I started writing this blog in March 2006 when my life was in the throes of “about to.” I was about to be promoted. I was about to write a second book. I was about to buy a house. I was about to become a mother.

Blissfully ignorant of all that, I started I’m Just Sayin’ at the urging of friends and a few family members who assured me they’d love to hear about what my husband and I were doing in coastal South Carolina. I believe a few of those early promisers are still around today. (Hi Mom!)

Over these last few years, however, my life has redefined the blog. I’ve watched my boys grow from tiny fluttering blips on the ultrasound screen to fully formed humans who can climb to the top of the jungle gym and declare “I can see the whole world from up here!” And the front-row seat to such awesomeness has given me writing inspiration like no other.

Yet even as my personal blog began to morph into a mom blog, I thought I should keep it separate from my other website, the one I’d created to showcase the professional me. But, as any source I’ve interviewed on the phone these last four years who has had to listen to a crying baby, a demanding toddler or a barking dog in the background can attest, the professional and personal sides of my life downright refuse to be separated, despite my best intentions.

So I created this new site, one that would be both a home to my blog and my other work. And I’ve taken the final leap from random blog to parenting blog with a new name: Holding the Strings.

I’d like to say I’m Just Sayin’ will be missed, but really it isn’t even a phrase I use anymore. (My oft-repeated phrases these days are ones like “Stop! Touching! Your brother!” and “Don’tdon’tdon’tdon’tdon’tdon’tdoaaaaaagh!”) If you’ve been reading since the beginning (Hi sis!), thank you from the bottom of my heart. If you’re new here make yourself at home, and come back again.

My goal is to update this blog more frequently than in the past. But when I fail to do that, please refer to the hierarchy noted in the tagline.