Sibling Assignments

I am the youngest of three children.  I have a brother that just turned 60, a sister who is 59, and I am 50.

In 2006 my brother ventured into the world of blogging.  His blog can be found at www.kelloggbloggin.blogspot.com.  He calls himself Raymond Pert.

I started my blog in 2007.  If you are reading this, you have obviously discovered my blog in one way or another.  I go  by Silver Valley Girl.

Then my sister joined in a little after I did.  She can be found at www.gatheringaroundthetable.blogspot.com.  She is Inland Empire Girl.

Soon after my brother began blogging, I came up with an idea to have weekly Sibling Assignments.  They started out as ways for us to take a memory from our childhood and write about our perspective of that event.

The first Sibling Assignment was this:

Write about Thanksgiving at the Jerry and Corrine Turnbow house.

Raymond Pert's memory is here.  My sister and I were not blogging at the time, so we don't have these online, as far as I know.  I thought I had posted mine later, but I can't find it.

Here is an assignment where we all have something posted about my Grandma Woolum.

Mine is here, Raymond Pert's is here, and Inland Empire Girl's post is here.

Our blog writing and sibling assignments have had a bonus effect on the three of us that I don't think we expected.....it has drawn us closer together.

As we began writing we began sharing memories, and reliving our childhoods.  It then became a desire of ours to spend more time together.

We started having "Sibling Outings".  These were day trips we would take that often had something to do with memories of our childhoods, such as visiting the area in Spokane around where our Grandma Woolum lived.

Then two summers ago, the "Sibling Outings" became longer, and turned into the three of us going on a trip together.  Our first adventure was to the Three Rivers Resort along Highway 12 in Idaho, and last summer we went to Nelson, British Columbia.

Through all these experiences, we have developed a special relationship that we have discovered is quite rare in the sibling world as a whole.  It is rather unique that siblings all like to write, and to share those writings not only with each other, but publicly.

It is also unique that siblings take the time to go off without their spouses or children, and do something with just themselves.

And to make it more unique, to take the time to travel away together for a trip.

I believe part of it is a commitment on each of our parts to cultivate our sibling relationships.  We find this important.  And we really like being around one another, and admire and respect each other.  We like being in each other's company.

Our Sibling Assignments have gone by the wayside.

Maybe someday they will be resurrected. 

Then we will write more about the different ways we look at life and the world, and continue to show how these views have actually brought us into closer unity with one another.