Friday, January 13, 2017

Keeping It Reel

Hey you guys! Holy Shmoly, it's 2017!


Yea, I know...I'm still trying to figure out how we got here too! 2016 was a crazy year that saw a nasty election cycle and-more importantly-the loss of so many of our favorite celebrities.

I'm only slightly not joking. When you lose Alan Rickman, David Bowie, Prince and Carrie Fisher (not to mention her Mom, Debbie Reynolds) in one year...well, Donald Trump becoming President almost seems inevitable. 

And for those of you lecturing us on personalizing and hating on 2016, I have things to say...but that's for another post.This post is about a new series coming up as well as a few things happening with the blog. So, here goes that.

For those who somehow don't know..I love stories. I love people's stories and telling stories and plays and musicals and movies. And after watching a couple of great movies the past couple of nights and thinking through how relevant they are and about how much I love the word "trudge", I decided to write a series using some of my favorite movie clips. We'll call it a nod to the awards season kicking off. Is this a good time to bring up Meryl Streep at the Golden Globes?


Oh...well, then okay...

The awards season ends with the Oscars (because the Tony's aren't apparently a part of it...like a red headed step child...when everyone knows the Tony's are the best and everyone is just bitter. Umm, maybe I'm projecting) so we'll do one or two posts a week. I've already written the first one. You can read it here: Trudging

We're calling it "Keeping It Reel" and yes, I know it's cheesy but guess what?
I like cheesy!!!


Anyway, I'm doing something new (actually I'm doing several things new but we'll get to those in a minute) and I'm offering others the chance to chance to guest blog! So, if you want to write a guest post for Keeping It Reel, comment below or shoot me an email at battles.cindy@gmail.com and I'll send you the guidelines. I'm super excited for this! It's the first time I've invited other people contribute to my blog! Which reminds me...

It's possible there are too many gifs in this post but I can't resist David Tennant. I mean, look at him.

Along with several other things going on lately, I've really been trying to up my writing game. I've got the chance to guest post on some blogs. I've been reading books on writing. And I downloaded Grammarly. Only, when I downloaded Grammarly, I found out it's not compatible with Blogger but it is compatible with Wordpress. I'd already had conversations about moving the blog to Wordpress but this reignited the thought. And then I thought, if I'm upping my game and I'm moving to Wordpress...maybe this is a good time to re-brand the blog. I started the blog way back when I worked at OM USA (missions organization) to tell our partners about the work we were doing in missions, stories of us as a family, etc. The first title was "The Battles Belong To The Lord" which was great but felt super spiritual and I didn't feel like I could write about anything but super spiritual issues in a really serious kind of way. At some point, possibly when I started working at Wellspring Living, I became more aware of my role as an advocate and the blog took on a new identity but I kept the title. I was still writing about our family and adventures as well...I was still writing for our family. However, these days, even when I'm writing about my family I am not necessarily writing for them. Embree and Trey are grown...I mean raising a family and protecting the country grown! Embree is a Grable now and loving it. So, if I'm moving the blog and re-branding the blog, it seems like a good time to give the blog a new title. So, I'm taking suggestions from friends and fellow bloggers and brainstorming my own ideas. I'm making a list and checking it twice..and then again and again and again...I want to keep "Battles" in it somewhere because it seems a shame to have such a great last name and not use it but I'm also willing to give it up. I want the blog to represent who I am and I want to make sure that even if the word "battle" is in it, there is also hope and a sense of adventure. Above all, I want the blog to be about stories and advocacy and standing with the marginalized and against injustice. A friend of mine wrote today "You aren't battling just to win but to bring change and hope" and I actually teared up because in that one sentence she described everything I want not only my blog but my life to be. So, those changes are coming soon and you will certainly know when because I will probably be shouting it from the roof tops. 

As a reminder, if you are interested in posting in the Keeping It Reel series or if you have a suggestion on the new title...shoot me an email or post in comments.

Until next time, one more gif for the road?

 Game on!

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