I’ve been writing online since 2002.

Back in the olden days, there was this little space called ‘AOL Journals’ where people basically wrote about, well, whatever was on their minds.  One Sunday, I logged on (read: waited the 5 minutes for AOL to dial-up) and a featured piece caught my eye. By the end of the day, I had my own little spot on the internet.

Back in those days, my kids were small and constantly saying or doing cute things. I was a stay-at-home-mom then, so I had plenty of material.  I found friends from all over the country.

I wrote consistently for about ten years, moving to Blogger then eventually over to WordPress. The topics moved away from the kids, and balanced between a variety of sponsored posts and running commentary of life in my part of the world.

I’ve written a number of articles across the web on a variety of topics. You can see a list those here.

Life has a funny way of planting a plot twist where you least expect it.

Eventually I stopped blogging. No particular reason. One day turned into two. A year went by. Two years.

I’d think about getting back into it, think about the things I missed: writing, conversation, community….

Where I’d started didn’t fit my current life. My kids are all but grown and felt like I had nothing left to write about. But then I’d find myself making a  300 or 400 word Facebook post about something hilarious that had happened while out shopping.

A couple of years ago, my oldest son commented that if we owned a clothing hanger shop, we could call it, Clift Hangers – a play on our last name. But my mind took it another place, and it’s been sitting in my brain, formulating a plot since then.

Here we are. A brand new fancy blog. A place for those moments I just have to put out on the internet and hopefully make the day of at least one person. Most of the things I write about will my experiences and observations, maybe a book review.

The cast of  major characters in my life will likely be extras in the background as they would prefer to stay offline:

Daughter and Son One are grown and live on their own. Both serve in the military.

Son Two is legally an adult, but he’ll always be my baby. He does not wish to serve in the military, but is a huge supporter and the second most patriotic person I know. He also doesn’t like to be referred to as “my baby.”

Daughter-in-love is Son One’s wife. They are high school sweethearts, but she officially joined the family in December 2018.

Where we go from here is anyone’s guess.

Welcome to my story.