It’s been 5 months today that my alter ego has spoken a word to you all, well, it’s not my alter ego technically, it’s me, but I haven’t been silent for 5 months just not blogging, but I’ve been thinking about blogging a lot and as you can tell, blogging is confusing.
Not just confusing, but fun, exciting, interesting AND time-consuming, daunting or shall I dare say it, burdensome.
But you guys are the reasons I keep coming back, keep bringing what you all have called “the real take on the non so glam part of motherhood” or “a safe place for us to be real and not so damn cutesy-mommy like”…well, you all win, I’m BACK. No promises! No foolishness! Bigger than I’ve ever done it before.
But first let me thank you all for hounding me (no names, Amy, E.M., Elizabeth (smile) and letting me know that what we do to give people fun, interesting, thought provoking, relevant talk on marriage, family, parenting and just over-all real women stuff actually matters in the midst of this fluffy, nonsensical world of celebrity talk and political hoopla.
What have I been doing all of this time? I mean five months of no blogging in the blogworld is putting me on the page with the typewriter, the Atari and Black Micheal Jackson. I don’t want to dwell on the past, but I do feel like I want to catch you guys up on what’s I’ve learned and of course, what I want you all to talk about:

1. We bought a house in the worst housing market in history because after one semester of being in Baltimore Public Schools, I realized that my children’s education, my sanity and my soul deserved better, deserved some rest. We moved to the suburbs (I know, thought we’d never do it…will save that for another post) and three of the kids-Grown Man, YPW and Pie are doing well despite YPW’s challenge with focus and attention (ahhh, check out tomorrow’s post on that). Big Girl is still at home, but preparing for traditional high school. Between magnet school applications, interviews, auditions, it makes you wonder-Why not fix the friggin’ local schools and to hell with all of this paperwork and drama? UGGH!

2. I had my 37th birthday and after being told by a loving friend that she’s tired of me sitting on my life…(now, you all know that oldest children/over-achiever perfectionist do not take well to harsh criticism) that I’m not just blogging again, I’m releasing the mini version of a book that I’ve been writing forever and it’s called…ooops, I’m supposed to write about it in a separate post and give you all the amazon link….geesh, I ca’t keep up with all of the rules and I’ve made some changes to my internet radio show and you all will be invited to big launch.
3. I’m coaching a group of women who want to get over themselves and get to walking in purpose and destiny. Sorry fellas. I am asking for 10 pairs of women to sign up (I’ve found when you have an accountability partner, you stick to it longer-like going to the gym with someone) for an 8-week program which involves online and phone coaching, weekly teleclasses and assignments delivered by email. By the beginning of next week, you’ll be able to read all about it on our sister sites. Email me at dahgurl at dahgurl dot com if you would like more details!

Lastly, I would be remiss if I didn’t say that while I was gone, history was being made with a woman and an African American running for President. Regardless of my politics (you guys know I will bring it in due time), I have to say Wow! It’s time for something different here. We’re more concerned about Britney-whether she’s wearing underwear or not, shaving her head, being arrested for something than we are rising gas prices, foreclosures, unemployment. (deep breath…BIG sigh…little tear). As I mentioned earlier, I had a birthday and asked what am I going to do? It’s more than just get mine and worry about the rest later. I’m going to put my voice in the ring, my thoughts on the page…I’m not turning away, giving up. I won’t be asleep because change…it has to come.

I have decided to do something that I’ve never done before and I need your help, A LOT of help. Seems to me that as a people, we all love the underdog. Our beloved movies are about overcoming, conquering, achieving the unthinkable. Well, guess what? For the first time in, I think, my life…I am the underdog and I decided to pull out some Sun Tzu and fight for a Blogger’s Choice Award this year.

Yep. Little old first year, well beginning second year, blogger is ready to kick it into high gear. Wait, did you say that you don’t know what the blogger choice awards are? Well, not until I started seeing this badge everywhere.

I read a lot of blogs that have been nominated and I started to think…”my blog/my writing/my story is better than theirs. Why wasn’t I nominated? I mean Hottest Mommy Blogger, Best Parenting Blog…I should have a little honorable mention or something, right?

So, I instead of complainin’ or hatin’ (neither of which I do), I decided to do some research, check out what the pros are doing and put together a campaign/a strategy. My strategy is inspired by one of my favorite cartoon characters, Underdog.

Now, I may not a lot about blogging as a business, but I know a little somem somem about marketing. I got with a team of people on how we are going to do this and the first step they told me to make it plain.

1. I need everyone reading this post to take 2 minutes to vote for Dahgurl as the Best Parenting Blog and/or the Hottest Mommy Blogger. Click here , sign up (yes, you have to sign up before you can vote) and once you verify your sign up via email, then go to the main page and locate the Best Parenting Blog in the left hand navigation bar. Then just vote. It’s so simple and if you want to leave a comment, that would be great too!

2. I want you to leave me a comment and tell me what YOU would like to see more of at Dahgurl. Now, so far, I’ve heard

• more pictures (I’m going to put the Flick widget back up…still trying to find a theme that works for all of my content. Suggestions?)

• more book suggestions (same deal with my amazon links…I’ll get that together too) and
• some blog tour/blog carnivals (will be starting these in a week or so)

What else? We did the podcast (that’s what we’re doing over at TalkShoe and we would love for you all to join us EVERY Tuesday night at 9 p.m. right where you are, on the phone or on the computer) and I have been asked to take some of our chats on video over at YouTube. Would you like product reviews? News Stories? Celebrity Gossip (I think I would have to draw the line there)? Apparel?
Let me know your thoughts and ideas for bringing this underdog from obscurity to the virtual red carpet. The countdown will begin in the sidebar tomorrow along with a little reminder to sign up and vote. Let’s add a little flavor to the Blogger’s Choice Awards.

After a brief celebration of DH’s b-day yesterday, we spent some time talking about what we want for ourselves as individuals, as a family. Ok, maybe I should say that I was talking out loud and he was briefly commenting. One of the things that I have been faced with in my recent season is the principle of release and increase. Wayne Dyer said, “We are spiritual beings having a human experience.” I think about that often as I want to be clean and clear spiritually so that I can stay in God’s flow for my life.

I get deep when I think about blogging because the beginning of this process was a birthing process for me. I kinda feel like dahgurl is my baby, an experimental baby that didn’t blow up, in a good and bad way. Good way is that it didn’t getting boring, challenging/discouraging/frustrating, not boring. Bad in the sense that I expected a lot more traffic, a lot more connections with people. Unfortunately, I came into this blogging thing pretty ignorant as to how it really works.

Now that I have been out here for a year, I have become more aware of what’s hot in the blogosphere. The Dahgurl team is working on some ways that we can spread the word about what is going on here. I want to thank them for putting up with me and my evenly split brained antics. Working with me is not easy, so I am blessed that God brought the right (and the best) marketing/creative/administrative team any busy blogger/writer/coach/teacher can have.

I have decided to give everyone a little bit of everything here. This is not just a parenting blog. This is not a blog about homeschooling (I am going to be writing about our summer plans and doing a series on homeschooling so that you guys can setup summer homeschooling offices…check back this weekend for more details). This is not just a women’s blog. This is a blog that encompasses all aspects of my life, but this year, I am going to serve it to you in organized, bite-sized chunks. Smaller entries/lots of series/same topic for a week and then I can move on to something else.

I know, I know.

Just keep on reading, keep on stopping by. It will definitely be popping. Thanks for being there for me.

To my wonderful readers, I must tell you that you are not confused. My natural birthday was April 28th and we celebrated hard with a RECORD BREAKING response to my post over at Parenting. Shortly, there after we launched the Chocolate Chats interactive podcast over at TalkShoe. We’ve had a blast, but this birthday is going to be different/bigger.

What do you do to celebrate an incredible journey in self-discovery, self-definition and virtual nakedness?

I started with an identity crisis in March, got committed to this thing called blogging and revisited the crisis in June. The rest is her-story. Yeah, her story. I would have to say that blogging has been so rewarding for me as it gave me the audience to share my views/thoughts and it gave me a level of accountability to my writing. You all have seen the gamut here. From my crazy antics about my neglectful health habits to my tribute to my dad (whom I love so much), you guess laughed and cried with me. You were with me when I found my awesome church after years of being away from a church home, while I drowned in St. Louis. You even struggled with me as DH and I discovered the cost of our financial neglect and how we had to work hard to put it all together again. Man, you know more about me than my family. Check out some of the archives and post a comment or two.

Some of you like stats, so my goal was 365 posts, but then when I took Sundays out/took time out for the holidays, I thought 200 posts was more reasonable. I wrote 180! WOOO-WHOO! That was good, huh? Not to mention that Chanda came in and helped me out when the exposure was too much and contributed 24, so that REALLY puts us over the 200 mark. Thanks Sis!

I am so excited that I get to share with all of you what’s going on with me. I told you all that some things were changing and they are. Stay tuned to the new version of dahgurl! One year and still kicking it!

Much transition is taking place in my life and I am going with the flow for once. As you all know, I love my life in all of its colors and flavors. I don’t do well with boxes, titles, limitations (you know I was one doozie of an employee, right?) So as I do kinda of a quarterly check in, I had to do some redirecting in my life. Find out what happened during this redirect when  you read my article over at The Parenting Post.