Week Nine: Blogs are like family meetings!

I was just thinking this tonight as I started out on the nightly dog walk.

We post:

Appreciations. It's a way of really noticing the good stuff, when it gets written down. This is really potent stuff for me, I realized today (during a discussion on another dog walk, that one complete with tired toddler), because I remember stuff a lot better when I write it down.

Vents. Which are kindof like problems to go on a problem list (i think that's part of family meetings, isn't it?).

Needs/hopes for clarification.

Add to that that they're short and sweet (even when we feel like we've written a chapter, it doesn't take that long to read), have a definite chairperson (the writer), definite notetaker (the writer), the only thing lacking is the community...but then we turn around and use all the info we've gathered on our blogs during our interactions with our family (and others), so there's the community. And we even have readers!

As a side note, I was also realizing that appreciations are another way of avoiding labels and labeling. All the examples we were given were of specific events. Not "I appreciate how sweet your are" or "I appreciate that Dad is really strong," but specific instances that may represent that. It's another way of avoiding praise. And it's such a more satisfying way to communicate with loved ones!