Back in 2011, I had 6 six kids 9 years and under. I was struggling just to feed them 3 meals a day, keep diapers changed, keep the house somewhat tidy and clean (as much as it can be with that many bodies living in it!) and school four kids at that time. Did I just say "school" them? Yes, I am one of "those" - those CrAzY moms who homeschools her kids. And I LOVE it! Love that I get to help them learn to read. And add and multiply. And write and form sentences. Learn about other lands and cultures. Learn about the beauty of life and creation and our bodies. I especially love that I get to teach the most important subject - faith! Our beautiful Catholic faith! From the moment our babies would sit in my lap, I would be reading and flipping through books with them on our faith - Bible stories and saint picture books galore! Prayers throughout the day would just become a normal part of their life. Life was as perfect as perfect could be. Except.... that it was going TOO STINKIN' FAST! I couldn't hardly remember what happened the day before, let alone the week before or the year before! My momma brain was on overload, not to mention all those brain cells lost during pregnancy times 6 (oy!). I wanted our kids to have a way to remember their lives. Look back on all the fun we had in the normalcy of our day to day lives. And, yeah the big stuff too. But just remember what it was like living and staying at home all day long with all their siblings. And their goofey mom. I read many blogs at that time, for inspiration in our faith and also for homeschooling ideas. And many of these blogs had pictures that would highlight exactly those memories I was wanting to make and keep with my own young crew. So, I gave it a shot. I went to blogger.com and started my own special corner on the internet and so began Raising Young Ones!!
Where am I today? Still blogging. Although sporadically! I try to hit birthdays and do pretty good at those. It sure is becoming easy and more familiar. I try to blog about major holidays and feast days when I get around too it. A fun craft or 7 Quick Takes on Fridays. I especially love my Wordless Wednesday because it's such an easy post - no words!! No other real consistency. No other real inspiration. Just keep on keeping on with what I started back almost 5 years now.
Where am I going? This is something I ask myself all too often. I can easily get down on myself when I see that I get barely any comments. No shares on FB. Even friends that have blogs don't even have my boring ole blog on their blog rolls. (I must be "that bad") I see all these other flashy blogs with regular posts and the conversations seem to just keep going in the comments. You can tell their blogging has became a gift to others. And that's when I get down. Does my blog even reach anyone? Does anyone even read it? Does anyone even care? I am very thankful for the sweet comments I do get from friends who say that they "love keeping in touch" with our family through our blog. And this really does touch me and mean a lot. But they don't seem to come very often. And, I keep falling into that trap of seeing all those popular or more-popular-than-I bloggers and how I am falling short....
And, then this happens....
(Ariel reading our 2014 blog book - my hubby prints our my blog every year - it's my way of "scrapbooking")
(Pookey checking out one of the latest blog posts and cackling as he watches his older brothers' newest Funny Boys videos)
And, this is that reminder I need to KEEP GOING! Keep plugging away! In my ever-so-inconsistent-whenever-I-get-to-chance-to-post kind of way! I'm not much of a writer. I don't have a superior vocabulary. I'm just a normal mom, wanting to use this gift of blogging to keep memories of the day in and day out of our lives! Finding the kids reading my blog and our blog book, makes me realize that my reason for starting and continuing blogging is and was a success!!
And when I can't blog because I'm chasing kids and grading Geometry proofs and listening to a 6 year old sound out letters to make words, I'll enjoy the quick easy posting of a picture here and there on Instagram and have my Chatbooks mailed to me regularly to add to my yearly blog book...
Thank you for reading this and supporting me here at Raising Young Ones blog!
A BIG shout out to my 9 favorite fans/readers - my 8 beautiful kids and my sweet husband!! This is all done for YOU GUYS!! Love you bunches!!