5 Things I've Learned from Blogging

In (delayed) honor of National Punctuation Day, I am going to blatantly overuse and misuse punctuation in this post (like I don't do it in every post, hello) - be forewarned. But first: this is what Bubba should be for Halloween........





However, a quick search of froogle provided me with the sobering fact that the adidas suit is about $134, and the kangol hat is about $20. So there you go - no baby DJ costume for Bubba because, as cute and as old school as it might be, I refuse to spend that much money on a Halloween costume. Even if it does rock out loud. Anyway:

Aimee tagged me for this meme - 5 things I've learned from blogging:

1.) Writing is therapy. I can't tell you how many times I have drafted something, then read it over and been astonished by what was either blatantly there or tucked between the lines. Sometimes I can work my way through an issue just by posting about it, and then I don't bother posting about it at all. There's nothing like perspective.

2.) People can be nice. It's astonishing that people who are geographically so far away can become so close. And can be so nice! It's wonderful when someone across the country whom I've never met offers me an e-hug just because I was having a bad day. It makes you feel better when you feel completely wiped as a mother and nice person in general and someone that you've never met in person can commiserate and talk you down from the ledge where you are about to dive off and into a full bottle of red wine and a family-size bag of nacho cheese doritos.

3.) You people can write. I'm amazed by all the casual bloggers who just write so amazingly well - just normal, average, every day people, tearing it up with the written word. You're like some sort of writing superhero - "during the day, she is your average suburban housewife, but in the evenings (after the kids are in bed, of course) she becomes.......SuperBlogger!". I can't count the number of times I have perused my normal blog haunts and come away with tears in my eyes, either from laughing so hard or because I was emotionally moved.



4.) People can be nasty. And judgemental and thoughtless and downright mean. The two things people can be the meanest about? Religion and parenting, the two items that should inspire kindness. But nooooooo, people can get nasty if your beliefs differ even slightly from theirs. But oh well - sticks and stones, right?



5.) If you don't have anything nice to say.....well, you know. Many times I have entertained the notion of blogging about some nasty bit of business and then checked myself and taken the high road. Doing this always makes me think: if I wouldn't blog about it, what business do I have saying it at all? Helps me rein in my tendency to gossip. Well, somewhat. Not entirely, but I'm working on it.

I had better get my butt to work. Because this is my to-do list for today:

• Work
• Pick up Bella from after school care
• Pick up Bubba from in-law's
• Go home, rustle up some dinner
• Baths and bedtime
• A full hour of 'The Office' reruns on TBS - woo-hoo!

And my husband, who has been on a boat fishing since the wee small hours of the morning today, had better not get in my way with his smelly clothes and his scaly fish and all the other fun things he comes home with. And that is a threat and a promise, my friends. Because if he gets up in my grill around 9:00PM this whining about laundry and fish cleaning......he's gonna have problems. Not as bad as the problem he will have if he shoves his dirty, smelly, fish-blood covered clothes in with the other dirty clothes for me to find in two days (when I start wandering around the house asking, "What stinks in here?") instead of washing them as soon as he takes them off. Oops, wait, number 5, I need to remember #5. But he still better leave me alone while 'The Office' is on.