So, one of my friends suggested to me, since I often post little stories about my kids on fb or other little sites, that I should blog about it. So here goes. A stumbly try. I do think there is a place for the kind of blog I can imagine this shaping into, but it will likely be a slow, but not painful, process of me getting to it when I can.
But a bit about why I do think this will be useful and important for me and why it could be significant -- worth a glance at least -- for others: I'm a single mama. I have a small tribe of kids (six of them). I have a full time job. I'm lucky that my kids' dad, Joey, is across town but in the picture. Joey and I share a strange, strained, sometimes amazingly easy and sometimes exceedingly fragile peace. But I know that I'm lucky to have his help. However, things are nuts, man. Tendin' the tribe is an exhilarating and exhausting charge.
This site is, more than anything, a place for me to sort things, reflect on things, save things, plan things, and work things out. In the process, I will, through keeping this blog, create a space where many of the things I need to tend to are in one place. Also, I will be storing all those little stories in one place, and creating a chronicle of my stumbling toward competence as a human.
How might this serve others? Well, if nothing else, there will be some funny stories on it. HA! But I know for darn sure that in my efforts to find blogs and other sites to help me manage time, come up with fun stuff to do with the kidlets, etc., I was often more overwhelmed at how amazing the parents doing this stuff seem. They seem to have boundless energy, time, and material resources. I have all of those things too, but all are far from boundless, and some are severely limited. So I can't teach anyone anything about how to make better cookies, play more intellectually stimulating games, clean a house, plan a budget, create a weekly menu, or manage time, but I'll happily put my bumbly self before anyone who reads this and wants to watch me chronicle my attempts to learn these things.
One more way it may serve others is through the whole "insight" thing. There are a million misconceptions about single parents and a world that frequently meets us with a sneer. And unfortunately, most of us, myself included dedicate so much time and energy to tending to our business (kids, cleaning, cooking, working, squeezing in a night out, etc.) that we don't have time to undertake the kind of endeavor that would give us a voice in the world, one that would call for a bit more compassion and a lot less sneering.
