Five Poetic Years

“Blogging is the new poetry.”

Author Unknown

This contest is now closed. I will inform the winners momentarily. Thanks for participating everyone!

Five years ago tomorrow I sat down at the computer and entered my first blog post. I did not understand blogging, but I am a natural crowd follower and all the cool kids were doing it so I figured, why not?

To be honest, I’ve often thought about going back and deleting most of those early blog entries because…well, because they’re pretty bad. It was clear I didn’t understand the purpose of blogging and in some cases I overshared while in other cases I just wrote poorly.

But it’s all a journey, isn’t it, and blogging is no different.

When I began this blogging endeavor, I had three children under five. Landon was weeks old and most days I blogged while he napped in a pack and play next to me. Fittingly enough, as I type this entry he is laying beside me on the chair. It is only 5:40 in the morning, but my children all have a sixth sense, which means that there is no such thing as early morning alone time for this Mama.

His legs are slung over the side of the chair, all gangly and skinny. He’s asking me how to spell DOG, CAT and FART. Awesome…

The passing of time is so easily measured when one blogs. Moments are recorded and sent out into the void and sometimes those moments contain a huge piece of your heart. If you’re lucky, the heart pieces that were entrusted to the internet come back to you a little more whole and infused with joy. That’s what you all have done for me this half decade. You’ve infused me with joy and returned my heart just a little bit bigger.

I’ve been fortunate these last five years to have cultivated a small, but dear, community of readers who are the good ones. You all are kind and encouraging. You love to laugh (particularly at my husband) and you’re not afraid to cry. You want to help others and you are always willing to bless.

Google Analytics tells me that on average, there are 10,000 of you who visit this site monthly. That’s not very much in the grand scheme of blogging, I know. My corner is small. But it’s a nice corner. It’s peaceful here. The sun shines and the grass is fluffy and warm. We all sit around the table and drink tea out of Mason jars and eat Nutella without gaining weight.

That’s what this space is to me. It’s peace. It’s a gathering of friends who get to enjoy the best parts of life with me. Even when those best parts are hard.

I don’t share everything about my life in this space. That would be weird. I share the good, mostly. I share the funny, the sometimes mundane , the deepening of faith and the always changing craziness that makes life so exciting. There are times in the last five years when I’ve considered throwing in the towel on the whole blogging thing, but then I write a post that resonates and I remember that this life journey is much better when taken together.

I don’t know what the next five years holds. Hopefully more blogging, more growing and a lot more laughter. I may even have a book for you all to read by the end of this year! Who knows.

Life is an adventure, isn’t it? A grand, grand adventure.

So…

I’ve decided to thank you all, my sweet readers, for walking this path with me. Especially the last few months as we’ve worked toward our adoption and as we now hang in the balance. I can’t tell you what it’s meant to know you guys have our backs. I have two awesome giveaways for today and tomorrow that I want to share with you all to celebrate five years.

Today, I am going to give away two $50 gift cards to Target.

Because if there’s one thing we have all agreed on over the years, it is that Target is The Promised Land (LEE!). So, leave me a comment for an entry to win $50 to the land of milk, honey and super cute, reasonably priced clothing. I will draw the two winners randomly on Friday, January 11 at 2:00 EST.

And come back tomorrow for a chance to win two more great prizes that I’m so excited to give away!

Now at the end of the week, I will only be able to give away four prizes, unfortunately, but NEVER YOU FEAR DEAR READERS! No one will walk away completely empty handed because everyone (EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU) who comments is going to receive a cyber hug, a cyber fist bump and five cyber high fives – one for every year I’ve been a blogger.

You. Are. Welcome.

So what are you waiting for? Leave a comment to win 50 smackers! Want me to sweeten the deal? Okay, sure! If you share this giveaway on Facebook, you can come back and leave a second comment for a second entry. If you share this giveaway on Twitter you can come leave a thrid comment for a third entry.

This means you not only have three times the potential to win – it also means you will receive 15 cyber high fives! I am nothing if not generous.

I love you all. I really, really do.

(And to keep the government people happy, I will let you know that I am purchasing the gift cards to Target myself to give away. I have not been endorsed or paid by Target to write this post, but if Target would like to endorse or pay me, I wouldn’t argue so…)

Comments

  1. Congrats on 5 years!

  2. 5 years?? wow! I haven’t been reading that long, but I have gone back and read them all. Does that count?
    I’m pretty certain I should win because tomorrow is my birthday! 🙂
    Oh and I also shared on Facebook. SWEET. 10 cyber high fives for me!

  3. Whoo-hoo! I love anniversaries!

    And can I drink Diet Dr Pepper from my mason jar?

    • Sure. Diet Dr. Pepper, Coke, Pepsi, Wine, Beer, Scotch…the sky’s the limit. There are no rules to our cyber picnic! 🙂

  4. Great way to get some morning exercise, all those cyber high fives. You are doing them, right?!

    Love the heart that you put in your blog, and that you leave there for the rest of us to enjoy, laugh with, ponder and cry over.

    Anna

  5. Julie Katerberg says

    Wow!!! 5 years. I really can’t believe it has been that long. Live reading about your family!!!

  6. I shared on Facebook …

  7. … and Twitter.

  8. Keep writing!

  9. Congrats on 5 years! I would love a high five, but would rather have a spoonful of Nutella. Can you arrange that? 🙂

  10. Emily Cunningham says

    Half a decade
    5 years
    1,825 days
    43,830 hours
    2,628,000 minutes
    157,680,000 seconds

    Congrats!!

  11. Emily Cunningham says

    Shared on Facebook.

    • Hey Kelli. I have truly enjoyed your blogging. I love your style and you have been such an inspiration to me in my blogging! Keep up the good work!

  12. Congrats on 5 years! I think I have been reading from close to the start.

    Thinking of today. Hope the adoption news is positive, but if not, I know God will work it all out!

  13. Christy Todd says

    I’m just starting my blog journey! Can’t imagine 5 years! Congrats!

  14. Christy Todd says

    Facebooked it!

  15. Kelli, keep up the good work!
    We moved over the summer and the previous owners left a curtain rod up in the kitchen and as my husband took it down and decided to spray paint it I could only think of your post of spray painting curtain rods and laugh !!
    How you have a great day !

  16. Courtney says

    Congrats on 5 years! Shared on FB!

  17. Jenny Gan Wolf says

    Shared on FB
    And Yes the curtain rod turned out great!!!

  18. Danielle says

    10,000 – wow! I get excited when 100 people read a blog post of mine 🙂

  19. Danielle says

    Shared on FB… Feelin’ lucky!

  20. shared on facebook. 🙂

  21. Love your writing so much! Congrats on 5 years. You’re the best!! Much Love from TEXAS!!!

  22. Kristine says

    Congrats! hope your crazy life makes you laugh regularly (that’s the only way we will ever get through them:))

  23. Kristine says

    clicked the share button on FB….hope it worked:) high 5!

  24. I love reading your blogs and look forward to reading many more. 😉

  25. Paula Eldred says

    Shared!

  26. Congrats on 5 years!

  27. Happy Anniversary! And yes, Target is the place to be!

  28. Congrats! I’ve been blogging about 5 years as well. Thanks for sharing!

  29. Wohoo!! 5 years!! congratulations!

    PS: I love that you gave a shout out to Lee when you mentioned the mecca that is Target! hahaha

  30. Congratulations on five years and I will be reading for the next five. I am glad that you have not removed the old posts as I often go back and read them since I am new to reading this site. On thing tho, not all of us think that Target is the next best thing to heaven.

    • Well, I will forgive you that tiny oversight only because you possess the Y Chromosome. Thanks Jay! I love my faithful male readers. You guys are fun. 🙂

  31. Kelli – congrats on five years. You’ve been in my prayers; hope 2013 finds you with kid bounty 🙂

  32. Jason Starbuck says

    Congrats on the 5 years Kelli!

  33. Love a giveaway! Congrats!

  34. Shared on FB.

  35. I thank you for sharing your writing. I like the clarity in your writing and I especially like the cyber hug. 🙂 Thanks for not “throwing in the towel.” Best wishes to you and yours.

  36. accept this as my comment… I LOVE YOU and am thankful that you blog, it helps to keep me feeling close to you over the miles. Sign me up to win here and maybe I’ll be pulling your name from my hat (albeit not a hat purchased from Target – favorite post ever!) on Friday as well.

  37. Megan F. says

    Congratulations on five years of blogging. Quite impressive, considering I’ve started two blogs and written approximately three whole posts in that time. *sigh* I sense a NY resolution!

  38. Oh boy 5 years! I’m sure those 5 years feel like 5 days. Time whizzes by way too fast!! Congrats!!

  39. Yay for 5 yrs! Thanks for making me laugh. And cry. 🙂

  40. Yay Facebook!

  41. Yay Twitter!

  42. Oh I adore Target. 🙂

  43. Belle Sartin says

    Ms Kelli,
    Thanks so much for inspiring me to keep up my blogging. I love feeling like I’m closer to you all through reading what you write. So congrats on five years!

    Much love to you 🙂
    <3 Belle

  44. Belle Sartin says

    Ms. Kelli,

    Thank you so much for inspiring me to keep on blogging. Your writing always makes me laugh, or think, or it just out-and-out encourages me.
    I love feeling like I’m in the loop with what’s going on with you and your family, despite that darn couple hundred miles.
    Congrats on 5 YEARS!!

    Much love – Belle

  45. Belle Sartin says

    And I apologize for leaving 2 similar (and now 3 total) comments. Even in first-world countries, the internet and I are still at war, or so it would seem!
    – B.

  46. Diane Beazley says

    Kelli,
    Congrats on 5 years! I love your style and I like shopping with gift cards!
    Diane

  47. Diane Beazley says

    Posted to Facebook! I’m getting my wishlist ready! ;o)

  48. So fun to celebrate 5 years of blogging with you!

  49. Five years!!! That’s awesome! 🙂

    I’m glad I found your little corner. It *is* nice and peaceful here!

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