WFMW Lore

I have lost so many brain cells from wallpaper glue that I'm scraping the bottom of the blogging barrel.  Not a creative thought in my head.  So, I'll answer a question posted by Jennifer at Snapshot recently.  She asked me if I would post the story behind Works-For-Me Wednesday.  She said,

You should post the history of WFMW. I've only been around a few months, but it would be interesting to know the "lore." Now that you have 100 + posters, you might as well have an official legend.

Alrighty...lore.  Must come up with lore.  Something brilliant, creative, profound.  Something about my deep love for seeing mothers share information and joining hearts and minds across the blogosphere, yadda yadda yadda.

OR, I could tell you the real story.

When I was packing for our Disney trip in March, I had a brainstorm on a clever way to pack the kids' clothes.  Hmmmm, I thought, I should blog about this.  Because I was in a bit of a blogging dry spell, I thought I'd turn it into a weekly "column", in which I shared a shortcut each week.  Friends, I am ALL about the shortcuts.  I have tons of them.  And yes, I realize this doesn't speak volumes about my character.

So, I wrote my little blurb about the packing tip, explained I'd be sharing a tip like that weekly, and even named the feature Works-For-Me Wednesday.  In the instant before I hit the "publish" button I had a brainstorm:  I wonder if anyone else would be interested in sharing tips like this?  Hmmm...maybe I could offer to link to them.  So as a complete afterthought, I included this paragraph:

Now, here's where I hope you'll consider playing along.  I would LOVE to see some of my fellow Moms Of The Blog World join in and do your own "Works-For-Me Wednesday".  If you let me know you're participating, I'll link to you.  Think how much we could all learn from each other if we share our own little ideas!.  IT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE EARTH-SHATTERING.  Just simple, affordable and designed to make the tiniest difference in your day.

For the first several weeks I went in and cut and paste each link by hand.  My Wednesdays quickly became the Day of Being Stuck At the Computer, until Carol at She Lives e-mailed me to insist I try Mr. Linky.  She even walked me through it via phone.  Twice.  That was a real turning point.

And thus Works-For-Me Wednesday was born.  Told you it wasn't all that exciting.

Other bloggers frequently ask me whether I'd recommend starting their own weekly column.  I always tell them to go for it, with the warning that as many seem to "flop" as succeed.  I have no idea what makes one fly.  Some other good ones are GiBee's Tuesday Toss-Up, Jules' Everyday Things (Friday),  Faith's Treasure Tuesday, and the ever-present Thursday Thirteen.  And honestly?  I would discourage any blogger from basing her content entirely on those weekly memes.  Branch out!  Pick one or two each week and then do different ones the next week. 

That's my lore and I'm stickin' to it.