My Badly Blundered Pre-BooMama Blogging

I don't know if I've ever mentioned it, but before I started this blog, I actually had another one. Oh yes I did. I never told anyone except for David about it, and if memory serves I only wrote a couple of posts. I can't even remember what I called it, but I do know that I deleted it in its entirety. So you can't find it. Nah nah nah nah boo boo. :-)

I started it because several people had been asking me to find a way to share my recipes...like could I please type all of them and print them out, or could I do a website, or maybe I could do a cookbook, because, yeah, I don't know about you, but I have a sideline printing business when I'm not chasing a three year old or collapsing on the couch as the result of all the chasing. I decided that blogging was the way to go, and my thinking was that I'd post a recipe each day, along with some inspirational tidbit to accompany it.

Y'all. It was SO. NOT. ME.

I mean, the recipe part was fine and all, but the "inspirational" part was just painful. I think everybody who reads this blog knows where I stand in terms of my faith, but trying to convey that in a serious, devotional-type way was, honestly, unintentionally comical. Yes, I have something to say about Christianity. Yes, I have something to say about cooking. But trying to turn a recipe into a springboard for spiritual talk ended up sounding like one of those cheesy emails you get with "Recipe For Friendship" in the subject line and then it tells you to take a 1/2 cup of compassion and sift it with 1/4 cup of understanding and then gently mix all with a tablespoon of honesty and a heapin' teaspoon of laughter.

SOOOOO not me.

I realized how far off the blogging base I was when I was reading some of my favorite blogs one day. I thought, "You know, I'm going about this thing all wrong. I'm trying to be someone I'm not...I need to just be me." And right after that was when I started BooMama, which is just about as me as it comes. The reason why the first blog didn't work is not because it wasn't a lovely little idea...it didn't work because I wasn't being myself. The reason why some of the blogs I love to read that ARE inspirational work is because the people who write them are being themselves. I never understood how important that part of blogging would be.

I really do wish I were all spiritual and thoughtful and stuff...I wish I could write inspiring devotions and take Scripture and offer all sorts of new insight with beautiful figurative language. I wish I could write allegories and tie them back into the Bible. But I'm way too literal for that. My allegories would go something like this:

There was a beautiful tree. And nothing grew on it. Jesus says, "I am the vine and you are the branches." So the tree must not have had deep roots. Or stuff would've grown. The same is true with us. Because we need roots in Christ. To, you know, grow.

Inspiring, wasn't it?

I guess this is my roundabout way of saying thank you for letting me be me on this blog thing-y. I read some of the things (another EXCELLENT, specific word choice) that other people are writing, and I am floored by how smart they are. And how they aren't sidetracked by stuff like The Sweeney Sisters and American Idol. How they create metaphors that, you know, work. How intelligently they defend their faith. How well they articulate what they're feeling, as opposed to, say, posting a YouTube clip of Chris Tomlin singing so you can just experience it for yourself because the powers of description elude me.

So thanks for not pointing out how many times I use the words "just," "stuff," and "things." Thanks for seeing that I really am sincere when I post stuff (see? there I go again) about God and faith, even if I don't pose deep theological questions, even though I wish I could. Thanks for being really kind and supportive and encouraging.

And that is all.