The future of Pray Creek West

I started this blog nearly five years ago in anticipation of our big move west to our new home in California. Our kids - we only had two at the time - were 2 /12 years and 9 months old. My main purpose was to record our lives and progress for the benefit of those we love... Our families, especially the grandparents (and my mom and mother-in-law have undoubtedly been the most faithful readers. Many thanks!) and close friends, whom we wanted to stay connected with and give us windows into our life. It was always on the personal side - to help maintain relationships that matter to us - and was never intended for widespread public use.

When I started the blog, Facebook was rather young and much less culturally pervasive. Texting, much less sending photo texts, was basically unheard of. Blog-reading through a reader was less commonplace than it is today. It was by every measure a different time, technologically speaking.

Overall I've enjoyed this blog and keeping it. I'm a record-keeper and a personal historian by nature, and I enjoy recording top-line components of our daily life. It's scrapbook-like, and I'm a consistent scrapbooker.

But I'm not sure what's supposed to happen with this space now. We're now longer "west" - making the title now misleading - and we're closer now to family and old friends.  Outside the grandmothers, I'm not sure how many people read here - either regularly or occasionally. I use Facebook more than I used to for general photos and updates, and I now have (at least in theory) another blog where I write more deeply and publicly than I do here.

Beginnings, like this new one we're kicking off in Virginia, are the right time to ponder one's routines and decide what to keep and what to toss. While I like blogging and the personal/relational angle that this venue allows, I'm not sure I'll continue with it if the readership is basically the grandmoms and one or two others.

Let me know your thoughts, if you happen to see this post and have any...

I'll end with a photo of our first snow day here in Virginia. This was Thursday, the second of our three scheduled school days on which we actually had no school. Monday was MLK Day so Tuesday was the kids' first day, which went well overall. Wednesday there was a power outage at the school so it was canceled. In the wee hours on Thursday morning it snowed two inches, and this yielded snow days on both Thursday and Friday. (!) So our four-day school week turned into a one-day school week. Rather awkward all around. Monday is a teacher workday, so we are out a full week after  the kids' first day.

It was a beautiful day. And - I gotta be honest - a difficult week. Tons to unpack, limited structure and activities for the kids, and another week of virtually no adult contact for me. But we're getting there. :)