I’ve procrastinated writing this post. I don’t really know what to say that I haven’t already said. I’ve contemplated a million different ways to wrap up this blog that has been such a joy to write, but none of them felt right.

So I ate a little chocolate and hummed this Boyz II Men song softly as I’ve made my way through my morning.

I find it somewhat apropos that I am writing this final post with my sick daughter laying next to me on the couch.  I started this blog a little over six years ago as a means to document this crazy thing called motherhood. When I wrote my first post, I had a 4 year old, a 23 month old and a newborn. I was tired, I was overwhelmed, and I thought that my life would be tantrums and poopy diapers from the rest of all time.

I never thought I’d have a career.

I never thought I’d have the opportunity to travel and develop as a writer and creator.

I assumed myself unambitious, not knowing that I was simply hard wired to thrive on inspiration.

I didn’t know all the ways that blogging would enrich my life as a mother and a wife.

Honestly, when I first started, I thought blogging sounded stupid. Write about daily life? WHO WOULD CARE TO READ THAT!

Here we are six years later. Life is still funny, and a bit surprising. I’m still doing my best to raise these children without inadvertently pushing one of them to write a scathing “Mommy Dearest” memoir. Although this morning I did drag my wrestling and crying six year old out of the house and place him firmly on the school bus much against his will, which should give him at least a chapter’s worth of material to share with the world someday.

Yay me…

It’s also a fitting symbol that my minivan, the one we purchased just a couple of months before I started this blog, is dying a slow and pitiful death. It won’t be long before she will need to be replaced by something…newer. Not better (still a minivan, yo!), but different. A fresh start to drive us both literally and figuratively into the future.

It’s like my entire life has become a symbol!

The new website will be a chance for to continue to expand and grow as a writer, as a wife and a mother, as someone who never wants to grow stagnant in life. There is so much still to see and do. So many opportunities to use the gifts and talents I’ve been loaned to bless and encourage others. Perhaps the biggest lesson this blog has taught me is that this life is so much more fun when it’s lived in service to others.

It’s not about me, and I would never want it to be.

So today will be the final post here on Minivans Are Hot. I shall drive my minivan into that goodnight, and when the sun rises I’ll find myself on a new path. Still in a minivan (hawt!), and with plenty of blog fodder to come.

Ugh…that sounds so cheesy, doesn’t it? 

In an effort to wrap this up, I’ve decided to share my Top Two favorite posts from each year I’ve blogged, and I’m hoping you’ll appreciate how difficult it was to choose only two posts from each year!

See you next week in an all new space, friends! Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for cheering me on this journey.

2008

Literal Art and the Worst Toy Ever Created – In which my husband made a massive Daddy faux pas.

The Same, But Different – In which my husband bludgeoned a possum to death with a crowbar.

2009

The Master Cleanse: A Review – We tried The Master Cleanse. We failed miserably.

Can I Just Go Back to Bed? – The Haircut Heard ‘Round the World.

2010

Boy and Girl and a Cricket Makes Three – When sharing my love story with Lee, I mentioned the time a voyeuristic cricket had his way with me.

The Day we Spent $127 on Soap – Because Lee and I are dorks and can’t add.

2011

The Debate of Our Generation – The one where we try REALLY HARD to convince you that minivans are hot.

Don’t Go Disrespectin’ – Don’t mess with a mom in a minivan.

2012 – (I couldn’t choose two from this year – it was my favorite blogging year)

Hope is Slow – This post from Tanzania was a life changer for me. It’s still impacting me today.

Rise of the Planet of the Blue Monkeys – An open lunch box in the Tanzanian wild is a bad idea. Bad, bad, BAD idea…

It’s Like He Doesn’t Know Me At All – The day my husband dissed Target and invoked the wrath of the internet.

2013

Mom of the Year: Not Looking Good – In which I sent Landon to school in pants caked with Nutella, and I forfeited my Mother of the Year title.

A Bridge Between Here and There – I responded to my friend Shaun’s post and invoked the dreaded ‘S’ word. *gasp*

2014

Tenting with Shamoo – We went camping. In January. That is all.

Exposing the Real Issues in Sochi – This was an important post to me. I’m so thankful it got the traffic it did.