Yesterday was a rare day with no kid activities after school or in the evening. My husband arrived home from a trip and offered to make dinner. All of the kids had homework and after a quick snack, everyone went to their rooms to work on it. What was I going to do with myself? The laundry was done and so were the dishes. I was caught up on my email and nothing was happening on Facebook. Sadly, I gave up Pinterest for Lent so that was not an option. And then I remembered – my blog.
I know I have neglected my blog. Having a free afternoon gave me the opportunity to look over some of the things I wrote over the past few years. Wow! I didn’t realize how much I missed it. I forgot about some of those crazy moments and enjoyed reading about them again. I used to write regularly, but then I just stopped. What happened to me?
I am still writing – just not blog posts. I write every morning before my day gets started, but this time I am getting paid to write. For those of you that don’t know, I have been writing for regional parenting publications. My work has been published 46 times in over two dozen magazines in the US and Canada since October. It has been a thrilling time as I am writing, submitting, networking and learning as I go!
But even with my exciting new adventure, I still miss my blog. I can’t tell you how many times I encountered something in my life in these past few months and thought, “That would make a great blog post.”
It was my blog that pushed me to submit some of my work. I got a lot of encouragement from my readers over the past couple of years. I remember one moment in particular. I was standing in the elementary school gym, talking with a few other moms. It was a school carnival and my son dashed back and forth from the games to bring me his prizes to hold. While I was talking, one of the moms said how much she enjoyed my blog post that day. The other mom chimed in that she read it too, and they discussed it for a couple of minutes. A third mom walked by and overheard us talking. She stopped and said, “Pam’s blog? I love reading it.” I was so touched to have these women say such nice things about my writing. I read the stats on my blog, but I never realized that so many people read my posts on a regular basis. The women went on to say that I should try to get some of my work published. At the time, I shrugged them off, thinking there was no way that was going to happen. But it was too late. The seed was already planted. (Thank you, Nina and Shannon. You may not remember that moment, but it is one that I will never forget.)
Sadly, after that, my blog(s) took a backseat to my article writing. (In addition to this blog, I have a food blog at wineanddinewithus.wordpress.com.) After reading my old posts yesterday, I made a decision. In the words of Elwood Blues, “I am putting the band back together.” As I said, I have so much fodder for this blog as a suburban working mom and I love to share the recipes on my food blog. I am going to make an effort to post at least once a week in each blog, so keep an eye out for it. If you don’t already do so, you can follow my blog(s) via email, Facebook or Twitter. Feel free to leave a comment. You never know how your words can change the course of someone’s life.
This Mom's Journey 