Monday Madness: Why Do I Blog?

Good morning,

Recently I was thinking about the type of blog I have compared to those that I read occasionally. I have a friend who writes very deep and intense blog posts. I read blogs specifically about special needs, fostering, adoption or other such topics. Comparatively, my blog is nothing like those. But I still don't know how I would classify it.


I have no idea what your thoughts are about writing a blog. Whether you think it is easy-peasy, hard work or maybe you think it is possibly a waste of time.

I have been reading a book geared towards women to help them find what rejuvenates them and gives them energy. For me...it is playing my ukulele or blogging. Doing either one of these things can help me have some down time or possibly just change my focus in the day.

If I play my ukulele, it takes very little brain energy. I play, sing and find my perspective on possibly a rough day completely changing. Working on my blog is something I do when I have some down time, however, it takes a lot of mental energy and often emotional energy. It's time-consuming and sometimes frustrating.

So then why do I blog?

Years ago I used to scrapbook. I loved it and enjoyed it. However, as the years went by, it took so much energy and time that I lost interest. Once we started fostering, I could no longer leave projects out for days at a time knowing that no one would bother it. One thing I didn't lose was knowing how important it was to make a record of my family for them.

Way back in 2005 when I started blogging, I had no idea that I would find myself still doing it 14 years later! I have discovered that my blog makes the perfect platform to preserve my family's memories for the future and possibly for their children. There are so many pictures I have from when I was little, but I can't tell you anything about the story behind them. My desire is to provide my children not only with the pictures but the stories.

Blogging is still time consuming, however, it is much more portable. I have a little computer that I use to work on my blog and it 's amazing the little snippets of time that I can carve out. For instance, our little baby we currently have, has visits three times a week. Instead of going back home, I stay at DHS and work on my blog. Or maybe I am taking one of the girls to a orthodontist appointment, so I carve out a few minutes there. At any rate, I find plenty of ways to get a few minutes in here and there.

What does it take to blog? It really depends on who is blogging. On my blog, there are some posts that I can pop out in minutes like my Scripture Sundays, Wordless Wednesdays or if I happen to do a random Surprise Saturdays. Also, my Tuesday Tidings, which are the girls' posts, take me very little time because I simply need to edit their posts and then schedule them. The other three days of the week take a little more. Mondays are my days to just talk about whatever, Thursdays are about memories I want to preserve from the past and Fridays are a way to keep people relatively up to date about what we are up to. Those take a little more prepping time usually involving going through pictures, organizing them and doing some rough drafts for future blogs. Often I will find a fun picture that I will want to do a post on and I will do up a post for a future date. I have a calendar that I keep track of my posts and it helps me prepare for the future as well as knowing what I have done in the past so I don't repeat a post with similar content.

I have found that there are seasons when I don't blog as much. In 2018, there were about 5 months that I blogged only occasionally. Part of that was because of the needs of one of the foster children we had. I could never "relax". I couldn't sit down, put the headphones in and type away in the evening. Instead I had to be on the "watch" for behavior.

I have had people ask me how I manage to keep up a blog. Honestly, it's prep work. Quite similar to when I used to scrapbook. One day you organize photos, the next day you organize thoughts, you make some rough drafts another day. Then some days you finalize and publish posts. I try to have posts going out a month ahead, but I really prefer the posts to be out a couple months ahead. Then, if something happens where I can't get on for a while. I know I have several weeks of posts scheduled and coming out. (For instance, I am writing this on the 9th, but it won't come out till the 21st of January.)

Surprisingly, I find that it doesn't matter to me whether or not anyone reads it. I simply enjoy writing, preserving memories for my kids and bragging on my handsome husband!

So there you have it: If you have ever wondered why I blog....that's it...in a really big nutshell.

Have a fantastic week,
Heidi