Fun Monday: Why Do I Blog??

Hey everyone,

I decided to join in with another group of bloggers who post on specific topics. First there was Mama Says Om, which gives a topic each week and then asks folks to submit some writing, a photograph, or some kind of work of art on said topic. I do that occasionally when the topic hits home, but being a photo-junkie, I tend to just submit photos instead of written articles.

Then, of course, there is Wordless Wednesday which I love because it specifically implies that you don’t HAVE to write anything, just tell a story with a photo. That I LOVE to do.

But I ran across this one that is new to me, and decided that between MamaSaysOm and this one, Called FUN MONDAY, that I would occasionally be inspired to write. So, on Fun Monday, each week, there is a new host. That person comes up with a topic to post on your blog about, and if you want to participate, you write a post, and put your link on the host’s page. In the past, topics have included “White Lies You Have Told”, “A Look Inside Your Fridge”, “Your Favorite Treat”, “Favorite Place to Relax”, etc. It seems like a good way to let my readers know more about me, so I decided to jump on in.

This week’s topic is a good starter. It is hosted by Lisa’s Chaos and the topic is:

WHY DO YOU BLOG?
I’d like to know more about you, what makes you tick. I’d
like to know how you started blogging. Did you keep a diary under lock and key
safely hidden as a child? Do you still? Do you share the same things on your
blog that you would have, or do, in your diary? Why did you start blogging and
why do you continue? May as well throw in any roadblocks you have run into while
blogging. If you still have your old diaries we’d love to see them.

So here goes:

I had seen some blogs around and had read only a few when I met a woman in a Mom’s Group called Move It Mamas. She said she had a blog called Wannabe Hippie, so I went and checked it out. I had been feeling guilty about the fact that I had again recently moved myself and my family far away from my parents and my brother’s family, and I was so so bad at keeping in touch with phone calls and emails. Reading Wannabe Hippie was a revelation! I had never even HEARD of Mommy-blogs! On one of her pages she has this great HUGE list of links to other Mommy Blogs and I started reading through them.

Being alone in a new city, without a job to go to each morning, I was beginning to feel a bit isolated. But in these mommy-blogs I found a community of women with the same kind of life that I have, going through the same challenges, joys, and frustrations that I was having! And it was a supportive community, with lots of posts where people were venting and then getting comments from strangers about how to get through, how they were not alone, and encouragement.

And I also realized that this is an amazingly easy way to share with everyone who is interested in my little (did I say LITTLE?) family the mundane day-to-day activities of our brood. And an awesome way to share photos with friends and family that are across the country and around the world!

Why do I keep blogging? Because I now feel a part of that virtual community of isolated women who are reaching out with ideas, encouragement, laughter, support. It’s also shown me that the problems that I deal with are really not so bad compared to the day to day life of some people. People who deal with children with disability, husband’s with cancer, infertility, loss. It keeps things in perspective.

And! And I realized that it also makes up for something I was feeling bad about. With my first son, I diligently kept a baby-book recording every new word, every tooth, first steps, etc. With my twins, I just didn’t find the time. I bought adorable little matching books, glued their name tags into the front, filled out about two pages and then got very busy raising three boys. But I realize that this blog, in a way, is a better gift to give them in their future than any baby book. How many men cherish a baby-book anyway. Maybe their future wives would, wondering about the comparison of daddy to his baby. But a day to day story, written by Mom, of their childhood? That is an awesome hand-me-down.

So, I plan to occasionally back up my blog writings and save them to disk so that if one day Blogger crashes, I will not lose all these posts. And in the modern world of memorabilia, I can pass down a box with their little first outfits, their baby hat, a print of their feet taken at the hospital, and a disk with all their childhood photos, right alongside one of their Mama’s Blog, documenting their childhood. Day after day.