One Year Blog-oversary!!

One year ago today I stepped into blog-land with my first post. It all began when I was feeling homesick for friends and family. I visited my former Pastor's blog, my brother's blog and several of my former co-workers blogs at HPC. Reading about their lives and seeing someone familiar, even if via a blog, refreshed me. Through my peeking into their worlds I came across my friend Aimee's blog. Aimee was the first female I knew in blog-land, the other HPC blogs were all guys. I felt the need to reach out to another stay at home Mom in the world.

The process of reading blogs of friends took a week or two until I found Aimee's blog. When I found her blog I wanted to comment but she did not allow anonymous comments at the time. I created a blogger identity and was NOT sure if I had created a blog or not. I found out how to create a blog and then I DID create a blog.

What? I had a blog? What in the WORLD would I talk about? Would anyone read this? Would I keep up with this? Do I have ANYTHING to say? This map represents 24,074 visits to my blog in one year alone! Not to mention all the different countries where people decided to come visit more than once! My map is about to reset to zero and start again. I am amazed at the number of people I've never heard from who make my blog a regular stop. My blog has been seen in countries I've never seen myself! So funny to me (and hard to wrap my brain around - that so many countries are represented as repeat readers. That is hard to believe)

One year later and 367 posts later (one being removed due to unwanted traffic) I guess I had some things to say! :) I've shared parenting tips, our homeschool journey, and things that stirred my faith. I've been encouraged by the many friends I've made along the way, as well as my local friends who now have blogs of their own. Such an unexpected avenue of contact.

As a stay at home Mom it is easy to find yourself feeling isolated. Once my husband and I felt drawn to the Home School world this Blog became way more meaningful than I ever expected! Touching base with other Moms like me has kept me going on bad days! So today I thank you all for coming into my life. I thank you for sharing life with me. I know there have been days, if not weeks, where your comment alone made me feel a connection to another human being in this world. Knowing I wasn't alone in the potty training woes (which by the way I forgot to update you all on. we've been diaper free since before Christmas - completely diaper free for all members of this household!!!)

I want to personally thank Aimee for being in blog land! Without her being there, I don't know if I would have jumped on board. And it is clear this venue has fed me in more ways than I could have known!

All of you ladies have brought fellow bloggers and words of life to me through your blogs and your friendship! I value all of you dearly, every comment, every friendship - no matter if in the early stage or what - it is valued here. Thank you all for making blog-land fun!