Why Blog?

Today is my blog's first birthday! I must say that I am so proud of myself for keeping it up this long. I have a whole year of pictures and stories from one of the most important years of my life logged away for me to look back on and show my children some day. Here's to many more posts!

I thought this would be a good time to reflect on why I started the blog and why I plan to continue blogging. Shortly after quitting my job to stay home full time I found that I didn't have an "outlet." You know, a hobby. Reading has always been my go-to when I need to relax, escape, or have some "me" time and I had recently started reading blogs. Mostly mom blogs. If you're new to the blogging world, let me tell you, there is no shortage of mom blogs. Apparently we all feel this need to document our lives and the lives of our children in a very thorough and public manner. And, apparently, we are completely obsessed with taking beautiful pictures of our beautiful families. I found these blogs to be so inspiring. They were normal women, wives and mothers, who were sharing their experiences with the public. As a new mom, I couldn't get my hands on enough veteran mom stories.

Then I realized that these women were going to always have their blog. I mean, the internet is pretty permanent not to mention the fact that there are several ways to have your blog printed into a book. They were making the ultimate scrap book by putting stories and pictures into blog posts. Brilliant! So I decided to start one. I was nervous at first. Who is going to read it? What will they think? Then I threw it all out the window and decided to write it for my family. I have tried my best to make it a watered down version of a personal journal or diary. I have tried to be completely open and honest about my experiences while keeping in mind that this is still the internet and it's completely public.

Of course, there are tons of other benefits to having a blog. I get to share my life with those friends and family I don't get to see often enough and it has definitely encouraged me to pick my camera up more often. I would definitely recommend blogging to anyone who wants to keep track of days that seem to go by too fast.

My goal for the coming "blog" year is to get in front of the camera more often. Not just me, but Paul too. Our children are going to want pictures of us someday and they aren't going to care if my hair was brushed or not. I have also been doing a lot of thinking about posting about more areas of my life. I feel inspired to write about a good recipe or book every now and again but when I sit down to write I just talk about my family. What can I say? They are my life.

P.S. That picture above is an oldie but goody. I found it fitting for this post. Liam was about 7 months old and possibly suffering from a sunburn? He was helping me put my grad school books on eBay.