Once upon a time there was a woman who blogged. She blogged for years and years and made many virtual friends, some of whom turned into IRL friends. She also had a loyal core readership, some of whom would introduce themselves shyly at homeschool conferences.
She would also meet many women who, upon hearing the name of her blog, would say, “Oh, I’ve heard of you, but I don’t read you.” This convinced her that she was the most widely unread blog out there, which she found very funny and not at all insulting. She was happy regardless. She didn’t blog for the world; she blogged for herself. She loved to write, and she loved to record her family memories so they wouldn’t be forgotten. She loved to post pictures of her kids and things they had done, because she knew she would never ever make lovely scrapbooks or even lousy photo albums. She also blogged for her family and for the many friends she left behind every time the army moved her family to another state. Making new friends through blogging was a bonus. Entertaining an audience was a pleasure. Mentoring or inspiring other women was both frightening and humbling. But, she reminded herself often, this is a hobby, not a career.
One day, this blogger had a baby, which was nothing particularly remarkable, since she had done so six times before. She had even blogged through two pregnancies and births and infancies. But back then, the other children were also fairly young, and life was much simpler. This time, only a few weeks after that baby was born, the oldest brother started high school in their homeschool. Two other older siblings were in middle school. And they all lived in a new town where they didn’t know anybody yet, and frequently got lost on the way home from the grocery store. Although eventually they made many new friends and learned lots of shortcuts around traffic without getting too lost, school and keeping up with life in general forced blogging far down on the priority list.
Nearly two years went by, and then, like the first warm day of spring after a bitter winter, the school year started to wind down. The younger children finished, and the older children had only a few assignments left. Music lessons and sport activities ceased for the summer. The family actually had several days in a row with nothing on the calendar. And the woman took a deep breath and asked herself, “Do you think you’d like to get back into blogging?” Not wanting to be too hasty, she decided to enjoy this new-found leisure time instead. And in that break, her creative thoughts started flowing once again. She went back through her own blog archives, looking up a few memories, and re-reading posts from three, four, eight years ago. And they made her laugh. Really laugh. And then she knew the answer. Not for the world, not for friends or family, but for her own joy:
“Yes, I do want to blog again.”
Reit This Way 
Well, *I* have missed you. I’m glad you’re back to blogging, even if only for this post. 🙂
Naw, summer’s here and I have the itch to write. There will be more. Now, once we get back to school in August, things may slow down again. TWO high schoolers!
Yay! I was thinking about all of the people I knew when I first started and how many of them are still blogging. You were one of the first person to comment on my very first post and you said, “Welcome to the adventure of blogging!” So let me be the second person to say, “Welcome back!” to you.
And that baby thing… I totally get that. This particular munchkin has been our most challenging and definitely part of the reason that my blogging has slacked off in the past 2.5 years.
Thank you. I really do miss that handful of mom bloggers with whom I had regular contact…it’s the main reason I spend so much time on FB, since many are there (and updates are so much easier to do).
I’ll be so happy to (repeatedly) see you in my reader again. You have been missed.
thanks, friend.
Well, I think your blog most uncharitably ate my comment, but here I go again, sort of…yay!” You were most definitely missed!
Hurray! I’m glad you’re back. Since I finally moved to a reader, I haven’t had to stalk blogs looking for updates! So I didn’t miss your new post. Can I also ask if you may be the blogger with the most name/site changes in my time reading blogs? 🙂
readers are definitely great.
I spent so many years as Rosetta Stone and have only been in WordPress for a bit…my only name change/site change.
Well I may actually be a blog reader now! Never got the blog thing till I met you.
I’m expanding your horizons, Deb.
I missed you! 🙂 I’m glad you’re back. As a mother of youngish ones who are becoming not so young ones, I’m finding myself looking at the blogs of the mothers who have been here before me for inspiration and advice. Thanks for coming back.
–Shy reader who introduced herself at a homeschool conference. 🙂
I remember you, Beth. Will you be going this July? I will be there. I have a bonus room you can use for overnight stay.
Sadly, I won’t be going. Work for my husband is crazy busy and he won’t be able to take the days off for me to be able to go 😦
Thanks for the offer though, it would have been fun!
This makes me so happy!! Miss your more frequent updates. Still need to figure out how to get your glassware back to you…..! 🙂
oh, I totally forgot about those glasses. eventually I’ll get up to Atlanta again.
Once upon a time there was a reader whose life got in the way of reading some of her favorite blogs. One day, after more than a month had gone by since she had last signed in to her feed reader, she saw this post and lived happily ever after.
I love a happy ending!
Oh I’m so glad you are going to blog again! I’ve missed you and was just wondering a few days ago if you would ever post again. 🙂
Missed you, Candace.
Welcome back!! I missed you too, and understand completely. I blog for the exact same reasons you do. We have a high schooler next year, trying very hard to not panic over that.
You’re not having a baby this summer, are you?
I could have written this post myself, because I am often convinced that I have neither the time nor the talent to be blogging. Yet I know for a fact that without the blogging platform, I wouldn’t be writing those stories down. These stories–OUR stories–are important, Michelle, and I’m thankful I’ve got those archives.
Thankful, too, that this update turned up in my reader. Thank you, Feedly! You are one of my oldest and dearest online friends.
This is exactly how I feel about my neglected blog. I’ve had it and neglected it on and off since 2006 when I had only ONE child. Now I have six. I wish i’d blogged more–but was too busy with all the kids. And since I started blogging as a replacement for baby books, I hope they’ll forgive me for spending time with them instead of just blogging about them. Anyway, I’ve enjoyed your blog–quietly as I’m not a big commenter–for years!
I’m so glad you are back. But sabbaticals are almost always a good thing.