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What I Do

Confession upfront: Yes, I'm writing this in an effort to make myself feel better. I have been asked a few times in the last couple weeks, "So, what do you do?" My answer was, "I'm a stay at home mom." Response, "Oh! How old are your kids?" Me, "10 and 12." Response, "Oh, so do you home school?" Me, "No....nope. Don't home school." Response, "Oh." Then I would go on to justify why I didn't work, how they get out of school so early, how I need to be home with them in the afternoon. Yada, yada, yada. But, each time at the end of the conversation, I felt small. I felt like I added no value. In my head, I know this is not true, but I was having a difficult time articulating "what I do." I had a friend challenge me to find a more truthful answer. One that answers the question but also opens the door to conversation about why we've structured our family to be one where a paren
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BFFs

Even as a child I never liked the term BFF, Best Friend Forever. I didn't like the term LYLAS either - Love Ya Like A Sister. Something about the terms seemed untrue to me. How can you know at age eight that you'll really be friends when you're 50? Love you like a sister??? My sisters fought so much and would even draw blood with claw marks on each others' arms - so why would that be a good thing? See, even as a youngster I tended to think a bit much about things. That can be good in some ways, but paralyzing in other ways. But this past week I heard a new definition for BFF that I could truly embrace. Biblical Friends Forever. To me, that rings true. When Christ and the truth of the Bible is the center of a relationship, then time doesn't matter. You can always catch up with someone you haven't seen for years and know there's a core foundation that never moves and bolsters your friendship. I learned this term from my dear friend, Sally. Her and her hu
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I did​ it!

How many times today have I thought, 'I'm going to complete my dare. I will write today.' I am currently laying in bed, with heavy eyes, my husband already in Dreamland. I so want to be asleep right now, but I wanted this achievement more. I picked up my phone. I typed this post. I succeeded. Small, but still. I sucked less today (see yesterday's post). Dare for the day: try again tomorrow, and do better.
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Sucking

I suck. And what I mean by that is that I take a lot in and don't put much out. Right? That's what sucking is. Part of what starting this blog was meant to be was me putting back into the world my meshed up way of fitting together all the pieces that I have sucked up and moved around to my interpretation and then spit them back out here to make sense of it all. And hopefully have some people start reading it, and if I'm super lucky make some moolah from it, and if it's really blessed, hopefully engage some people in conversation, and if it's truly a God thing, then see lives changed because of their encounters here. BUUUUT, I have only written two blogs. Well, this is my third. I'm tired of sucking. I'm ready to produce. I WANT to put something out. Reasons why I haven't been blogging and have continued to just take in: 1. Life is busy. 2. I feel like EVERYONE and their super cute snapchat filtered dog is blogging. I've never been one to wan
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Friendship

I just recently came back from a fabulous beach trip with a group of girlfriends. We all knew each other and were in the same circles for awhile as we were growing up. We sort of became a “group” because of a trip we took our junior year to the beach over Spring Break. Since then, there are pictures of us at graduation, weddings, baby showers, Christmas get-togethers, and other life events. One of these women I sat by in kindergarten. One I lived down the street from and met in first grade. One I “snuck out” with for the first time. One I met in fifth grade when she moved to our school and we roomed together in college – were maids of honor at each other’s weddings. A couple I met in junior high and bonded with because of our height challenges and our love for laughter. One I met in high school and we cheered together and I was drawn to her easy-going personality and generosity. And what’s really great is all these women love each other ! It’s not like there’s one person t
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Dare One

Today it starts. Day to Day Dare that is. This is where I, Gretchen Dare, will be posting blogs about the goings on of the day, or my thoughts throughout the day, with the plan to follow up those things with a coinciding dare. A dare for me, and those reading. I've been thinking of doing this blog for awhile. I've had the name picked out, even wrote some posts, but never published them. Then I got an idea for a book! It's got a great title. I started writing it and then I got stuck, and thought, writing a blog would be so much better! Less commitment. Can flow day to day without all being the same topic. And so, here we are. Perhaps this launch is the most productive form of procrastination - because I'm still writing - and I believe the the more one writes the better a writer they become....hmmmm... So, here is my dare for today. Take something you're having trouble committing to and commit to trying it, pursuing it, working on it, for at least 15 minutes e
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