change

It has been awhile. A long while.  And yet I see there are still devoted friends checking in vain for posts.  My apologies and my gratitude.  Much has happened in the past four months.  Much good.  Much I want to share with you all. 

I write many a post in my head and occasionally start a draft, but the truth is I sit down in front of the glowing monitor, I read other inspired blogs and then I am too tired to write, edit, upload, and publish a lengthy and thoughtful essay. I want to keep writing, photographing and sharing, though. And I will. But it is going to be a different genre of sorts.

Inspired by Gretchen Rubin of The Happiness Project fame, I have decided to try to keep a one sentence a day journal.  That's right, just one sentence. Or two.  But a goal with a boundary.  However, I am not wholly satisfied with limiting myself to words, so I would like to add a photo each day.  One photo + One(-ish) sentence to summarize and record the day. 

The new blog is called Small Beauties.  I took the title from a children's book of the same name in which a young Irish girl, Darcy, is constantly getting in trouble at home because she lingers over seemingly insignificant details in her day.  When the family is forced to come to America during the Potato Famine, their hearts are warmed and memories brought to life as little Darcy Heart O'hara begins to reveal the small treasures she collected from their everyday lives back in Ireland.  In the hem of her dress she has such little bits as a bead from her grandmother's rosary, a piece of stone from the family hearth, a moss covered pebble, dried petals of the flowers that had surrounded them in their homeland and even a magpie feather.  These small beauties are enough to stir the memories of the sights, smells, and comforts of home even in a farwaway place. 

Though I will maintain this Soul of the Home space for occasions of longer essays, I hope to keep steadfast to my new space so that we-my family- can look back and remember the essence and textures of our ordinary days.  Please join me, if you wish, at Small Beauties.

blog-keeping

I have been spending a bit of quality time with my humble and slightly dusty little blog the past couple of evenings. In addition to actually posting after an unplanned hiatus, I updated the sidebars, swapped out a couple of links for a couple of new favorites and changed the banner photo. In addition, I have added a link (just below the header) to a little Amazon book store I put together; it is an extension of a bookstore I had assembled for another yet-to-be made public blog.

All of that to say, I missed posting and I am back with lots of catch-up to do and I have been enjoying reading your blogs in the meantime.

blog-a-versary

Yesterday marked 2 years since I started on the blogging journey. It is my pleasure to be able to keep this little book of our days and my surprise that so many of you continue to stop by and read my musings. I appreciate you all!

Soul of the Home Now with a Musical Atmosphere!

Turn up thy speaker, dear Reader, Almamater has finally added a playlist! No doubt it will be ever growing and increasingly diverse. Looking forward to the fun!

{Also looking forward to our Minnesotan musician friends adding an audio Mahler & Stravinsky element to their blog...}

A Good Thing: A published blog book

Soulemama made a great find at Blurb. Blurb is an online book making company that will make, among other things, a book out of your blog! You can see a couple of photos of Soulemama's 400 plus page hardcover Blurb Blog book at her post about it. Books are available in various layouts and in hardcover or softcover. This is fantastic! Certainly superior in almost every to the tedious back-up technique I have been using which involves printing out each post one at a time, slipping it into a plastic sleeve and clamping it into dimestore binder.

Soulemama insists that the binding quality is excellent and the editing of the book is easy. My experience with Shutterfly photo books has been excellent, but they don't do blog books at this point. I think I will spend a little time exploring Blurb during this upcoming spring break.

Say, wouldn't this make a great birthday present for mama who blogs?