figuring things out

A very appropriate first title for my first post, I must say... :-) Right now, I'm working on figuring out several things: why I felt like starting a blog, how to set this thing up (I absolutely HATE computers and all things associated-it's a mutual feeling, computers seem to hate me and do bad things to me all the time), still figuring out this whole "parenthood" thing (I have a feeling that will never end), and most specifically, I'm currently trying to figure out the trick to this most awful ordeal of POTTY TRAINING!

Surprisingly, I hadn't been giving any thought to starting a blog. About a year ago, a friend told me, "You should start your own blog!" To which I thought, "WHY!?! What do I have to say that would be remotely interesting or important?" I hate computers and rarely do anything on them other than check email, facebook, and surf craigslist. I quickly dismissed the idea. But today, I woke up and for some reason thought to myself, I'm going to start a blog for our family, today. I like reading other people's blogs, just maybe someone would enjoy reading mine...??? :-)

I do love reading friends' blogs, and I love sharing our pictures with family and friends. Writing was my favorite subject to teach my students, and I do enjoy writing --I just never do it. But I think the real reason I decided to start a blog was because I think it will help me keep focused on all the wonderful blessings in my life, and really, how good I actually have it. And I hope family and friends enjoy keeping up with what's going on with the crazy martins!

When I feel down, and like everything's just a royal mess, I make it a priority to sit down and scrapbook. May sound silly, but when I thumb through photos of Jason, Jack, and Lucy, and get my hands "dirty" in pretty paper, fun embellishments, and sticky adhesive, arranging pictures of those most dear to me in fun albums, it really puts everything in perspective. So, I'm thinking blogging will be another way to look at the bright side of things.

If you're wondering why the title, I jotted down the letters of our family names (jason, jack, lucy, kelly, and toby - J, K, T, and L - and tried to come up with a sentence using those letters. "Just Keepin' Things Lively" popped in my head about four seconds later. "Lively" is just the start of it...we never sit still and there's truly never a dull moment :-)

So, now I must figure out how the heck to put this thing together. Of course this will begin with figuring out how to make my background super cute, like all of my friends' blogs are and adding cute pictures of my family. Oh yeah, and I love feedback, so if you feel like shouting something out, I'll LOVE getting little emails that tell me you did and what you said (is that how it works!?!) LOL! Jason will simply fall over in shock when he gets home and I tell him I started a blog today! :-)