Changes in the New Year

I started Parenting With a Smile in May, 2011. I posted almost 300 posts over those five-and-a-half years. This was my first blog, and I wrote with trepidation and insecurity.

But something happened along the way. I started finding my voice and writing like me, not trying to impress or sound better or worse than I really am. I enjoyed putting my heart on the white space and sharing myself with you.

I was in the last phases of parenting at the time this blog began, having only one child out of three still living at home. She was a teenager and I was able to see parenting through rosier glasses than perhaps I had with the older two. Just knowing something is coming to an end often makes it sweeter. So it was with my parenting days.

And so it is with this blog. All three of my children are now out on their own and doing well. If you haven't followed this blog regularly, you can read Releasing the Last Baby Bird here about letting that last child go.  I'm thankful for the people my children have become. I'm thankful I've had this place to write my heart about parenting.

But now it's time for me to launch into a new world of empty nesting. But my life is so much more than that. With all the kids gone, the whole world is at my feet waiting to be explored without someone hanging on my leg. This Parenting With a Smile blog will be out here in the blogosphere for you to access, but there won't be new content posted on it.

Instead, I'm starting a new blog. In fact, I've already started it.  It won't be Parenting With a Smile, but more of a generic Life With a Smile, if you will. The website is still under construction (by my awesome son, Tyler) but I've already started posting on my new blog. The only way you can access it right now is through following me on Facebook, where I share every post on my author page. So if you don't want to miss a single post, please look me up at Linda McQuinn Carlblom, Author, on Facebook and like my author page. Once the site is up and running, you'll be able to subscribe and have the posts drop right into your inbox as they're published. I'll let you know when that happens.

Thank you so much for reading and following my posts here at Parenting With a Smile. I'd write them even if you didn't read and follow, but it's so much more rewarding to know someone is actually at the other end, and even commenting on them.from time to time.  I hope to see you at my new site.

Linda