The Humphries Four

What can I say? I may have failed at baby books and family photo albums for the past 17 years. Sure, I’ve taken thousands and thousands of pictures. Where are they? They’re stored on my external hard drive in “virtual albums”. I mean this is the digital age, right? 

Speaking of digital age, I’d like to believe that I’m pretty well-versed in the technical department. It all started when I wanted to know what made the red nose light up on my Operation Game. I dis-assembled that one really quickly. That was only the beginning. I wanted to know how everything worked. I took EVERTHING apart. (Sometimes, I wouldn’t put them back together. This drove my parents nuts.)I quickly became a gadget gu-ru. I love to fix things, research the internet, work on digital images, edit music, etc. If I don’t know how to do it, I’ll teach myself. 

Why am I writing about all of this techno mumble jumble? Because there is one thing that I have always wanted to do, but I just kept putting it off over the years. I wanted to take a stab at keeping a BLOG. “Blog”…what a strange word. It seems simple. It’s essentially an online journal…or whatever  the author wants it to be. I think I’ve been afraid to post a blog because I tend to be too critical of my work. I’m a teacher. I set high expectations for my students. I’ve been afraid that anything I write may not be technically correct, creative, or entertaining. But something has changed in me that has forced me to ingore those fears. 

The year 2014 is very significant for the Humphries family. Sure, every year our family has had exciting news to share at some point. Every year, I’ve also had thoughts and issues at hand that I wanted to write about. This year, I’m feeling a sense of urgency about spending as much time as I can with my family. I want to keep track of the memories we are making. Our daughters are growing into beautiful young women, right before our eyes. Jocelyn will be going off to college next year. Mallory has her high school career underway. 

So, I’d like to set a tone in this first post of the Humphries4 Blog. I’m not going to worry too much about grammatical errors. I’m not going to worry about whether I’m being witty enough to keep readers entertained. I’m just going to write. I’m going to write as though I’m having a casual conversation. I have a lot to be proud of. Our family is so blessed. Yes, we have our tough times, and you’ll most likely hear about those too. I’m just going to begin writing in the style that I tell my fourth grade students to start with. Free-writing…just write what you’re thinking and don’t worry about the rest. This gives them confidence and helps them learn to enjoy writing. So….here’s to FREE-WRITING!