Catching Up...It's Never too Late.

I stopped posting on my blog the month I became a Gospel Doctrine teacher in my ward (for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints).  For the past year and a half that has taken up any extra time I might otherwise have had to blog, and a few other things.  When your life is full of more things than you can make time to do, then something has to go. 

Since 2009 I have been typing up my old written journals, including my spiritual journals and that alone is a time consuming task even though some days it's only a few pages and other days nothing at all.  (Not to mention keeping a daily journal which can ofttimes take up to half hour to write)  I put a high priority on riding my exercise bike and reading because both are good for me.  I've had a little time to sew here and there, but that is more rare.  I get a little card making done occasionally.  I have been an avid couponer since Oct 2010 and that is time consuming but also a good paying job! Even my indexing has suffered from having this calling as GD teacher.

However, the blogs have hung heavily on my mind and on the back burner of my wish list.  Recently, I had pretty much made the decision that I was going to update my blog and get going again when I read an article this week in the Deseret News about a keynote address at the RootsTech conference in Salt Lake City on February 8th by Stephanie Nielsen.  When I read the following I was inspired to do more than making a return to blogging a front burner wish:

Nielson’s advice to those wanting to use blogging to preserve family history is to decide who their audience is and to be consistent.
“If you’re writing to future generations or if you’re opening it up for the world to see how you blog and how your family life is, I think finding that niche of who you’re writing to will really help your writing. It’ll be easier to understand. It’ll be smoother if you know who you’re writing to. Otherwise, you’re kind of just muddling through,” Nielson said. “And consistency. … Document your life every single day. You’ll look back [and] you’ll have volumes.”

Her most recent post of February 12 is about her address at the conference and it's entitled "Your Story"... She said:  "I think it is important to keep an account of your family whether you blog, scrapbook take photos or videos- whatever you do, tell your story and don't stop.  I encourage you to write down stories about you and your loved ones that can help you and your family develop an attitude of gratitude for the ones who came before you.  Because I believe that we are all survivors of something and our stories need to be shared."

She is so right.

It is true that when Facebook became the new way to communicate my time blogging and reading other's blogs (I used to be an avid reader of Stephanie's blogs and several others) switched over to facebook, and I thought probably no one was reading my blogs anyway. But now I realize that is not what is important.  It is the documenting of my life, my children and my grandchildren, as well as other family and friends that is important.  It is the documenting and sharing of my testimony of Jesus Christ, my Heavenly Father and my beliefs that are important...and any other thing I feel impressed to write about.  I am an avid writing and really enjoy expressing myself through the written word--in fact, compared to my communication skills which are quite weak, I feel my strong point is in writing.  
Someday, when my grandchildren get a little older, which is not too far distance since Elivia just turned 5, they will really enjoy coming back and seeing the pictures and reading the stories.  This is better than scrapbooking because they can access it anytime, anywhere (granted they have a computer and internet  of course)...but I write for them.  And I will write because I love to.
And truthfully, I have always been known as a scrapbooker, and now I don't have time for that anymore....or do I?  I already have 5 years scrapbooked right here in my blog!  =)