How I got started blogging......

Inquiring Minds Want to Know: Your Blogging Story Carnival
A meme for today...............................
4andcounting contributed her meme post and here is mine.
This is originated at Don't Try This at Home go there to add your meme link. Or leave a comment.

How did you start blogging?

I had heard about blogs but they seemed to be political and people trying to make their strong opinionated opinions heard. I am NOT political and except for my household, I don’t have a strong need to have my opinions heard. (They don’t listen anyway). I didn't do blogs.

When my father became ill with Parkinson’s disease in July 2005 and I had to take care of him.
I had full responsibility for his health, home & welfare. I had heard of the phrase “Sandwich Generation.” So I Googled it.
Most results that came up were blogs by other women who shared their experiences of taking care of their family, usually with young children (like me) and an ailing or elderly parent.

So I started reading the blogs and found other mothers in my position. I learned a lot, I learned I wasn’t alone. At that time I read a lot of blogs and especially www.BusyMom.net most everyday. She is hilarious. I haven’t read her for a while, but now that I’m reminding myself, and seeing her post for Tuesday, I’m going back for more. Ok, I just added her to my Google Reader.

SO I decided to set up my own blog place to write about my experiences and share with whoever finds my blog.

Once my father passed away, I decided it was time to get off the fence and finally decide to homeschool.
During my research on Homeschooling, once again, good ole’ Google brought up TONS of blogs by homeschoolers.
I think homeschool moms get to vent, share and reach out to touch other moms while we are home with our kids 24/7 through our blogs.


Did you intend to have a blog with a big following? If so, how did you go about getting it?

Uh, no, but NOW I do!
I had no idea how many people were out there writing and reading blogs.
Of course I hope people will find me & read it, but I am NOT a writing genius (as you can see by my blog!) so I hope they will come back for more!
I read other blogs, I leave very few comments, but I’m trying to comment more, and I have joined a couple Catholic Mom Homeschool Blog Lists.
I try to do memes and fun things that others are doing ……. like this one!
I get some comments, so some new friends are finding me…………. or I’m finding them when they move to San Diego (hi Lissa!)


What do you hope to achieve or accomplish with your blog? Have you been successful? If not, do you have a plan to achieve those goals?

I don’t have any plan. I just want to keep a diary of some kind and share pictures of my kids and our adventures while homeschooling and living life. I do hope to share my Catholic faith and the beautiful liturgical season, the blessings of the saints and holy days.


Has the focus of your blog changed since you started blogging? How?

As I said, I started blogging to try and reach out to find others who have found themselves in the “sandwich generation”. Since that only lasted 7 months for me, my focus and motive switched to sharing our home, homeschool experiences and sharing my Faith – more in a diary sort of way.

What do you know now that you wish you'd known when you started?
I wish I knew I would lay awake at night thinking up brilliant blog posts, that have been forgotten by morning, and thus never written……… sigh! Same thing for the ones I think of while I’m driving. Watch out… when we get internet access in the car…….. who knows what will happen.

I wish I had known how many blogs I would have on my Google Reader and WANT TO check everyday. As of today there are 54 blogs on there.
I don’t get more than a couple emails a month that are personal notes from friends telling me about their lives. But EVERY DAY I can look up 100+ entries of friends I’ve found on blogs and see what they have been up to for the past couple days. Learn new things about my faith.
Learn LOTS of new craft projects, homeschool curriculum advice and that my children really do act normal for their age, even when I think they are crazy, or they are driving me crazy.


Do you make money with your blog?

No. I have not figured that out yet. I'd love to make money. Can I make it for READING other blogs?
I’ve joined with Amazon, but that was more so that when I put book covers in my blog I don’t get sued for copyright infringement. At least when I’m doing advertising for a book that I like Amazon gives me the HTML code for the book and there’s a handy link if you want to look at it and THEN you are going to BUY it, right?


Does your immediate or extended family know about your blog? If so, do they read it? If not, why?

My family says, “What’s a blog?”
My cousin, when I commented in an email that she can keep up with us and our antics and pictures of the kids said, “OH, I don’t have time for that blog stuff.”
Helloooooo, YOU Don’t have to blog, just come to my blog and read it. It doesn’t take a credit card #. Someday I'll set up a paypal account.


What two pieces of advice would you give to a new blogger?

1. Post as often as you can. If you use blogger, you can date your post whenever you want, so if you are like me you can spend 3 hours in one night posting pictures and stories about the past few weeks.

2. BE HONEST<> I’m still learning what I want to write about and how I want to say it. There are such excellent blogs out there. There are better writers, funnier writers and there are more creative writers out there than me. I can only be me, write the way I do, and hope that someone likes what I have to say.

p.s.
#3. If you haven’t noticed already, I’m a big fan of Google Reader. It took a while to find it and it has really helped to read the blogs you really like without keeping a long list on your “Favorites” list and trying to remember what you have read that day, and being disappointed if you figure it out and find that they didn’t post anything that day.


tagging: Esther, Lissa, Jen, Christine, Alice, Jen
and YOU anyone else that kindly reads my blog :)