Whither ideas?

My last semester in college I took four English classes (guess what my major was?) and one Health class.  Two of my English classes (20th Century Catholic Fiction and Southern RenaissanceFiction) were four-credit classes with three five-page papers and two ten-page papers.  Somehow, the syllabi were synchronized so that the papers for those two classes were always due on the same day!  So, at about 9 p.m. the evening before the papers were due, I would settle down to write.  And by midnight, I would be finished.
This drove my roommate crazy, because she is the type of writer who chooses her words carefully and polishes her writing over several drafts.  She was in the Catholic Fiction class too, and she would still be slaving away on that paper after I went to bed.
My East Tennessee Catholic columns were typically whipped out the morning of the day they were due, if not later.  I write fast.  It’s nothing I’ve worked for, just a natural talent with which I’ve been blessed.  I’ve always felt the hard part of writing is coming up with the idea!  I loved classes in which the professor provided me with topics.
I had two months between ETC columns, so that gave me plenty of time to get inspired.  Typically, my column was more than half written in my head before I ever put my hands on the keyboard (putting pen to paper sounds much better, but I won’t lie–that same year with all the double papers due was when I gave up composing in longhand!).
I have wanted to start blogging for many years, and it was the fear of the lack of ideas that stopped me.  What would I find to write about, day after day?  What could I possibly have to say that would be interesting to anyone else?  Centering this blog around the life issues about which I am already accustomed to writing gave me the courage to start.  Leaving the focus flexible has given me the ability to continue each day.  And writing for myself instead of for an imaginary public has made it a passion.
Now my problem is how to find the time to tackle the long list of things I want to post about!  When I skip a day it isn’t because I have nothing to say, it’s because I had too much work to do and was just too tired by 11 or so to focus my thoughts into a good post.  I have a stockpile of topics left over from my column.  Child rearing and education offer an endless supply of possibilities.  My own family, local happenings, current events, passions and pet peeves–all of these guarantee that I will have things to write about as long as anyone wants to read (or maybe even if they don’t).