WQ - Tell Us About . . . Blogging

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I'm participating in the Wednesday Quotes link-up hosted by Marsha at Always Write. In order to simplify her blogging schedule, Marsha has decided to choose themes for her posts as she goes, and has invited those of us who participate to simply include a quote in our post and choose our own themes as well. This week I'm combining with the Tell Us About blogging series with the theme Tell Us About . . . Blogging, and I'll sprinkle some quotes in the story of my blogging journey!

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I started blogging as a hobby, not really thinking anyone would read my site, just my friends. ~Paris Hilton

That's pretty much how I started! I had been homeschooling for a few years, and was involved in some online message boards where I communicated with other homeschool moms. A couple of those moms got started on a blogging platform that was specifically for homeschoolers, and I thought, "well, why not?" I really didn't expect anyone other than my fellow homeschool bloggers to follow me, but I figured it would be a fun way to keep a record of what we were doing in our homeschool, especially field trips and that sort of thing, and I thought maybe our extended family might like to check out the photos. I'm honestly not sure if my family ever looked at that first blog!

After a couple of blog address changes for various reasons, I landed at Homeschool Coffee Break, and I connected with a larger-than-expected virtual homeschool audience, especially as I was reviewing homeschool curriculum and products for The Homeschool Review Crew. I did some guest writing for the Crew blog and for other collaborative blogs, and put a fair amount of effort into carving out a little bit of branding and commitment to my audience. Yes, I had affiliate links, but I didn't focus on making money at all. It was a nice little bonus if I got a few dollars here and there from what I promoted. 

If you love writing or making music or blogging or any sort of performing art, then do it. Do it with everything you've got. Just don't plan on using it as a shortcut to making a living. ~Seth Godin

Blogging and the Internet allow us to engage in a lot more real time conversations as opposed to a one-way dump of information or a message. ~Indra Nooyi

Thanks to the network of that homeschool audience, I had lots of link parties and regular features to write for and lots of readers and fellow bloggers to interact with. I wrote lots of reviews, wrote regular series and articles about homeschool topics, and participated in and hosted several homeschool-related link parties. 

Several years ago, as my youngest child neared graduation and I neared my retirement as a homeschool mom, I stopped reviewing and changed directions with Homeschool Coffee Break a little bit. Even after she graduated, I continued teaching at the homeschool co-op I'd helped establish, and I was still involved in oversight in my local homeschool group, so I was connected to the homeschool community. I was still writing homeschool articles, but they were fewer. And I seriously wondered what I was going to do with a blog created for a homeschool niche audience now that I was no longer homeschooling. Something I'd never really considered way back when I started this little hobby! Finally, in the winter of 2021-2022, I seriously entertained the idea that maybe I should create a new personal blog and just sort of recycle the evergreen material on the homeschool blog. I didn't want to abandon it because it was more than a decade of documenting our homeschool experience and writing on so many related topics! A move to a new state in November 2022 meant I had to stop teaching at the co-op and a whole lot of other changes, and that's what led to me finally following through on my blog changes too.

Curious about what I wrote on that original blog? Here's a few links to series I wrote that I'm kind of proud of:

From the High School Lesson Book (reviews, history lessons, and other things geared for this age group, including a series on teaching writing for high school students)

The Real Homeschoolers of Carroll County | Series 17 was a week-long blog hop series that I had so much fun writing back in 2015.  While working with the Review Crew, I participated in a number of week-long blog hops, with series like: A Cup of Coffee and A Word of Advice; The Rewards of Homeschooling Teens; Back to Homeschool Coffee Breaks; and Lessons For Homeschool Moms.

How Do You Homeschool? was a series that answered some of the curiosity questions homeschoolers are asked, and that homeschoolers ask each other. I tried to make it practical for those who were getting started or need some advice on specifics.

 

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Now let me backtrack a little, because along the way I'd decided that I should put my personal book reviews on a blog separate from the homeschool blog, so I'd started a separate blog called Just A Second where I put my personal book reviews and other posts about books. I used to get a lot more reading done, when my "full time job" was homeschooling! Having a book blog allowed me to keep Homeschool Coffee Break focused on . . . well, homeschooling! I put some other non-homeschooling things on Just A Second too, even though they weren't really bookish things, so when I started thinking about the more personal blog, I wondered whether I should just expand this one. In the end I decided that it needed to stay in a second place position, given its name! 

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So that's how I finally arrived here, at A Fresh Cup of Coffee, in January 2023. I was lonely and displaced, living in a new state, and had lots of time on my hands. Launching a new blog and connecting with a slightly different community of bloggers was a timely project to help me find a little creative outlet and feel like I had a bit of purpose. I had time to spend on setting it up and doing little projects like creating a blog button. It gave me something to do. I'd hosted a long-running link-up at Just A Second and worked on migrating that here (Scripture And A Snapshot). I found myself really missing a weekly photo challenge that had ended in 2022, so I made up a bi-weekly photo challenge for myself and added a link-up in case anyone wanted to join me (Everyday Images). The annual Write 28 Days Blogging Challenge for 2023 was well-timed for me, and I continued writing Five Minute Friday posts, and started finding a few other link-ups that I enjoyed. At the beginning of 2024, I added another link-up to those I was hosting, Twenty-Six Lists. 

The heart of blogging is linking - linking and commenting. Connecting and communicating - the purpose of the Internet. ~George Siemens

About a year ago, I started working part-time, so I had something else to keep me busy during the day. But at the beginning of 2024, I went to full time hours, and it's really cutting into my blogging time! Haha! But seriously, I feel like I maybe wouldn't have gone ahead with Twenty-Six Lists if I'd known I would be going full-time, and I have really struggled to keep up with visiting and commenting on other blogs. It's something that I feel strongly about, like the quote I shared above states - commenting is essential, especially when it comes to the link parties! And I hate that I have become rather hit and miss with that. Some weeks I visit pretty much everyone in the current link parties and some weeks time gets away from me as I keep up with the things going in my "real world" and I just can't. 

The currency of blogging is authenticity and trust. ~Jason Calcanis

Blogging is to writing what extreme sports are to athletics: more free-form, more accident-prone, less formal, more alive. It is, in many ways, writing out loud. ~Andrew Sullivan

I thought I'd be able to write a little more often for Homeschool Coffee Break, adding new material every couple of weeks, and reworking the evergreen material, but I'm lucky if I add something once a month over there now. I don't have time to read as much, but I still putz around at Just A Second. I could cut way back on what I do here at A Fresh Cup of Coffee, citing time constraints as my excuse. But you know what? I don't want to cut back. I like it here, and I enjoy this hobby. I've had to adjust how much time I spend on it, because it IS a hobby, not a job or obligation, and it mustn't keep me from my other commitments. But as long as I am enjoying it, I think it's important to make time for a hobby that brings me joy and fulfillment. 

Blogging is like work, but without coworkers thwarting you at every turn. ~Scott Adams

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Some of this article is based on my first post on this site: Welcome To My New Coffee Break Project!

How did you get started blogging, and what keeps you going? Leave a comment and let me know!

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Wednesday Quotes 2024 is hosted by Marsha at Always Write. See what we're inspired by this week: WQ#178: Hail Storm Hails From Prescott Skies

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Tell Us About . . . is a monthly opportunity for bloggers to showcase their creativity. Each month one of the co-hosts will choose the word to focus on. On the third Thursday of every month we'll respond to the prompt "Tell Us About ---" which could be absolutely anything. And how we respond is also wide open. It could be a blog post with our opinions or reminscences; a poem, photos, a short story or whatever takes your fancy―it could even be a mix of all these! This month's theme is "Blogging".

This post is linked at Is This Mutton.

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