Why start a blog?

Around the time this photo was taken, I was probably frequently hearing the phrase "Tracey Carol."  That's what I was called when I wasn't always making the best choices, as I sometimes now explain bad behaviors to my children.  Tracey is my first name and Carol is my middle name.

Why have I decided to start a blog?  Good question.  I really don't have a huge amount of free time - I have a wonderful family that, rightly so, keeps me very busy; a way-too-smart dog; a full-time job involving over 300 more children; and so many extra-curricular activities involving my three kiddos that I sometimes spend more time in my car than at my home.  But in amongst all those things that bring me joy, I have very little that is just me.  In reading a book that my mother-in-law recently gave me about the very demanding life of motherhood (which, by the way, my way-too-smart dog just chewed up - sorry Helen!),  I heard other moms stress that we just need to take some time for ourselves.  Again, why have I decided to start a blog?  How is that taking time for myself?  I'll tell you.  

For as long as I can remember, I have loved words.  Big ones, small ones, long ones, shorts ones, hard-to-spell ones, and all the rest.  I can remember going to the grocery store with my mom and asking her to let me hang out in the school supply section while she shopped so I could look at the cool paper and pens.  I loved practicing my handwriting different ways and seeing printed words on pages.  Yeah, sounds weird, I know.  

Most of my adult life, I have enjoyed photography.  I love looking at photos, and especially taking them.  I am no where near knowing enough about the whole subject of taking wonderful photos, but what I do know is that photos truly are worth not just a thousand words, as the old adage says, but worth millions of words and more importantly, they are catalysts to wonderful memories.

So, that being said, I decided to combine the three - my love of words, my love of photography, and something to call my very own.  Hence, tracey carol * behind the lens.