Who are you, my friend?

 

Y'all know I've been in a blogging slump for a while. For a couple of years now, really. I look back at my old posts sometimes, and I'm sorta in awe that I wrote them. I mean they're good - really good. I can't write like that anymore, and that makes me sad.

Nowadays, all I write is boring AO posts, and mostly even those are written so I don't forget something that I think some of you need to know, and because I feel that I should. There is no spark, no joy, no something special. Sometimes I think I should call it a day, but I find it really hard to just stop. I mean, I've made some really wonderful friends blogging, and I'd hate to lose touch with you all. So I keep trying, and I keep failing, and keep trying and keep failing and...well, repeat.

This Christmas I treated myself to Pip Lincolne's ebook, Shake it Up - 30 Days to a Rad, More True-to-You Blog. Pip is one of my blogging heroes. She is always up-beat, always fun, always interesting. When I grow up, I'm going to be Pip. Once I went into her old shop, Meet Me At Mikes, and she was there, and I wanted to tell her how amazing she was, but I was afraid she wouldn't find that cool, and so I didn't, and I've kinda always regretted that. After all, nobody hates being told they're awesome, right? Even an überblogger like Pip.

Over the Christmas holidays, I've been slowly inching my way through the inspiring ideas contained in Pip's book, working on the exercises, and trying to decide exactly what I want the pages of my blog to look like. One of the more interesting tasks was to define my Favourite Reader Profile. She wants to know who you are, or rather, she wants me to know. So for the last few days, I've been thinking about you, and just who you are.

Let me see how close I am.

One thing I know for sure, and that is that you're my dear friend. You're probably a homeschooler, or at the very least, you're homeschool friendly, and you're most likely a Charlotte Mason fan. You may use AO, and you like ideas that make your homeschool day run more smoothly.

You love books and reading, and you want your kids to love them too. You may have a bit of a book problem, and you delight in encouraging me with mine. You love photos of my library shelves, and ideas of books for you and your kids to read. My Japanese literature fetish leaves you scratching your head, but you're willing to give one a try. Your favourite books include 84, Charing Cross Road and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, both of which really fuel your desire for more book titles.

You're either an Aussie, or you like learning what makes my life different from yours. You love living vicariously through my travels, and my insatiable desire to see new lands amuses you. You wish we could travel together.

You don't watch much telly, but you love a good movie. You're a secret Dr Who fan, and you may just have looked forward to December more for the release of the new Star Wars movie than for Christmas. You've seen the movie, and are privately rather disappointed with what you saw. Christmas, on the other hand, was perfect because, you know, Christmas.

You love 70% dark chocolate, peanut butter and a combination of the two. You don't drink much, but are amused by my love of champagne. You join me in a love of good tea and coffee.

You are a Christian, and are interested in what makes my flavour of Reformed faith different from yours. The fact that my church practices exclusive psalmody and doesn't celebrate Christmas intrigues you.

You don't vaccinate your children. That's all I have to say about that.

Actually, I think I have nothing more to say about you, except to reiterate how much I love and care for you. When I write here, I write for you, and I want to write what you want to read.

How did I go? Did I picture you correctly at all? Tell me where I went wrong. I'd love to know you better, and hopefully, if I get I better idea of who you are, I might be able to get a better idea or how to make this blog one that you want to read and I want to write. I'd like that very much.

Oh, and Happy New Year. May God bless and keep you throughout 2016. You are very special to me, dear one. Thank you for being my friend.