August 18, 2007 @ 7:32 am | Filed under: Uniquely Me

It began in May of 2004.

I had been hearing of "blogs" for some months and, Curious George that I am, I did some research, decided that having my own space in the blogosphere might be fun AND productive for my writing, and I reached out and claimed a spot just for me.

The past three and a half years have brought many changes, both in my professional life and in my personal life. I have to say that the posts on motherhood and family life have been my most favorite to write. The boys were just beginning high school when I blogged for the first time and now they are both away at college. I had two books published back in 2004 and now I have four. We’ve moved. I’ve gone back to college. Mike has become a private pilot. And I’m registered to run my first 5K this fall.

Through all of these life changes, I’d like to believe that I’ve only grown and matured and - hopefully - become each day more and more of the woman that God intends for me to be. Although I’ve posted on virtually every aspect of my life in the past few years, I truly hope that what has come through the clearest is my deep faith in God. Without Him, I lack strength of my own and everything - EVERYTHING - that I am or ever hope to be is without a doubt a gift from Him.

So it is with some hesitation, and a bit of sadness, that I announce this will be the last blog post from Glimpses. I have loved sharing with you, my friends and my readers, and who knows? - maybe I’ll blog again one day. But right now I feel strongly that my attention and efforts need to be streamlined a bit. It is all too easy for me to procrastinate on my writing or put off homework for another hour or two - all in the name of blogging.

With the boys now at college and settling into their new lives, I’ve been taking a careful examination of my priorities and where I need to direct attention most. Two big things are on my horizon: I go back to full-time writing on Monday, the 27th, after taking the summer off and I begin fall classes the very next day, on the 28th. I want to take full advantage of this time in my life, soaking up each extra hour I’ll now have with Mike, and savoring the rewards that come from a full days spent writing and attending classes.

Blogging has given me an outlet, a place to express my thoughts and feelings, and a way to sharpen some writing skills, all the while making myself accessible to readers and to friends. While I will no longer be blogging, I still want to communicate with you. Some of you are readers that I’ve met through my books. You’ll never know how much your emails have meant to me. Please - always feel free to email me whenever you want. My friends can attest - I’m a really faithful emailer!

And for my friends - well, you know I’ll still be around. I’ll still have four-thousand, seven-hundred, sixty-four pictures to share with you, and I’ll still be there for mid-class texts, funny emails, the occasional long lunch, and plenty of "The Gang" time!

With God’s help and with a whole lot of will power and sheer effort, I plan have several new books for you to read and enjoy in the next twelve months. If you’d like to be put on an email list and be alerted when a new book comes out, please pop me a line and I’ll add you right away. A quarterly e-newsletter will still go out to all those on this list.

Thank you for sharing this journey with me! I wouldn’t have traded it for anything.

Staci (a.k.a. Glimpses)