Shelly asked a big question. Do you have a brand for your blog? Seth expects us to have a brand — one clear message. He says if you don’t have a blog, you should because: “(W)hat if there’s just one thing you need to say, but you can say it clearly and well and in a way that hasn’t been said before? … And, you’re willing to update that post as you learn more and gain more insight.”
As a student of literature, one of my favorite writers was John McPhee
. He wrote provocative non-fictional essays on basic ordinary things– like basketball, ships and physics — with a distinctive, unusual vantage point. He made topics I wasn’t interested in interesting. A death, the study of spirituality and yoga soon revealed to me that it is precisely those ordinary moments that McPhee extracts in his writing that teaches us to live in the present. We don’t remember the number of presents we unwrapped on Christmas morning; we remember the smell of the cinnamon rolls. Our lives are made up of the simple ordinary events that are unplanned, but they can make a profound impact on our lives.
But if we don’t pay attention, and not celebrate the ordinary, we may miss our greatest opportunities for joy. This is the brand of my blog. The everyday simple events of life are highlighted here. I’m using the raw materials I’ve been given — like my four boys, my husband, and the things I do daily to do it — it’s all I have to work with right now. I love making you cry. I love making you laugh. None of these events were planned or created. I’m showing you that there are ordinary moments to cherish right under your nose everyday. Catch them before they pass. Here lies your treasure.
Here’s an ordinary moment — his first day of preschool — a simple 2 minute video. It’s been sitting in my camera for 9 months. It took me no more than twenty minutes to pull it out, add the song, and turn it into a source of giggles to the boys in the house. What’s so special about this? For one entire year, he stared longingly at this train table, while we dropped off his brother into this very room. Not his turn — not this year. But now, it is his year. Can you imagine his joy? Full to bursting that he was not “just going along for the ride” while I dropped off yet another brother to a cool place with trains? To actually be the one who is dropped off? It’s his moment. I had to capture this. So, here it is, courtesy of You Tube.
More on brands. Here are some of my favorite blogs — they are focused on one thing — and that’s precisely what makes them so great. RisingRainbow is focused on one thing — Arabian Horses. UTheGuru is a perfect example of a great blog purely focused on a single mission to help Wordpress Bloggers. Paris Daily Photo does this beautifully. And yet, again, I refer to Strumpette. (OK, maybe Strumpette has two messages.) Gift of Green is a beautiful example of just one message, one post at a time, in a unique way. Family Matters serves the spiritual needs of parents — it’s not just another how-to parenting manual. Mommy Cooks is one that captures it all in the title. What would be your brand, if you had a blog?
Filed under: Laugh, Life, You Tube, blog, boy by SusieJ - 9 Comments →
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, to show us how important free time is to children today.
. So, when that doesn’t work, one in particular, works to 
to get the kinks out. (They have roll-on now — it’s awesome for those hard-to-reach-shoulder blades.) But two weeks ago, when I was busy
, I know I was right. Except they weren’t putting “something” in the drink itself — they were putting it on the label. Yes — they were putting the word diet on the label. Based on the law of attraction — you get what you focus on. So, seeing the word “diet” attracts the drinker to always think diet — hence to always need to diet.
theories, and compiling them in one source. It’s entertaining, and my kids liked it — and they learned from it.
