Why I Blog.

I've been thinking a lot lately about why I blog. I feel guilty that I haven't been updating the food blog as often as I would like (which means I'm not cooking as much either). Sometimes I am just too tired to cull through photos & find something to say.
We started the blog as a way to keep our family connected to our lives. It's a great way to share stories and videos and photos our of everyday life. Ella now loves seeing pictures from her friend who moved to Alaska - it definitely helps people stay in touch. But, it can be overwhelming. Looking at other blogs, even though I realize a blog is a snippet of a life, you (I) can easily feel like you are living an uninspired life. So, to try to kick that feeling, I began reevaluating why I blog.

Last month, my dear friend Kim shared her lovely blog2print book she made. The company takes your blog & prints it on nice paper, bound, with a little table of contents. We ooh & ahh'd over her book & I decided to print one from 2008. I like to call myself a recovering scrapbooker. After Ella was born, I felt the need to document everything in a 12X12 spread. I finished the twins' first year baby book in early 2008 (to which Nick replied "it's about time, they are almost 2") and then stopped. It felt like a chore. So, I thought printing 2008 from the blog would give the kids some record of what they did that year. I got mine & it was just like Kim's, only better, because it was mine. My stories. My pictures. My memories.

And it clicked. I blog to tell stories. My stories. Nick's stories. The kids stories. To tell the stories of our family, our friends, our careers. To capture those uncertainties of parenthood. And I feel more centered and focused on what type of stories I want to tell & record.
I was thrilled that marta had a similar topic on her blog today. If you've ever felt somehow less than "enough" while blog surfing, check out this essay.