Who’s my favorite today? The answer might surprise you.

When I decided to start “You’re my favorite today” on a whim one night back in March of 2012, I had zero knowledge of anything blog or computer related (the fact that I still do not is beside the point).
Honestly, I not only had no idea what I was going to write about, I knew nothing about how to actually put it all together. After about a 3-hour crash course on the Blogger platform, I somewhat figured things out. I chose a cute background design, learned where to type my posts, how to edit, add photos, and publish. What I didn’t figure out so easily, however, was a name for my new blog.
It needs to be catchy, I thought. It needs to be something people will remember.

What’s in a name?

I knew that most (all) of my content would be about my kids, but didn’t want to choose a name that would pigeonhole the site into the parenting/mommy blog niche. My kids were over the age of 10 and I was long past the stage of sleep schedules, bedtime battles, and tantrums.
Theirs at least.

Sure, I wanted to write about my family, but I also wanted to write about other things I loved: pop culture and celebrities, snacks, naps, The Bachelor … basically, all my favorites.

“I can’t imagine anyone will even read this,” I told my husband, who had come into my office to help me brainstorm blog names. “But the ones who do will be my favorite.”
“Mine, too,” he said, happy to finally be sharing the burden of my stories.

Huh.
Sharing my favorite people and things with people who would become my favorites?
Lightbulb!

“What about You’re my Favorite?” I asked him. “I mean, it’s something we tell each girl depending on the day around here all the time anyway.”

It was true.
We often said that to each other in this house when someone helped out by unloading the dishwasher without being asked, fed the cats, brought their mama another piece of chocolate or refilled her wine glass, etc. etc. etc.

After a quick URL search, however, I discovered that You’re My Favorite was already taken.
You Are My Favorite? Taken.
My Favorite Things? Taken, obviously.

You’re My Favorite Today? Unbelievably, available.

I’ll admit, I didn’t love it right away. It sounded too long and had zero ring to it, but after a short time it became catchy, and felt perfect. And as I said at the end of my very first blog post (below), you, the reader, were my favorite … and would remain (and will always remain) part of the collective “you’re.”

So I guess I’ll give it a try.
I promise not to show you photos of my new shirt from Anthropologie (although it is darling) or give you a step-by-step guide to curling/straightening/washing my hair. Although I can’t promise I won’t occasionally post photos of my cooking attempts.
Only because they are hilarious.

So thanks for coming along for the ride.

You’re my favorite today.

 

As the years flew by and the blog posts and stories multiplied, the title made more and more sense. I was always writing about my favorite things; the “You’re” in the title was ambiguous, on purpose.

And now eight years have passed — almost exactly, YMFT will turn EIGHT on March, 2! — and as I’ve very recently told you, there will soon be some big changes around here.

Rice Krispie treat inspiration

It was late last summer when I had the first idea to create new content relating the this new phase in life. It all began with a craving for one of my favorite treats, naturally.

My younger daughter (who was weeks away from leaving for college) was in Florida visiting her sister, and I had a serious hankering for peanut-butter Rice Krispie treats. However, knowing it was just me and my husband in the house for the next few days, I didn’t want to make an entire 9×13 pan, even though I can easily eat an entire 9×13 pan of them by myself (and often have). Maybe I only had half a box of the cereal, maybe my tight jeans were making the decision, but for whatever reason I googled “half recipe PB Rice Krispie treats” because I was too lazy to look for my full recipe … and do the math.

I found this recipe on a cute site called Dessert for Two, and justlikethat a lightbulb clicked on.

Soon it will be just the two of us, I thought. Besides making smaller meals and shopping for less and having less laundry, we’ll have less to occupy our time.
Honestly, you guys, it’s like it was just hitting me that my husband and I would be a-l-o-n-e 24/7.

After making the half pan of PB Rice Krispie treats and eating the half pan of PB Rice Krispie treats, I decided it would be fun (and probably therapeutic) to create all kinds of content relating to just the two of us, which I also decided was a terribly catchy name for the new site.

Apparently someone else (besides Grover Washington, Jr) did as well.
The URL was, obviously, unavailable.

But after weeks of trying to come up with a different name that would encompass the feeling of the new site, the perfect name came to me:
You’re my favorite today.

“It works, because you’re my favorite today … again.” I told my husband. “I mean, you kind of have to be if this whole empty nest thing is gonna work out for us.”
“Happy to be back in the game,” he said.
Not sure if he was kidding.

However, over the past month as I’ve started to get some wheels turning on the changes I have in mind, I’ve realized something … something important.

I’m my favorite today

Sure, my husband and I are navigating this new phase in our lives attentively, but this is also now a time for me to be attentive to me.

Don’t get me wrong, I haven’t been someone who has led her life solely for her children and have definitely carved out time and interests for myself unrelated to them (after they were each about eight or nine and didn’t expect so damn much of me, obviously). Now that neither of them are physically here I have loads of time to spend reacquainting myself with not only my husband, but with someone else (and no, it’s not the Amazon delivery man, but that’s a damn fine guess).

It’s time for me to be my favorite today.

How do I plan to do that, you ask? (And if you weren’t asking that, rest assured I have been.)
Well for starters it’s about self-care, physically (I’ve been working out regularly and feel amazing) and mentally (through therapy, boundary setting, and letting go of baggage and guilt).
It’s about goal setting (with my writing among other things) and holding myself accountable.
It’s about remembering what brings me joy and surrounding myself with those things.
It’s about connections with people who not only inspire and motivate me, but who build me up. It’s also about making sure I do the same for them.
It’s about living in the moment, and trying not to worry about the future.

And also? It’s about making an entire 9×13 pan of peanut butter Rice Krispie treats next time and eating as much as I damn well please.

I’m not saying the “You’re” in the title isn’t still meant to be vague — it is. But for the first time in eight years, I’m joining the club.
And you know what? It feels right.

Stay tuned…