First of all, HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, Shatzi! It has been a pleasure reading your blog and getting to know you. I am honored that you asked me to be part of the celebration!
Well, to start, I’m Nancy and I blog over at Small Things with Love. As with most creative bloggers, my blog is a jumbled assortment of all things crafty, mommy, faith and family.
I started blogging just over a year ago, but I was off and on at the beginning. Just days after starting my blog I found out I was expecting again…and then I endured the worst morning sickness imaginable. And, let me tell you, nothing kills the desire to be creative like morning sickness! Then I found some consistency blogging last summer, but when my little baby girl was born in November I disappeared from the blogging world for 2 months, only to resurface around the new year. I am back to being a consistent blogger, and love blogging so much that I feel like this time it will stick!
Ever since Shatzi asked me to reflect on blogging I have been turning my experience over and over in my mind. Clearly, blogging has chanced me. I have “met” lots of wonderful people, I have become more tech-savy than I every imagined, I have improved as a photographer and I have had a blast creating all my little projects.
What I am most grateful for, however, is that blogging has given me a bit of an identity, which I feel I lost when I started staying home when my oldest child was born.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I love being a mom and I feel so so so blessed to be at home with my children…but I am more than just a mom. Before having children I taught high school English for 6 years. Teaching is such a demanding occupation (emotionally, mentally, creatively and in terms of time) that it really took over my life. And when I first stopped teaching to stay home, I was a little lost.
Blogging has filled that void for me. I love the challenge blogging creates. I love stretching myself creatively and I have seen lots of fruit in my life because of it. Also, I am having fun getting into the “small business” side of blogging (and when I say small, I mean very very small!). I have put a lot of time into my blog and it is just getting to the point where my blog is a place sponsors see as a valuable place to be. That feels good.
I still have so so so much to learn in terms of blogging! My biggest challenge right now is photo editing and marketing. I hope to still be here blogging next year…and I can only imagine what I will have learned after blogging another year!
Thanks for having me, Shatzi!
I’d love to have you visit my blog and following along in some way!
