An anniversary, and a reintroduction

Hello, my name is Deb and I am the author of this blog called Sand Creek Almanac. A few days ago I realized I have been writing this blog for eight years now. Many things have changed in my life, and in the interconnected lives we share on the Internet. I feel as if I have gotten out of touch with blogging, time and time again, and I have been doing some soul searching as to the reason I do this in the first place, what I want this blog to be, and even what I want my life to be in the next ten years or so.

I started this blog when blogging was the new Social Media. Some wrote it off as a way for narcissistic types to share every detail of their lives on the Internet, but I started out with no such pretense; I just thought it would be a fun way to challenge myself to do some writing, to share my life. And my life was anything but normal; I lived with my husband and three kids, ages 7, 5, and 3, in a small cabin on 40 acres in a very rural wooded area in Minnesota. As a bonus, the winter I started writing this blog was the winter this region saw an incredible irruption of Great Gray owls; I would routinely see a dozen or more on my way to work. Great fodder for writing, at a time I needed it.

Year have passed, my posting frequency has dwindled, and Facebook and Twitter have taken over as the way to share life stories. As I see it, blogs have gotten to be a promotional tool. While a few of my original blogging friends have remained faithful to the medium, I have perceived a "get big or get out" movement in blogging. Sand Creek Almanac gets about 25 hits a day, mostly from random Google searches. Not big in any regard.

Yet, I still have this urge to write, to tell my story, or to weave stories. I am not the same person I was eight years ago, nor would I like to be. I am the mother of teenagers who have plans for their lives, and in less than ten years I may be an empty nester. At the same time, I have a job that I like, I am Assistant Area Fisheries Manager for a four county are in east central Minnesota, but I can't see myself doing that until I am 65 or older. In fact, I would like to retire and start a new chapter in my life in ten years or less. I am going to be 46 in a month and a half.

So, I am turning to the things I like to do: writing and playig music. I can't see making a career out of the latter, although I would like to be in a band that plays once in a while, just for fun. But writing...yes I know, the success rate is horribly low, but, it is something I have always felt called to do in some way. And that's where I think this blog can help, can be a beginning.

So again, my name is Deb, and I am hereby re-commiting myself to the art of blogging, and what it might lead to, if only for the discipline it teaches me. I will write stories, about Vinny who takes Sally (the labrador) on long walks on weekends; about Nina, who has a goal to go to medical school; and about Joe, who loves epic stories like The Hobbit, swords, and who recently won the school Geography Bee as a fifth grader.

Thanks to my long time readers, and I am looking forward to meeting many more on this journey.