babybloomr

Yes, dear readers, Babybloomr has reached the one year mark!

WOO HOO!!!

(Actually I’m a little late on this… but you guys know to expect that from me by now, right?!)

At any rate, it was one year ago (more or less) that I started this blog, after getting my feet wet by blogging for the Tennessean’s website for the previous year. I was all starry-eyed and ambitious, planning on updating on a strict schedule and building my readership to a gazillion and taking the blogging world by storm. It is now 131 posts, 12 months and 2 blogging conferences later. Here’s what I’ve learned: I have realized that updating on a strict schedule is virtually impossible given the realities of my life, that having a gazillion readers would be nice I guess, but having regular commenters and becoming bloggy friends with the mere million or so (ha!)  readers I have is so very rewarding, and that my definition of a successful “real live blog” has changed– it’s less about taking the world by storm and more about community, relationships and the sheer pleasure of writing.

So I’m sitting here at the one year mark feeling pretty good about this whole Babybloomr thing! I still have goals I want to accomplish and I’m looking forward to learning more and becoming better. But my main emotion right now is gratitude. At the risk of sounding all maudlin and pre-menstrual, I do have to tell you guys that I appreciate you so much. You have enriched my life and expanded my world. I am crazy-go-nuts over each and every reader, and I am sending you all a virtual hug and big sloppy kiss. Also? A wrist corsage.

Thank you so much for your loyalty, wisdom and humor– especially your humor! Thank you for honoring my desire for an authentic faith and tolerating my sometimes questionable use of language. Thank you for encouraging me, allowing me to be painfully honest and possibly  too transparent. You have allowed me to express deep emotions and indulged my goofy rants and tangents. You have celebrated my children with me, the joys of ordinary life and the miracle of a near-miss. You have all been a part of my life this last year, and I kinda feel like I’ve been a small part of yours as well.

If I could throw us all a big ol’ party, I would– but since the logistics of that might be a little tricky, please feel free to jump in here with your congratulations or anything else you care to offer! This would be a great time for some of you silent readers to de-lurk, by the way… (I never give up, do I?!) I can’t wait to see what this next year will bring– and I can’t wait to write about it!

I love you guys.

(And that goes double for my beloved  Russ, my delightfully random Charlotte and my sweet first-born Madi.)

Allergies are kicking my butt, which is just one of the many reasons my posts have been so light this week. I am kinda miserable. So miserable that I was even willing to resort to the neti pot, or as my friend Patsy likes to call it, ‘the poor man’s waterboarding.’ This is the first time I’ve ever used one and let’s just say… it wasn’t pretty. Thank goodness nobody had a camera in my bathroom a few minutes ago! I started to post a YouTube video of a guy using a Bob the Builder sippy cup as a neti pot just to give you an idea of how gross and um, WET the whole experience can be (plus it was really, really funny!) but I realize that not everyone enjoys the sight of water pouring out of another person’s nasal passages, especially if said person is a really big guy with a lot of piercings who cackles maniacally throughout the whole thing, so I decided to spare you and just show this very toned down and sanitized version:

(This is not me, by the way. She just plays me on TV.)

Well, now that I have experienced self-induced slow-motion drowning, I think I will call it a night and hope that tomorrow I will feel well enough to post some REALLY cute photos of Charlotte and Madi I took this week. I would like to mention however, that I did not allow my screaming sinuses to keep me from my Friday Zumba class because I am a whiny brave little soldier that way.

I’ll leave you with an artistic shot of my dinner tonight. On the menu: an artichoke as big as my head with lemon tarragon mayonnaise. Yes, that’s right– I have now officially scraped the bottom of the blogging barrel and posted a picture of my dang dinner! But you have to admit, that is an big ol’ artichoke, right?

(I added the phone to give a sense of scale. Because the Yorkies wouldn’t stay still.)