Believe it or not, this past Thursday marked my 2-yr. anniversary as a blogger, and over 200 posts later, I’m still blogging away. As of the end of my second year, I’ve had hits from all fifty states as well as 53 foreign countries, including places as surprising as Cameroon, Morroco, Bolivia, and Malaysia. Through the blog, I’ve met many new friends, encouraged and blessed others, received encouragement and blessing in return, and grown as a writer as well. When I took the plunge into the blogging world, I had no idea the blessings that awaited.

As I thought about my 2-yr. mark as a blogger, I began thinking of other identity markers in my life and thought it would be fun to chronicle them here. So here we go:

*54 years as a daughter, granddaughter, sister, niece, and cousin
*50 years as a friend and neighbor to various people (Susan in Arma, KS, is the first friend I remember)
*47 years as a Christian and church member (gave my heart to Jesus at the tender age of 7)
*42 years as a poet — of sorts :)
*40 years as a choir member (to the best of my memory)
*39 years as a driver — became a shopper about that time, too. Imagine that! :)
*36 years as high school graduate
*36 years as a voter
*36 years as a sister-in-law — Debbie started that role by marrying Keith :)
*34 years (in December) as a wife and homemaker
*34 years as a daughter-in-law
*32 years as a college graduate
*32 years as an aunt (34 if you count aunt by marriage)
*30 years as homeowner (the last 4 of those with mortgage paid off!)
*29 years as mother (and all the jobs that entails…)
*28 years a Bible study group participant or leader
*21 years as a preschool Sunday School teacher
*14 years as a writer (on various stages of that journey)
*12 years off and on in various part-time caregiving roles for my mother-in-law
*7 years as a great-aunt
*6 years as an empty-nester
*5 years as a missions committee member
*3 years as a mother-in-law (yay!)
*2 years as a blogger
*1 year as a Facebooker (use the link to connect to me!)
*3 1/2 months as an Angel Tree coordinator
*1 month as a mother of the bride — again!! Yippee!

Okay, so that’s way more of my identity markers than you ever wanted to know, but once I got started it was hard to stop. Sorry :) Of course, there are a host of things that I couldn’t nail down to a specific time — like chocolate-lover, prankster, and nut for example :), — and then other things that were temporary roles like student, secretary, teacher, prayer ministry leader, etc.

We all fill a multitude of rolls throughout our lifetimes, don’t we? I just hope at the end of my days, I’ll be able to say, like Paul, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” (2 Timothy 4:7). And even sweeter would be the blessing of hearing the Lord say, “…’Well done, good and faithful servant!..'” (Matthew 25:21a)

I’d love to hear how long you’ve been in some of your roles or which of these you share in common with me. Let’s have some fun. Leave a comment and let’s see what we can learn about each other!

Flickr photo by Marionaire