ITS LEGS: A full decade of blogging! Can you even believe it?

As 2018 drew to a close, a personal landmark also concluded for me: a full decade of blogging. Ten years come and gone so fast; I hardly noticed. I so vividly remember sitting in my bedroom in our home in Billings, Montana and saying out loud, "I'm gonna start a blog. That's what I'm gonna do." I was encouraged by my friend Patty, who wrote a blog herself back then, but I didn't need much encouragement. Writing is therapy for me. It reduces anxiety better than most anything else and unleashes the only creative talent I have.

So that very day in 2009, I sat up in my bed and drafted the first post for itslegs.blogspot.com. That title is an acronym, constructed by Eli and stands for the seven Erichsen-Websters: Isaiah, Terrianne, Shulamith, Luke, Eli, Gerald, and Seth. (It was important to Shulamith to be the first "S.") That was 10 years and 654 posts ago. This post will be the 655th. The blog averages 54 posts per year, or just over one per week.

For fun, I decided to highlight two posts from each of the 10 years, the one that received the most page views, and my own personal favorite. I hope you enjoy looking back as much as I have:

2009
Most page views: Scout Mom Failure
Personal Fave: Trailers for Sale or Rent

2010
Most page views: Christmas is still wonderful, as long as you're in love 
Personal Fave: A fierce mom!

2011
Most page views: Rhetoric Rant
Personal Fave: Schadenfreude

2012
Most page views: Not in a million years! But...  
Personal Fave: Suspense films and not missing the dance

2013
Most page views: But what about the missionary parents?
Personal Fave: I believe that too, Seth.
 
2014 
Most page views: Can your level of dysfunction equal ours?

Personal Fave: The rest of the story

2015
Most page views: Friends are friends forever 
Personal Fave: It's just a quilt.

2016
Most page views: How to emotionally damage your child for life
Personal fave: You may not remember, but I always will.

2017
Most page views: The Webster-Monsons become a party of five: The culmination of a miracle!
Personal Fave: "And he came to himself": Dispelling myths about non-punitive parenting

2018
Most page views: I hadn't cried since the airport
Personal Fave: Anxiety: It's kinda like privilege


As I sat in my bedroom in 2009 and drafted the very first post for ITS LEGS, I had no idea what this blog would become. I needed an outlet for my writing; I didn't think anyone would actually read it, well, maybe my family (and not even all of them), and possibly my few closest friends. When I first started blogging, our oldest son Luke told me, "You know, Mom, the only people who read personal blogs are their authors. No one else cares."

My reply: "Na und?" (which is the German equivalent of "So what?")

Cuz I didn't care. I needed to write. I had stuff to say. And even if what I had to say didn't matter to anyone else, it mattered to me. I also wanted to preserve some sort of family history, but I am an essayist, not a journal writer.

Today, all these years later, the blog has sort of taken on a life of its own. I sometimes think of it as my sixth child. It means a lot to me. Many people read it, people I don't even know. Depending on how good my click bait is, how kind the Facebook algorithms are on a particular day, and how many people share it, a post can get several hundred views. That's not typical, but it happens. Who are these people? I'll never know. But I love them, whoever they are. My favorite is when people I do know read it and tell me they like it. That makes me so happy. Keep in mind that with a skill set as limited as mine, not many things I do impact people.

Sometimes people unfamiliar with the blog ask what category it fits in. Is it a "Mommy Blog," for instance. Yeah, I would say so. Although not every post is about my kids, many, many are. A couple years ago, I felt impressed to start an offshoot blog, dedicated solely to church-related topics, because so many of my readership of itslegs are not members of my church. That one is far less prolific; it has only nine posts in two years. Still, I feel good about separating out those posts from itslegs. It's called "There is room for you," if you want to take a look.

So here's to another decade of blogging. I'm ready if you are!

What's new for the new year?

A new year always encourages reflection. We look both backward and forward. We sometimes make resolutions, commitments to change those things we find lacking in our lives. Other times, we simply ask "What's new? As we drove home yesterday from a lovely New Year's celebration in St. George, I asked that question: What's new for the new year?

1. New Companion: After six weeks in the Mexico CCM, Seth has now finished his first 12 weeks in Paraguay, with his wonderful training companion, Elder Guerrero from Bolivia. Elder Guerrero doesn’t speak English, so Seth has made excellent progress learning Spanish, and the two of them had a wonderful three months together.

Today, Elder Guerrero will transfer to another zone to complete his mission, and Seth will remain in Republicano and welcome a new companion, Elder Gutierrez from (guess where?), Lehi, Utah. I think it will be fun for Seth to have a companion who grew up just “down the road” from us, and also nice to be able to speak English occasionally. There are at least three investigators in their area just about ready to set baptismal dates, so Elders Erichsen and Gutierrez have some great work ahead of them. Arriba Juntos!

2. New Callings: About three months ago, as I wrote about here, and again here, our ward was dissolved and a tiny few of us were transplanted into another already-established ward that didn’t lose any members in the boundary restructure. As a result, we haven’t had callings. Now I know on the surface that sounds pretty much amazing: no mid-week meetings, no Sunday responsibilities, no lesson prep.

And it is amazing. For a while. But after a few weeks, you begin to feel like you’ll always be a visitor in your own ward, so we’re super excited to announce that we now have callings in the new ward. This past Sunday, Gerald and I were sustained as Gospel Doctrine teachers! With the new 2-hour block and the “Come Follow Me” curriculum, 2019 offers many cool opportunities for Sunday School, and we are grateful to be a part of that.

3. New Curriculum Project: As most of you know, I sometimes teach writing classes part time at LDS Business College and Salt Lake Community College, but this next semester, instead of teaching two classes at LDSBC, I get to design and write curriculum for a brand new course. The brilliant instructional design specialist and I began outlining the course last month, so we are ready to jump right in and start writing. The creative process of curriculum design is both challenging and rewarding, and a nice break from teaching.

4. New Intermittent Fasting Plan: Those who know me, know I totally suck at fasting. In our church, the first Sunday of each month is called “Fast Sunday,” and members are encouraged to fast through two meals and donate the money they would have spent on food to a special fast offering, used to help local families in need. Now I’m 100% committed to donating to the fast offering. When I served as Relief Society President for three years in Montana, I saw first hand what those funds accomplished. Wild horses couldn’t keep me from donating generously each month. But the actual fasting part? Uh, let’s just say it’s a good thing there’s repentance.

That said, for the four weeks prior to Christmas, Shulamith and I tried this new eating plan called “intermittent fasting.” The theory is it’s good to give our bodies a break from digesting food, other than when we’re asleep and in semi-hibernation mode. According to the plan, you eat for 7-8 hours during each 24-hour period, and fast for 16-17. Most days I ate from around 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. I also continued my normal, low-fat eating routine, and between that and the fasting, I lost nine pounds in the four weeks. Shulamith did the fasting but ate her regular diet, and lost six. More importantly, we both felt way better, overall healthier. 

Enter Christmas. Yep, that was a complete wash in terms of both fasting and eating low. However, now that the holiday season is behind us, we both plan to begin the intermittent fasting again tomorrow, and Eli and Amanda might join us.

5. New 1st-grade teacher: Eli completed his coursework and graduated in July from BYU-Idaho, but prospective teachers at BYU-I don’t receive their official degrees until they student teach, and they must leave Rexburg in order to do that. Rexburg doesn’t have nearly enough schools to accommodate all the teacher graduates. Eli and Amanda moved to Sandy in July, and Eli has been substituting teaching this fall. Starting next week, he will spend three months student teaching in a 1^st grade classroom in the Granite School District. He’s gonna totally rock it because he’s a wonderful teacher, and little kids adore him.

6. New decade of blogging: 2019 marks ten years of itslegs.blogspot.com. I’ll have another post soon to commemorate that occasion, so I won’t say much here, but yes, I look forward to the next ten with joy and anticipation. The best is yet to be!

What's new for your new year?