Today marks twenty years since I first started this blog!

I began a blog for a number of reasons. First, I wanted to encourage other Christian women and to be a light to those who do not yet know Christ as Savior.

Secondly, I wanted to learn to write by writing.

Writing helps me think things through, so a lot of my posts are just that: something I hear or read will trigger a thought, and as I mull it over, sometimes a blog post is the result.

I also love to talk about books and reading, so I share many of the books I read here.

Back then, a lot of blogs had the feel of visiting over the backward fence. Though some still retain that vibe, many blogs have become more specialized.

I never wanted to do a niche blog because, in my experience those kinds of blogs start repeating themselves after about three years. Besides, my interests are too varied.

I hadn’t heard the term “generalist” at the time, but when I did, it clicked. I felt I had a valid label for my blog. 🙂

It took a while for me to fall into my present pattern of blogging. I wanted to keep the “neighborly” feel but still maintain something of a regular schedule.

One of my passions is getting women into the Word of God. If I have an underlying theme to my blog, it would be applying ourselves to the Word of God and applying the Word to our lives.

One thing I wish I had done differently was to think more about the title of my blog. I considered whether to have a blog for weeks or months. When I finally decided to, one of the first things I had to decide on was a name. I hadn’t thought about that in all my ponderings. “Stray Thoughts” is accurate, but I wish I had come up with something a little more meaningful and creative. But after so long a time, it seems better to keep it as is than change it and confuse people.

When I first started the blog, I had three sons at home. Now we’re empty nesters and my husband is retired. We’ve added a sweet daughter-in-law and handsome grandson to the family.

One of the most unexpected but blessed results of this blog has been making so many friends here over the years. Some of my dearest friends are miles away, and we’ll likely never meet in person until heaven. I so appreciate your encouragement and comments over the years. Without you, this would just be an online journal.

I haven’t always marked my blog anniversary, but twenty years seems like a milestone. I decided to prepare a giveaway package and draw names from the comments here for a winner to send it to. But I had so much fun putting it together, I decided to give away two packages to mark two decades.

Both packages have some pretty pens, post-it notes, bookmarks, and such. One package has one of my favorite books to recommend, Women of the Word by Jen Wilkin. I started to use another book for the second package, then thought about another copy of Women of the Word. But then I saw a prayer journal at Hobby Lobby and got it for the second package.

Inside the prayer journal:

If you’d like to be entered to win one of these packages, just leave a comment on this post. I’ll use the Random Number Generator to choose two recipients a week from today. I’m afraid I can only shop to US addresses due to postage costs. Note : I’ll include all comments in the drawing unless you tell me not to include you.

If you have a preference for Package 1 or Package 2, let me know.

I’d love to hear a little bit about you, especially those who don’t normally comment. If you’ve been reading a while, I’d love for you to share how long or perhaps a favorite memory of reading here.

Once again, thank YOU all for being here and for your kindness!

Package 1:

Package 2: