2012

Trite: lacking in freshness or effectiveness because of constant use or excessive repetition; hackneyed; stale

This is a vocabulary term for my ninth grade English students. I hate a cliche. I will bleed red ink all over a paper warning students to "AVOID CLICHES."

Yet, here I sit. Revisiting the idea of blogging. On January 1st. A cliche.

A few years ago (or so), I had started going to the gym. I went the week after Christmas Break and thought I had got there in between games for youth basketball because there was not one.single.parking.space available in the lot. When I got inside the gym though and saw the treadmill machines were as equally gridlocked as the parking lot, I had an epiphany... New Year's Resolutions. Each week the number dwindled, until the parking ot was back to normalcy (and eventually, of course, I dwindled away too).

So, I imagine today that the "Information Highway" is equally clogged with resolutions to begin or return to blogging. And, here I am.

I don't make resolutions. I don't like looking at a magical day on a calendar, even if it is the very first day on a new calendar, and making life changes based on that. If anything, I vow those type of life alterations at the beginning or end of summer break- The first day of school being the "real" New Year to me.

Nevertheless, some of the things I hope to blog are:

1. New Recipes- Ideally, I would like to make Thursdays "New Recipe Thursday" and try something new each week. I have been saying this for a while now. Too bad I don't live in an ideal world.

2. Craft Projects- I now have a "craft room," or "studio," or "craft studio" (I haven't decided yet) and much to Jason's dismay when he discovered it last night, near 2500 pins on Pinterest. So, I have the inspiration and the space, I just need to find the time... more on that, later.

3. Book Reviews- Someone told me their goal was to read 50 books last year. That'd be about a book a week. That would be nice, but again... time. I won a Kindle in a Relay raffle a couple of years ago and am just now starting to dowload more since I found an awesome website with free or cheap downloads, Kindle on the Cheap. Mainly, I get frustrated that I can't find something I WANT to read (despite my 5 overburdened bookshelves and random piles of books aroud the house- most unread).

4. Benjamin Markers- My great blogging regret is that I didn't make posts each month with pics, milestones, and memories of Benjamin. A couple of my regular bloggers have children of similar ages and I loved that they did... yet, I didn't. Now, though, is an amazng time of new feats and entertaining AND I finally have the means to record and upload, so this one will be fun and easy.

5. General day to day activities, re-caps, ramblings, and musings. (Self-explanatory, no?)

6. Dreams! I have always wanted to journal my dreams. Some are just outlandish, such as the "Silkwood"-esque radiation exposure and treatment the other night and at other times, something will happen that I think I dreamt about beforehand but am unsure if my brain synapses are tricking me into just thinking that is true.

7. Reflections- Although my childhood was the stuff Lifetime movies are made of, I am SO glad to have grown up in the eighties. I feel like my generation has seen the birth and evolution of so many societal and technological trends. I often begin an inner dialogue with "Remember when..." So, at the risk of sounding like Grandma, I should write about it when something sparks these thoughts (like cheap plastic gumball machine toys for 75 cents?!)

So, basically, anything goes!

What I do NOT want this blog to become is...

1. A collection of negative thoughts and ramblings. I am pushed to write much more when I am depressed or angry about something. I am attracted to negativity. It took me a long time to discover this about myself and I conciously fight to pull away from it. I don't want to be FAKE but I want to focus on the positive aspects of daily life and not let the negativity suck anything more from me than it already does.

2. Writing for an audience. I could care less right now if anyone ever reads what I write. I want to write for myself, for catharsis and reflection. If I decide to link-up or mannounce a posting at some point, that's fine. But I don't want what I write to be altered for the sake of someone who may or may not be reading it.

3. At the same time, I cannot make a public rant on people or grups that tick.me.off. It's a small world and even a smaller town, which I need to always keep in mind. So, although I am frustrated by people on a daily (hourly) basis, this is not the format for expounding on that. I need to not fall back into the habit or making posts that I should question whether to delete.

4. Lastly, it would be in my best interest not to announce goals that when I fail to achieve them, keep me from coming back to write- a common cause for many of my blog hiatuses.