At long last, I have started a blog under my own name. It’ll probably take a while for it to show up in Google search, so let me know if you’d like to know where it is. reverendmother03 at gmail dot com.

What a great journey it’s been. Almost seven years ago, I put up a silly bucket list of Christmas songs, and the thing just snowballed. This blog is what got me started writing again, helped me develop a voice and a discipline, and opened all kinds of doors and allowed me to meet some incredible people. I have very little patience with folks who talk pejoratively about blogging as self-indulgent and narcissistic. Sure, that’s out there, but for me this strange hobby has been life-changing.

That the blog has been pseudonymous all this time is a peculiarity. I’ve said many times that my goal has been to balance a desire for authenticity on the one hand with a need not to have my every thought Googleable by search committees and folks looking for a conference preacher on the other. As one pastor said in this article about clergy burnout, “Clergy have been seen as either superhuman who needed no friends, or subhuman who could exist without them — but certainly not human.” The article goes on: “Indeed, unlike doctors or police, for example, pastors are supposed to be people who have dedicated their lives to a spiritual goal and are not expected to focus on themselves and their own welfare in the here and now.” What could be more here-and-now than many of the I’m-gonna-go-crazy-on-these-children ramblings of this blog? Of course, part of my goal in writing these things is to demystify the life of the pastor, but let’s go a little slow with the little old ladies, hmm?

Several people have suggested that this blog would in fact be a selling point for a congregation. In some ways that’s been a temptation I’ve tried to avoid. If people find it and like it and want to know me better or hire me, fine, but that’s not the point. Like Anne Morrow Lindbergh, “I began these pages for myself, in order to think out my own particular pattern of living, my own individual balance of life, work and human relationships.” This space is precious to me; I don’t want to capitalize on it.

That said, if I’m truly going to be bi-vocational with writing and ministry, I need a public space to put stuff. So now I have one.

I’m not sure what will happen with this blog. I imagine I’ll still use it for random family musings and other stuff that’s less polished in form or thought. Though I probably will write less and less here as time goes on. And some stuff I’ve written here, I will move to ‘private’ and put up there. We’ll just have to see how it unfolds. I’ve known some bloggers whose work jumped the shark once they ‘came out.’ We’ll see… either way, I feel strongly that this is a step I need to take at this moment.

Whatever happens next, I’m thankful to my small but loyal group of readers. You rock!

1. It’s my day off and I’m home with the three amigos today. We leave for vacation on Saturday, so there’s a lot of little things to do. Often on days with the kids I will let them watch a movie or something while I blaze through the chores as best I can, on the thought that we’ll have uninterrupted time afterward to play and such. Unfortunately this doesn’t often work. For example, they will sometimes ask to play a game while I’m in the middle of something, and I have learned that it’s better to say yes immediately, then come back to what I’m doing, than to put them off.

Anyway, today I’m going to try something different than the binge-work-and-binge-play routine. Our approach today will be modeled after the pool schedule: kids play for 45 minutes in the ‘big’ pool, then at quarter ’til the hour the lifeguards blow the whistle and you have to get out for a break and for the adults to swim. So today the kids will have my undivided attention for games and stuff during ‘kid swim,’ but I need a short break each hour to put clothes in the dryer, do some paperwork, and the like.

We’ll see what that’s like. This is an example of my happiness principle of reframing what isn’t working. I might reach the end of today and decide that the reframing also needs to be reframed. But such is the improvisation of parenthood.

2. Speaking of happiness resolutions, it’s a new month for the Happiness Project which means a new set of resolutions. I find this fun—like a Happy New Year each month. Here are some of this months resolutions—a few that I’ve done every month and others that are new:
–continue to exercise (which I did 24 out of 31 days last month)
–check e-mail only at specified times during the day. I’m also trying something I read about recently, which is to wait until the next day to reply to e-mails. Batching e-mails takes less time, and a lot of stuff gets resolved on its own if you leave it be. Few things are truly urgent. (I do answer ‘pastoral care’ stuff the same day.)
–”is it true? is it kind? is it necessary?” in my constant battle against snark… though this resolution may not make me feel happier ;-D Of course as Gretchen Rubin says, Happiness doesn’t always make you FEEL happy.
–talk to strangers
–the hard thing is actually the easier thing (especially with parenting).

3. One of my resolutions each month is to laugh each day and to sing each day. Both lighten my mood instantly. To that end, R shared this video of a washing machine self-destructing. Be sure to watch the last 30 seconds:

You’re welcome!