Just for fun, just to review

I am going to sneak a second post in for 2017, but honestly, it's a cheat - I am reviewing a few old posts, so not really much new content, but some are good reminders for me.

If you happen to think like me and enjoy the background whys of the way things are, you might find these posts about my title interesting:
Journey
Story
Light
A Place

Two posts from "saying something" for baby shower for friends at church. A delightful friend both times blessed my heart by enthusing over them and telling me I was a writer. Might be good reminders for me to reread too as a mommy.
How to Be a Good Mommy
A Thousand Times

And from 2011, my most prolific year at 18 posts all by August.
March 
Short and to the point. Interesting to me because this was referring to my oldest, one of my daughters. Currently I am having frequent discussions with my now 3, almost 4 year old youngest, one of my sons. Apparently kids still say odd things about the rather complicated issue of yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

May 
This one I "have" to link to every year just because it is one of my favorites (okay, probably favorite). It garnered the most responses in more than one venue, it is super short, and it is just silly. Perhaps intelligent silliness (if I dare say that about myself), but silly nonetheless.

July 
Sigh.
Yes, embarrassing as it highlights rather obvious failure. But I included it more for this note: In the left column where it says "Mail Call!" just type in your email address, click the "Submit" button and follow the instructions.  I've tested it and all you'll get is an email for any day I post.  So if I do two posts in one day you only get one email.  The email shows the blog title, the post title, and a few sentences of the post.  Both the blog title and the post title can be clicked on to get to the blog. That's it.

So, I really want to know: Does this still work? Does anyone still get these emails? 

It’s not like I am drowning anyone in emails with posting every other year. It’s also quite likely I end up in spam folders or lost amid an inundation of other emails.

August

Oh, the questions! And the answers are: No, no, no, and apparently no.

Which all this review brings me to this question: is this blog completely self-centered and solely to please me? Is it worth continuing? 

Well, maybe I'll figure that out in 2019. With that in mind, looking ahead just for fun - 2019 brings us 15 years of marriage, four decades of life for me, my husband will be one year off as old as I am now, our first teenager, two kids in double digits, needing to report three kids for homeschooling, and no kids younger than five.

Where to begin, here at the end?

Well, this Every Other Year I am cutting it close - about an hour and a half in my time zone until 2017 is done. So if Blogger posts time by a different time zone I may be out of luck.  I have been thinking about what to post for several months now, very aware that it has been my every other year for many, many months already. Several ideas got tossed around, and this afternoon I even wrote out something I thought might work. It still didn't seem quite right. So, I've given myself the length of one of my favorite Sue Thomas F.B. Eye episodes (not one of the doubles) to get done in, and am encouraging myself to just be honest.

I never have been quite sure what the "purpose" of this blog is or who it is for. It hasn't become any clearer. My next every other year is 2019 - ten years from my first year posting - will I know by then? To my knowledge no one even reads it any more, and yet I keep it around.

Glancing back at some posts (but not all of them) it seems things have not changed much. I would still say life is hard, but that doesn't mean it's not good. And yes, I still feel like I am failing at much. But oh, how faithful God remains! And I would not know Him so well, nor run to Him so often, if this hard was not here.  And He is teaching me so much.

One thing He has been bringing up and developing over the years, and which I had written out something about this afternoon, is what a community of disciples of Jesus should be like. Oh church, I think we have missed some things! Or maybe it's just me who has missed some things.

So much goes into this idea of community - submission, authenticity, openness, accountability, discipling, welcoming.  To adequately address it would take more time than I have, and more than one post, no doubt. It is something I don't feel I have completely apprehended but would so enjoy discussing with people. Any takers?

To remind myself and to testify to others, what I would choose to emphasize here at the end, is that in spite of self-doubt and self-criticism, fears and worries, difficulties in communication with my marriage, almost daily struggles with my four children, anxieties about finances that are tight, and many failed attempts to find a schedule or routine that works to get everything I want into my days, God is faithful - He is hope in despair, strength in weakness, and joy in the midst of sadness and discouragement. Without God I would not be.

Going with honest and authentic, and having gone past my time limit, I'll be brave and not self edit - this is thoughts as they came out of my brain as I typed. Scary ;)