Wow, it is a fun honor to be invited to serve as the Arkansas Women Blogger of the Month! I’ve loved the ladies I’ve met hanging out here! We can come from so many different places in life, yet have so much in common.

By way of introduction, let me say I’m old.

How old? I might be the oldest in this group, but it’s not a contest, okay? Haha! I have been married to “Gorgeous Guy” for 47 ½ years and our five kiddos are grown, degreed, and gone, and have blessed us with 15 grandchildren, some of them which are now in college. That old.

And I love my man. Still. Yes, we’re “those people” who still hold hands, although we are graying a teensy bit.

Originally, I am a Kansas City girl, and still somehow feel a lot at home when I go there. Nostalgia tugs hard at the heart. But I figured something out: God made Arkansas, too! And I have found the charm here would tug at me, too, and welcomes me back each time I walk in my door.

Charm like our garden. I never tire of looking at its progress. And eating from it. Sometimes I tire of the canning and we’re right in the middle of that, here, too.

But then I return to the garden and discover a lovely full head of dill, and the charm is on, again.

I officially began writing in 1995, when I submitted my first, ever, article to An Encouraging Word Magazine out of Idabel, Oklahoma (but only a short way from my house.) I remember it fondly; my editor was a Catherine. Some of the articles I wrote then are still extant, on my first blog site, which I’ve mostly archived. Same applies to my newspaper days, one article of which won a contest for me at Firepole Marketing (Mirasee) quite a while back.

That was exciting.

I first learned of blogging when one of my magazine articles (you know; glossy paper, ink, comes in the outdoor mailbox…) was pirated, along with even my name, on Blogit.com. Of course, I was livid and got my editor to reclaim it for me. (Although I did not get the $23 he/she stole with it.)

I didn’t like bloggers at all, those days. Not one bit. I said I’d never be one.

But Mary DeMuth kept insisting: blogging was the only way to get published and I was working on writing a book, so I dove in, determined to break the mold of wicked bloggers stealing stuff.

I first met Stephanie Buckley when she used to live near me, in a meeting that was totally not related to blogging.  Well, it was about writing, but that was not the same at all, in my eyes. One day, when I read in the news (paper, again, friends, and ink, and the other mailbox) that she’d conducted a meeting in Little Rock for bloggers, I was flabbergasted.

She seemed like such a genuine, sweet person and she blogged?

So confusing!

Then came more confusion, as I kept trying to join her group, but not getting through to her on the phone. Since I live in the Arkansas Outback, I just kept trying—Pioneer spirit, etc. Then I learned she’d left us and joined the forces in the northwest.

I was truly disappointed since I’d considered her my source of hope.

That was back when WordPress was just beginning to go really public. (I warned you, this chick is old!) Somehow I was getting emails from them. Then they introduced their 2010 theme, a couple of years later, still one of their most popular, but they had so many. With WordPress.com it’s so fun and easy to become a theme junkie, and I may have experimented with a few.

And yes, I’m a “dotcom” WordPress blogger and spoke at a WordCamp last summer, about why I totally love that. I’m not in blogging for money but for ministry, although I do have a PayPal button option, just in case I ever learn how to create courses.

I’ve changed my two blog sites into “Websites with a blog” and haven’t looked back. Although I may be on a small hiatus while we begin moving house this month (!) I still have time for Arkansas Women Bloggers and this great honor—serving as July Blogger of the Month.

Blogging and reasons for blogging have always changed—improved—and always will. My first site is about everything “homeschooling” and is called Home’s Cool! When my baby turned 18 and graduated from our home, I kind of retired from the education scene and looked to my second site, The Conquering Mom, reaching out as an older woman to younger women, with teaching and counsel on all womanly subjects, helping the discouraged to grasp their true role in life and conquer the impediments all women must face.

This second site is taking a long time to grow up, for, among others, these four reasons:

Gorgeous Guy is also retired. It is hard to be serious about one’s own goals if half of your self thinks “every day is Saturday.” It’s just different, Sisters, is all I can say; I am not my own puppy anymore!

I had absolutely NO counsel regarding retirement and made every one of these mistakes.

Gorgeous Guy took a retirement job as a preacher and we spend about six hours of my (our) week just traveling, not to mention other obligations.

I know, I said “four reasons” and the fourth reason is that as a blogger, I used to languish under the supposed inability of the reader to concentrate on more than 500 words at a sitting.  No kidding, I posted every single day, about 500 words, wishing Internet readers had longer attention spans.

I was born for long form. Who knew?

I’d write a series for the week, many times, so I could put more like 2500 to 3500 words into a thought. I think I was long form, when long form wasn’t cool. But I didn’t know it? Dostoevsky and Dickens are my writer heroes, I suppose. However, unlike them, on my old site, mostly I wrote about my garden, canning, education, and my sweet little hennies, which I love to hand-feed.

Oh, and lotsa counseling.

I also love telling a good story and made up several for my five children when they were little. In fact, I love stories so much that I have one page just for the story posts.

And on the new site? More and more counseling, mixed with stories and humor and an occasional recipe. And love. Lotsa love. Gotta have it.

Currently, I’m on a short hiatus, to move house closer to Gorgeous Guy’s “retirement” preaching job. And we’re on vacation, as in taking a trip, this week. It’s amazing what comes up when two people are planning activities, unbeknownst to each other.

Moving, while vacationing, while writing for Arkansas Women Bloggers, has to be the ultimate.

But let me leave you with a word of wisdom: You should blog. I’ve learned that much.

Don’t worry too much about what others are doing, though, with their blogs. Being yourself is far more important. Whatever you’ve learned, or heard rumors, about blogging will be obsolete before you know it, the information you paid for and the skills you’ve mastered being much like water flowing over a grist mill wheel¸ necessary for the moment, but then passing on. Do not despair; do not be discouraged. This water flowing by keeps the cogs turning, grinding out the essence of your gift to the world.

We keep meeting new precious sisters, helping new sweet ladies achieve dreams, and we keep desperately needing every new friend we meet, as we go along opening our lives to others.

So, BLOG!

You’ll only be glad you did.

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