Marriage, Blogging, & Everything Else

I never quite know how to awkwardly side-shuffle from stage left back onto the blog when I've been gone for any length of time, so...here I am. If anybody's out there, ~salutations~. Also if it's just me, hi, I love your work.

I got married in June, and wedding plans consumed my life for months before that, but now I've been spat back out into my new normal life, which includes 300% more cuddles but still my requisite amount of anxiety.

Side note: It's funny to me how fast my actual wedding went by. I know people are always saying that, but it's true. There were so many bright moments from that day (being tossed in the air multiple times during an impromptu mosh pit at the reception among them) but it's crazy that that was already over a month ago. 

I plan to share more about the wedding and honeymoon in a separate post, but for right now, I'm dipping my toe back into the blogging waters to see if anyone's still swimmin'.

I feel like a lot of the bloggers I used to love reading stopped posting content around 2019. Some of my favorite reads are still here (God bless), but to me it feels like blogging has been left behind. Which I don't completely hate - I feel like there's something inherently slow-paced about it, something decidedly old fashioned that might not be as popular in our fast-paced lives. It takes time to read or write a blog! It takes devotion! It used to be my Saturday morning ritual to run three miles, fix a bowl of oatmeal, then sip my coffee while reading and commenting on my favorites. That took hours.

Regardless, I will always have an affection for blogging. Something always draws me back in, no matter how long I've been away.

Offline, behind the scenes, I've been thinking and praying about what I want this space to be. I have thoughts of writing more long-form essay content or short stories, of creating a mailing list, of sharing more snippets of my daily life. My husband might even make his own blog - but for now he has contented himself with the addition of what we lovingly call "Peter's Paragraph," which, starting with today's entry, you will see added to the bottom of my blog posts (scroll to the bottom).

I sometimes still struggle with perfectionism when I come to this space, but my favorite blogs are authentic, unapologetic, and the writers say what they feel without any preamble. People like that inspire me to write even if I'm only writing for myself - which, in the end, isn't a bad place to be.

And, what's this?! A bonus Jonas? Don't look now, it's....Peter's Paragraph (which we invented on the honeymoon as a kind of joke but look where we are now).

~Peter's Paragraph~

Greetings all! My wife let me infiltrate her blog with whatever I want to say (LOL). Thus, “Peter’s Paragraph” was created. The best authors know how to use the paragraph as an outlet to let their ideas flow. That is why we see paragraphs that are pages long and some as short as one word. However, paragraphs in school are taught to be 3-5 sentences. This elementary objective limits writers from being creative and reaching their true potential. As a result, I would like to relate the paragraph to life… There are people telling us that we have to be this or that (3-5 sentences long for example), but our potential is truly greater. It is up to us to determine if we want to live in the parameters defined by others or create the parameters ourselves.

Bam! And just like that, the blog post is over. If anyone is following along, how has your summer been? Are you reading any good books? I would love new recommendations, as always!

Hello goodbye,

E