So it would seem I’m officially a blogger!

First hurdle was starting the blog and that now has a big tick next to it. I sent my first post ‘the right time’ to my husband and a friend to see what feedback I would get, although only a very small and biased audience nevertheless I pressed send and waited for the reviews to come flooding in. Knowing that if it wasn’t any good both my husband and friend would tell me that perhaps I should put my new found enthusiasm for a hobby into perhaps walking the dog more or even cleaning out my overflowing wardrobe!

‘Brilliant’ was used by both reviewers and it even brought tears to my friends eyes! Was this the reaction that I was looking for? Perhaps not as this means it’s really happening, I’m starting a blog! After toying with the idea for so long but not sharing my thoughts of a blog with anyone the overwhelming feeling of starting a blog swept over me. I felt committed to it like I’d signed a virtual contract as I’d spoken of my ideas, I couldn’t go back on it now, the deal was done.

So I have one post in the bag but no way of sharing it with the world! So my fingers got to work with the help of Google to find out about the world of blogging. A quick google fuelled lesson was now under my belt too. A feeling of pride was starting to wash over me as in the last 24 hours I had not only wrote my first blog I had found out how to share it with the world.

Then we hit a wall, a big, fat, tall wall with no ladders anywhere to be seen! The name of the blog! After debating starting the blog for so long I had never considered the name, I knew what I wanted to write about but how do I get that into a short domain name that gets to the point without being too complex. I’m over thinking this, I know I am! It’s only a name, what’s in a name?

I felt like I was naming my children again, the only difference is I had nine months to think about that. If I’m to get this blog going I need a name in the next 24 hours. Oh no! Panic! Calm down, let’s start at the beginning, the blog is going to be about us, an ordinary family living a very unordinary life. I turned to my husband for inspiration, my first idea of ‘living with XP’ was sent to the cutting room floor along with many others. Yes the blog will include lots to do with XP but XP doesn’t define us, we are a normal family, with one small difference, we live by the sun. In that I mean we are constantly checking the UV and counting down the hours till it’s safe outside, we have an endless supply of factor 50 sunscreen in our kitchen next to the vitamin D spray.

The sun is so important to us yet I hate everything about the sun, the anger I feel for this thing that gives life to the world is unspeakable. I’m constantly caught in this space where my worst enemy is the one thing that keeps our beautiful planet earth alive and spinning. There was no way the word ‘sun’ was being used in the title of my blog. My blog is going to my happy place that I’m in control of and the big bad sun is not coming with me. Then I got thinking about the other side of the sun, the shadow it lays on our world every night with the help of the moon. That’s the place we want to be, in the shadows, the cool safety of the shadows, a place where no harm can come to my baby girl.

It sounds like a dark and nasty place living in the shadows but it’s not, it’s never dark in the shadows where we play, we create our own happiness and bring our own brightness. That’s it, that’s where we want to live in the brightest shadows. I think we have a name, it doesn’t define us it’s not all about XP it’s just a place where we find our happiness. The brightest shadow.