The 201st Post Invitation to Start Interacting with Our Family Blog

 Hello, Dear Readers. Welcome to post #201 on this blog. That's right! I'm sure the vast majority of you are joining in on our blog now that I sent a feeler out for more readership. Just in case you are wondering from whom you are reading from--99.9% of the posts come from me, John Gonzales. I've asked Sarah if she wanted to contribute and she has told me at some later date, potentially, but all 200 prior posts were by me, unless of course you see a rogue post from Sarah about a tea party she had exclusively with a friend that I asked her to write about when we were living in Apache Junction, but still hasn't done.

Sarah encouraged me to write so that I could build a community of people, people that I trust with our story, and whom I would call my friends. Judging by my 200 posts, this "family blog" has mostly been written for me, but it has always been out in the world (never private), but never really been extended to anyone on the public stage. But now I'm extending it to you, my dear friends.

I'll try to be more interactive, but in fine, this is a journal of my family. 

Sarah and I came up with a Spanish name for our family blog: La Bella Jornada Gonzales. Or, in other words: The Gonzales' Family Beautiful Journey. We chose a Spanish name because of my dad being Peruvian, as well as serving a Spanish mission to Des Moines, Iowa; and because of Sarah's growing up among so many Spanish influences, who taught her the love of the language, and her love for Spanish literature later on. She didn't serve a Spanish mission, but she did have opportunities to teach in Spanish.

La Bella Jornada-Present day journal (the one you're reading)

We are truly on a beautiful journey, and I love Sarah with all my heart.

My goal is to someday publish my journals for my family to be enjoyed. Read by our kids, in the comfort of our home. I still don't know which service I'm going to use to publish them, but pixxibook.com shows you a preview of the book, and I would have a total of 4 volumes and 3940 pages. Or I would like to make 2 volumes per year since I started this blog in August 2020, so 11 half year volumes over 5.5 years.

I don't always consider myself a great writer, but when it comes to my journals, I'm pretty great at it. I've been keeping a journal since I was very young, in a very ugly cheap 99 cent store journal, from which I upgraded myself to composition books, and then finally the nice journals you would buy at a craft store (or a church bookstore in my case).

But I didn't stop there, I kept a computerized journal (which I lost when my computer died) in college, followed by a blog that pretty much started when Sarah and I first met. And this blog, started 2 and a half years into our marriage.

My Personal Journal blog circa 2017 to 2020

Live With No Regrets ca. 2013 to 2015 more topic based

Mission Journal ca. May 2008 to September 2009

All that to say, if you feel like reading, there are 200 prior posts to this, and you are welcome to them all, but now you can join me on our Family Journey, and so on and so forth. ❤️🩷🧡💛💚💙🩵💜🤎

*******Thank you for joining me, and please comment if you like the post and have something to say. I'd love to hear from you. If you have any written blog challenges as well, I am up for them.********