A fresh new start.

Hi Everyone!!

I am starting a new phase of my life called Consistent Blogger. It's something I've been wanting to do for a long time for so many reasons. One being that I love to write. I am not sure why I feel anyone is interested in what I have to say, but I like my voice to be heard nonetheless. Maybe it is Oldest Child Syndrome. Who knows? But yes, this writing thing has been haunting me for a long time. I need to do it and I want to do it but making the time hasn't always been a priority. Thus, the scattered and random posts of my old blog.

I am on the road to changing that. So to start my journey, I have compiled a small list of what I enjoy about blogs. Blog reading is one of my hobbies but I am very picky about what I read. If I am going to read a blog it has to do one or more of the following things:

The writer has to be honest. Being authentic and real is huge for me. If I'm reading a blog I don't want the writer to appear to be perfect. I don't want to know that she never does anything wrong and has a pinterest-worthy home. That being said, if you are a pinterest-worthy person, and that is your true self, then I will most likely read you. For instance, I follow a blogger who continuously crafts with her children and plans elaborate parties and just in general is awesome in the arts department. Anyone who knows me, knows this is so far from who I am. But I love her blog because she is real. She genuinely finds joy in her crafting and it shines through, so I find her awe-inspiring and just really fun to read. I have come across blogs which make me gag because they are so shiny-perfect without an ounce of real life to them. So then I also like to read about the mom who is more like me and can't do a craft to save her life. And yet I've also read blogs where even their non-craftiness doesn't ring true and their not-togetherness doesn't ring true either. Does that make sense? Bottom line: I love an honest and real blogger even if she has different interests than I do.

The blog has to be about topics that interest me. If you are an arts/crafts person and your blog is a how-to tutorial, I probably won't read you. But if you are an arts/crafts person who also discusses things that are on your heart, I will most likely be interested. If you discuss parenting/marriage and offer sage wisdom, I will probably read you. If you discuss parenting/marriage but offer a list of rules and show me how I've failed, I will say see ya later. If you harp constantly about how you're right in your decisions to homeschool/co-sleep/eat organically, I will most assuredly not be interested. But if you have a really fun, honest blog and you also happen to offer info about homeschooling/co-sleep/organic eating, then I will be all up in your business. Which leads me to...

...if I feel nosy enough and invested enough in the life of the blogger I will read it. Sometimes, I read a blog because I am just flat-out nosy. I love reading about people's lives and hearing what they have to say about myriads of topics. For example, I have been known to find a new blog and spend hours reading archived posts just to find out how she met her husband or when exactly it was she strayed from the faith of her youth or finding her first child's birth story. I am just like that. Nosy. It's more than nosiness though, I think. In reading how people feel about their husbands, their labours, or their faith, you get to know the person.

I want to make my blog a place where I would enjoy visiting. If I aspire to be myself, I hope others also find it a place they enjoy reading.

So in order to get some consistency going on my blog, I have decided to post a blog on Mondays, which will be about any topic that has been brewing in my mind, and Fridays, which will for now be a "Link Love" post where I share other articles/blogs that have interested me lately. Eventually I would like to also add in a book-review day as well since I love to read and love to share my opinions on what I read.

So there you have it! The beginning of the new me. Let's see where this thing goes.