An Explanation

Last Christmas, my mother-in-law, Mary Lou, gave me Bonnie Neubauer's book 303 Writing Prompts: Ideas to Get You Started.  She probably gave it to me to use with my students at Virginia Beach Middle School where I have been teaching English to 12 - 14 year old children for 27 years.  At the time, I glanced through it, dogeared some pages and left it on the bottom shelf of my bedside table.

It was still there, and very dusty, when this morning, I was cleaning the house and found it.  I looked at it and inspiration struck.  

You see, I've always wanted to blog.  Earlier this summer, I extolled my desire to blog about something to my husband, Jim, and my two daughters, Megan and Delaney, in the car one day.  They all chuckled in that knowing way which says, "sure you do," a little sarcastically.  

"But what would you blog about?" one of my daughters said, and my answer was basically that I had no idea.

We bantered ideas around -- What I made for dinner each night?  Boring. 
Ideas for teaching English to students who don't want to be there?  Belck! Gardening tips? Ha, ha!  This last one was a joke, since I don't really garden. (Mostly I plant, and the squirrels eat everything.)  After about 5 more minutes of increasingly ridiculous idea generation for my blog, the topic was dropped. No ideas -- no blog.

But when I saw the book, I thought, this is it.  This is my blog.  I will write all 303 writing prompts over the course of the year.  As Bonnie Neubaurer says, " Some trials will be more successful than others, but it is only through doing them that you will improve and learn about your own unique writing style, and voice."  

I'm ready to improve and learn, Bonnie.  Let's do this!