"Cooking and Sports and who knows what else"

Exactly one year ago today I wrote my first blog post.

I have to admit that at the time I had a very vague idea of what a blog was and I had no idea where it would lead. In the first post I wrote, "So I am starting a blog and we shall see where it goes. I plan to write about cooking and sports and who knows what else."

Well Boy Howdy! as Mama Crowder might say.

There have been 110 posts since then. I have learned so much and enjoyed every second of it. Well maybe not every second. Sometimes I have struggled with finding time to write. Sometimes I have struggled with deciding what to write. Many times I have struggled with how to write.

Usually an idea would float around in the back of my head for a while and then it would just worry me to death until I finally wrote about it.

Once when I was struggling my son Jay gave me some great advice. He said, "Mom, just remember why you started the blog in the first place and stick with that."

My son David had suggested that I write a blog when he was trying to explain the difference between sites like Facebook and Blog sites like this one. Social networking has come a long way in the past year - connecting friends, families, business, politics, charities and even playing a major role in Middle East revolutions. There are blogs by all kinds of people all over the world about every subject you can imagine.

I started this blog because I wanted to chronicle and preserve family stories and recipes for my children. I wanted to write about how our family traditions hold us together.

And I wanted to take note of a full year cycle of what happens in nature - in the yard, the garden, plants, animals, sunrises, sunsets - and to focus on how amazing the cycles of life really are.

I wanted the blog to include stories from the past and a snapshot of the present. I had attempted to do this through a word processing journal but had found it hard to keep up. I needed the pressure of declaring out loud that I was going to blog for one year and I needed you to hold my feet to the fire. You did and I thank you.

One of my earliest blog readers was Dr. John Buse, an amazing doctor and amazing person. I was blogging away but did not really understand it myself when I ran into Dr. Buse. To my surprise, he complimented me on the blog and then he said something that has stuck in my mind. It was one of those moments when time and place sort of stop and hang in the air and he said, "You have a voice."

And isn't that what we all need? To find our voice. To tell ourselves who we are.

So, while I thought I was writing as a gift to my children, it turns out that I have recieved the gift. The gift of not taking things for granted. The gift of daily observation of all that is beautiful and magical in the world. The gift of gratitude for family, friends, faith, food, fun and fellowship.

And the cycle continues. The sun rises and sets. The world keeps on turning and the balls keep on bouncing.

Yesterday I took pictures of various things peeping out of the ground. Herbs are growing in pots out by the kitchen door. Wisteria and dogwoods are blooming in the woods. My USTA tennis team is playing well this season. And Butler and VCU prove that March is still full of madness.