping all things reading and writing together. Going forward I plan to feature other writers, talk about books that move me, and discuss writing. I’m not 100% sure what this will look like, because while I have talked shop before on the blog, it’s not something I’ve done regularly. Stay tuned!

:: Family – This category includes parenting, marriage, and all relationships that feel like family. I talk about the joys and struggles of being a woman, wife, mother, sister, daughter, aunt, and friend. I tend to put my foot in my mouth and generally neglect relationship responsibilities – it’s a big shortcoming – so you get to hear about it when I mess up. Lucky you! You also get to hear about the good stuff, so if that’s your thing, hang around.

:: Fitness (for the un-athletic among us) – I’ve always loved to swim, to run (love may be a bit strong), and I’ve recently fallen in love with biking. I’m kind of a spaz, though, and prone to injury. I’m not a natural athlete. But I want fitness to be part of my lifestyle and not an afterthought. Now and then I’m going to share some of that journey with you.

:: Food - Healthy, not healthy. It all has its place in my mouth stomach life. Wow, that sentence really wasn’t the best. What I’m getting at is that I care about eating whole, healthy foods and setting my family up for success, nutrition-wise. I’m also extremely passionate about cake and cookies and all manner of junk food. Recently I accepted that while I’m no culinary genius, I do enjoy spending time in the kitchen now and then. I rarely write about these exploits, but I’d like to, so I put a Food category on the blog.

:: Whatever - this is not a flippant, adolescent whatever. This is a case of needing to tell a story or share some thoughts on a topic that simply doesn’t fit anywhere else. Nobody puts baby in a corner, am I right? While the four categories above may be my most common themes, I am multi-faceted, people. When those facets flare up, I’ll write about them in the Whatever category.

And finally, my new favorite part of this blog is… Guest Posts. As of this writing, on January 16, 2012, the new and improved Wonder, Friend hasn’t officially launched. There are no guest posts yet. But there will be, and my goal is to feature writers and bloggers I admire. I’m going to offer them a space to Wonder about something, whether it fits in the above categories or not. ** NOTE: Guest posts are on hiatus at the moment. They’ll be back, I hope! **

I think the most valuable thing about blogging is the exposure to ideas and people we would otherwise never know. I want to share some of those brilliant, funny, thoughtful people on Wonder, Friend. I hope you’ll stop by and make them feel welcome here. Better yet, I hope you’ll consider being one of my guests.

So that’s it, in a 1000 word nutshell. Brevity, they say, is the soul of wit. I might need to work on that.

Before you go, let me thank you (I’m emphatically doing so) for reading about my blog, and offer you a cheat sheet to some of my favorite posts from the past:

The one I think of as the beginning.

One of those relationship gaffs I mentioned.

A bizarre parenting moment.

When Twitter creeps into real life.

A rip-your-heart-out mothering moment.

Finding some humor in a bad day.

Watching the kids grow and figure things out for themselves.

Being here and now.

On being anything but average.

I wrote a poem. About allergies.

Picking favorite posts is like picking a favorite kid. Your favorite changes, depending on who is acting up on any given day. You thought I’d say that I don’t play favorites. Ha. So anyway, these jumped out at me as I was preparing this page. I may come back and edit later, but for now, this is a great place to begin.