I recently attended the Casual Bloggers Conference held in my home town.  It was a great experience filled with lots of information and super great people!  You see, I felt as though I was checked into the twelve step program for “Bloggers anonymous”.  Everyone there was passionate about the same thing, understood each other’s lingo, and had no plans for recovery!  It was comfortable.  Sometimes  I feel crazy, enjoying writing so much with very little evidence of it doing any good.  I love the comments that *you* leave on my blog because I regularly feel like I am on top of a cliff shouting out to anyone that will listen, only to hear my own echo.  It’s kind of the same way I feel with my kids! 

While I was listening to all of the speakers on various bloggy topics, I was found myself reflecting on my own blog and WHY in the world I am keeping up on one in the first place.  I think if I spend so much time doing it, than I should have a reason – a mission statement if you will. 

• I started this blog for record keeping.  I love taking pictures.  I love the faces and reactions frozen in time, of my family especially.  I know how fleeting they are and if I can grasp them for a time and recall the memory behind it, I am all for it.  My kids also love going back through the blog and laughing at things we have done.  It has become our online scrap booking.  I have never had the patience for traditional scrap booking.  It looks like so much fun at first but then I get annoyed after spending an hour on each page. I think, GREAT!  It’s beautiful!  I then I realize I have six kids and a family album to make all of the same event.  I know I can photo copy it for everyone but it doesn’t look as good.  I also feel so limited in how much I can say!  If you haven’t noticed…I have a lot to say.
• For as long as I can remember, I have written when I have had any strong emotion.  I have journals that date back as far as the third grade speaking of love, loss, funny stories, and goals.  You see, I have always blogged I just didn’t know it.  
• I enjoy sharing thoughts with others.  As a “stay at home mom” it is normal to feel isolated and like the only fish in the sea.  My regular day consists of the same words over and over and over and over again.  I enjoy the strain on my brain…the challenge to increase my vocabulary.  I also can’t help but laugh at life and the every day stories of motherhood.  I love to see the humor in the ordinary.  I get so sick of hearing people complain sometimes.  Don’t worry, I complain too but I would rather focus on the good.  One of my favorite sayings that I have in my house is, “Attitude is Everything, PICK a good one.”  I love reading other people blogs and differing points of view.  I don’t have much time to do it, but when I do I LOVE it!

After blogging for a while I realized that bloggers get into following stats and trying to increase readership.  I have to admit, it has become a fun game for me.  I love to see where people come to my blog from and what they like to read.  I have never thought of my blog as a money maker like some bloggers do.  This is the reason I don’t have banner adds and links to buy things all over my site.  What is funny is that over time, businesses have started to ask me if I will advertise for money.  I guess it is just the trend.  Businesses see the huge potential to advertise to the head of the household – the one that makes all the money decisions, you – So for now, I haven’t sold out but if there is an offer that I can’t ignore at some point, I’m not against it as long as it is something I would recommend anyway.  This is why I am somewhat perplexed by my love for blogging to the point of wanting to post 5 days a week.  Everyone that spoke of bogging that much at the conference referred to it as “professional blogging”.  I don’t know that I am a professional, I would consider myself more of an addict.  

So there you have it.  My reasons for starting a blog.  My passion for it increases all the time.  I learned this weekend that I shouldn’t be ashamed of my blog.  I know that sounds weird, but sometimes I feel like it isn’t worthy cause.  Then I reflect back to an experience I had about 5 years ago.  I was praying about ways to enrich my life and I had a thought come to be very strong that just said, “Start writing.”  That’s it, just simple.  This is often the way I get answers to prayers…just a simple thought that feels very strong.  

So I started, I tried to write more in my journal and laughed myself silly when I thought “I’ll write a book..”  I was just trying to figure out WHY I was supposed to start writing.  I never planned on writing a book because I believe that I don’t know any more than the next person.  I was so happy when my sister in law Heather showed me what  a blog is because I finally saw an outlet for writing that didn’t take any investment other than time.  I could start developing a skill and enjoy the process.  After seeing all the creative writers at the conference I realized that those 400 women were a POWERFUL force of good in the world.  There is so much bad on the Internet, it is so refreshing to try to combat that with the good.  

So what are my goals? What is my passion that pushes me so hard?  I have come to believe that my “voice” as they put it at the conference is the pursuit of being a great mother to my girls.  I think this is the reason I naturally started my other blog to go along with our daily living in our “Pink Moss’ house.  I wanted a place to study and record how to raise a healthy daughter.  I want more than anything to watch them grow and succeed in life.  I plan on adding so much more to my P.I.M.D.E. site as time goes on including a section for crafts that girls love to do with their moms, letters from younger girls to their older selves, tributes to other amazing women and hard topics such as eating disorders, abuse, and self esteem.  Without even setting out to, this has become my passion – my mission statement.  After all, look what the Lord has blessed me with! 

(oh, and if you are confused as to why I have have 6 daughters but only 5 in many of the pictures, it’s because my step daughter is always coming and going with 2 families.  We take her when we can get her and so do our photos:)

Why do you blog?  What is your passion to read other blogs or write one yourself?  I would love to hear!