Happy Birthday, mixed veggies!

I just noticed yesterday that I owe mixed veggies a belated birthday greeting! I started this blog roughly two years ago. A lot has changed in that time. Back then, I had a cooing infant; now I have a very verbal preschooler who knows far more than I dreamed she would by this point. When I started writing mixed veggies, it was for brain exercise. After quitting my job, I never had a reason to use my mind to write anything but thank you notes. And I certainly wasn't carrying on deep conversations with my baby.

A friend of ours urged me to start a blog one day, and I thought that was crazy. What could I possibly have to say that anyone would care to read? He was a part of a very philosophical blog with quite a readership, and it fueled him. He loved it. He wanted everyone else to start a blog and love it as much as he did. He gave me his spiel about how I could build a readership of moms...blah, blah. But I still thought it was silly to think anyone (strangers, at least) would care about my motherhood stories or musings about life in general. Nonetheless, he convinced me to start a blog. I went into it blindly, not knowing what I would want to talk about or whether I would write for the readers or just say what was on my mind like a journal. I started off aiming to have frequent, reliable content. Just something to read...so my "readers" wouldn't get bored and run off. (Like I had any readers other than him, my husband, and my best friend.) I soon learned that appeasing the "readership" wouldn't be my goal. It was more for me than for the readers, though I kept in mind that "big brother is watching." I try not to say anything that would make waves in my circle of knowing. Life's not worth that. I don't have anything important enough to say to be worth that. Mixed veggies is more about my random thoughts and opinions, and I still can't see why anyone who doesn't already know me would want to read it. And I often wonder if any stranger out there does. The circle is already a little bigger than I expected, having grown from just immediate family and closest friends, to friends' family members and friends and old friends with whom I rarely connect. So knowing someone is checking for a new post once in a while keeps me posting. And that keeps me exercising my brain in a way other than sitting in the Thinking Chair and figuring out Blue's Clues with Steve or Joe every day. So I guess it has served its purpose.

Among my favorite posts:
Love pulp, stirred
Beans
Displayed Taxidermy
Fitting
Sensing September
Remembering Challenger