Blogging was kind of made for people like me.

People That…

• want to encourage or inspire, but don’t have a platform for communicating with others aside from those they make direct contact without in the world.
• need an outlet.
• want a place to share their voice.
• need a place to wander aimlessly, at times
• have something to share.
• want to add value to other people’s lives.
• need a place to reveal pieces of their heart. Their truth.

Over the last year

I’ve used this space to write about everything from my DIY nails process (check out my stories today for a whole demo – haha), to a scathing review of life as a resident’s wife, to various aspects of maternal mental health, and raising awareness about issues mothers face. I’ve talked about shoes, makeup, aging, decor, teamwork, language development, struggling with motherhood, rejoicing in motherhood. I have written specifically to medical wives navigating the same waters as I, just a few years behind me. I’ve tried to encourage you in your faith, travels, and friendships.

I’ve written about things that are important to me. Because I know that a lot of those things are important to you, as well.

I am here because I want you to know that you’re not alone. Even if we don’t have everything in common, we share some things in common. My story is a little bit a part of yours.

Thank you for journeying with me.

Today, I’m lifting the veil a little bit. I’m giving you a little extra glimpse into the blogging world, as I dive deep into the good and the bad of this year, and how my perspective has changed as I’ve gained experience and insight into a world I knew nothing about until I dove head first into it.

Here we go.

10 Things I’ve Learned From 1 Year of Blogging

1. My goals are loftier than my capacity to achieve them, and that’s cool for now.

My brain is always on overdrive, making lists filled with goals I intend to DOMINATE. (I AM an Enneagram Type 3, after all).

However, I quickly learned that achieving all of these goals comes at a cost. And if it’s me personally who is sacrificing, I’m okay with that as long as I don’t push myself to burnout. But if it’s my family sacrificing, that’s a hard no from me. (Though I’m sure my husband would gladly tell you how much he’s sacrificing every time I make him take pictures with me or of me – haha).

But anyway, prioritizing these goals by determining what topics are going to bring you the most value, and ME the most joy to write about, is my happy place here. I’m getting that balance more dialed in as I go. And one day, I’ll have more time to invest in all of it.

2. Blogging is harder than I thought it would be.

Just getting my site up and running took nearly every ounce of my patience that was left about wrangling screaming children for the better part of my days. I spent HOURS, literally HOURS, just trying to figure out how to get the right fonts in the right places on my site. What’s wild is that there were several other similar tasks like that one that just take a lot of trial and error when setting up a site by yourself without background knowledge.

Additionally, I didn’t realize how much there is to be done each time you publish a post.

Writing the actual post is sometimes the EASIEST part, I kid you not. Because, hear me out, after you write the content, then there’s pictures (I do all of my own!) and photo editing, a little bit of design, writing excerpts, making and distributing a pin for Pinterest so that people can actually find your posts. There’s distributing on social media. There’s hashtags, pop-ups, links, and making your content optimized for google searches. It can feel like a lot some days.

And there is SO. MUCH. MORE. I could be doing. So, yeah, it’s a lot. But there are various levels of investment in blogging, so don’t let that scare you off if you’re considering beginning your own.

Also, you get faster with each task over time! So that’s where the experience really helps.

3. It’s normal to want to quit blogging sometimes.

There were quite a few days when I thought about hanging it up.

At times, I wanted to just abandon the blog altogether. To leave it dormant, as if everyone would just forget I ever dove head-first into a project like this.

I had my reasons.

Most of the times I wanted to quit were, retrospectively, the result of burnout. Those were the moments that I was pushing myself too hard which was taking the joy out of my projects. I was letting my blogging goals interfere with other aspects of my life. When I don’t have personal time for restoration, I can’t serve others because I am, myself, in need of service. And when I get overwhelmed, I tend to want to drop everything making me feel that way. I’ve experimented with that balance of how much is “too much,” and I think I’ve settled on where I am now.

But it’s not easy to find that “just right” balance! It has taken some tweaking.

Then there were times early on when I felt like things weren’t moving fast enough, or I wasn’t receiving as much feedback as I had hoped, leading me to ask myself if anyone was listening. If what I was doing mattered. Fortunately, I finally got it together and started doing stories on Instagram and Facebook. That has been an incredible way to foster connection with you all and hearing from you more. YOU are encouraging me, just as you talk about me encouraging you. Your messages mean more to me than you know. Words of affirmation is my primary love language, and boy does it speak to me when I hear from you.

4. Slow growth is still growth.

When I started my blog, I was gung-ho on growing this blogging journey into some major, large-scale platform as quickly as humanly possible. BUT. I have a full-time job at home with my pretty demanding family. It didn’t take long to realize that my best effort is good enough, no matter the resulting growth.

At the beginning, I had a hard time comparing my growth to the growth of other similar bloggers. I never knew what was really going on with their blog traffic, of course, but I would watch their Instagram following grow and be a little envious at times. (I’m currently rolling my eyes at myself). But when I’m viewing my journey from a more healthy lens, I focus on how far I’ve come this year. And I remind myself that, with three kids under six and a husband who is rarely home and able to help, I’m pretty darn proud of what I’ve accomplished thus far.

There were days at the beginning when my site would have zero page views between posts. Zero. But now it’s somewhere between 50 & 100 on my least-trafficked days.

So for now, slow growth isn’t just okay, it’s GREAT.

And focusing on serving you really helps me to focus on why I started this journey in the first place, instead of on some arbitrary numbers that are not my primary motivators here. (But that’s not always easy!)

5. Blogging has a way of highlighting things you really, REALLY suck at.

You learn your areas of strength and weakness pretty quickly when blogging. Here are some of my areas of weakness, (to name a few):

• starting sentences that do not begin with the words “and” or “so”
• using hashtags
• planning more than one day ahead
• website design
• anything related to html
• responding to comments
• taking pictures of myself
• photo editing

You guys, I DIDN’T EVEN KNOW my camera had ISO until last month.

Technology is ridiculous. I thought I was relatively hip in the technology world, but blogging has really shown me how little I know. I’d love to take some classes on all of these things, but I probably won’t for a bit, because…

6. Blogging can be expensive.

I am probably $700 in blogging “debt” from the year. Getting a website up and running, paying for security, backups, mail service, Pinterest service, etc. can be a little costly. And I am extremely cheap when it comes to blog expenses.

I am so grateful that I have a decent camera from several years back, and a working phone and computer (even if my computer’s memory is currently completely full). But there are many upgrades I would like to make as soon as I can bring in a little revenue to justify the expenses. In full transparency, I’m hopeful that this will be the year for that and I can start taking and editing better photos for you guys, and take some of those classes that I know will help me to bring you even better content. I hope you guys will support me as I start introducing some ways to do that (I promise it won’t be a primary focus and I will refuse to stray from my authenticity).

7. I need deadlines, but I can’t make them too ambitious.

Deadlines are pretty critical for the completion of my work. If I didn’t make a weekly posting day (it’s TUESDAY, friends!), I would probably blow right by it every week.

There have been a few times, in my posts, when I’ve made a mistake by telling you certain days I’ll be talking about certain topics coming, or exactly when I plan to release xxxxx video, etc. I’ve realized that is not a good idea. I change up my posting calendar constantly, and when I lock myself in a box for when and what I share, I almost always end up disappointing myself and feeling like I’m disappointing you as well.

So it’s great to have a posting day, but not so great to add to that or tell you exactly what’s coming up. You can be surprised right along with me. 🙂

8. I have dreams for the future.

I didn’t have a real “plan” when I started my blog, but now at least I know that I have dreams and ideas about what’s to come.

I’ve heard some bloggers talk about struggling to come up with post ideas. I’m fortunate to say that is NOT an issue here. Quite honestly, I have about 50 more topics for posts and videos on a list that I can’t WAIT to share with you one day, that I think you will find valuable.

I am incredibly open to the many possibilities of where this road may lead: guest posting, book writing, collaborations, working with local media outlets, more video creation.

I’ll be sharing more of my ideas with you as I go! And if any of you know someone (or ARE someone) who would like to work with me, just reach out! I would love that!

9. I think it’s a bad idea for bloggers to watch other bloggers too closely.

It’s extremely important to me that my content is unique. (I’m talking ALL OF IT: my blog posts, my picture style, my Facebook page/Instagram and my all of my daily stories). Obviously there is benefit in learning from others who are further down the road than I. BUT, I’ve noticed that if I spend too much time consuming content from others, it influences the way I think about and curate mine. So. I do my own thing.

10. It’s okay if people don’t prioritize my posts the way I do.

Let me tell you a lil’ story.

I had been writing for over 6 months when I FI-NA-LLY had a post pick up a lot of traction and get shared around on Facebook, leading to a lot of traffic to my site – hooray! And what was interesting about that particular post was that it was my MOST OFF-TOPIC post of the year (You can read it here, I’m sure you’ll love it, too – haha: The Best in True Crime Podcasts). Don’t get me wrong, I am, in fact, obsessed with True Crime Podcasts. But it was easy to write. Took me about an hour. I spent hours, even days, writing some of my other more meaningful, well-written, and arguably more valuable posts that received hardly a glance.

This experience had me questioning my content selections. Maybe I should be writing more of what people are googling every day? Maybe I should be using buzz-words, and writing primarily for virality?

Well, I could probably work to do that. But I would be abandoning the real reason I’m here, which is to encourage, inspire, motivate, love on, and share with you. It is NOT to have the most traffic. Also, that wouldn’t be the most accurate or authentic version of me and what I want to bring to you. So I’m going to continue choosing my content by what I believe would be most helpful to you!!! Sound good?!

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And PS – if you’re thinking about starting a blog, let me know and I’ll help you any way I can!

Now let me tell you about this MEGA GIVEAWAY!

💗*** THE GIVEAWAY***💗

(giveaway is now closed)

I’m incredibly appreciative of all of you who have chosen to spend time with me this year. There have been so many messages from you, relating to this community I’ve created; appreciating what I’ve shared and letting me know how it has impacted you.

So. Thank you. And as a way to show my appreciation back at ya, I am having my biggest. giveaway. yettttt.

One lucky friend will receive a bundle of some of my FAVORITE things! These are all things I’ve talked about at some point this year, and I KNOW you’ll love them as much as I do!!!!! 🎉

The BIG winner will receive:

1. Mary Kay TimeWise® Microdermabrasion Plus Set – retail value $55 💕
2. ColorStreet 100% Real Nail Polish Strips, in Mediterranean Lavender – retail value $13 (retired shade) 💅
3. Bath & Body Works Marshmallow Fireside 3-Wick Candle – retail value $24.50 🕯

Over $90 in value! 😘

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To enter, head to my Instagram or Facebook (or BOTH!) and follow the directions on the giveaway post (it’s easy, I promise!) The post will have this picture on it! Entries will be accepted until Friday morning (November 1st), so HURRY!

Ann Mullen of Emerald City Nails with AnnEm has sponsored the ColorStreet portion – so go check her out – she is an incredible gal and a wonderful, reliable seller!! She’s also running a concurrent giveaway where you’ll have a chance to win a ColorStreet set just by sharing my giveaway post and joining her awesome Facebook group!

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I would love, LOVE to hear from you this week. What posts over the past year have made a difference to you? I’ll be sharing some of the feedback I receive (anonymously). But I would LOVE to hear what has been most valuable (medical spouse support, home, style, motherhood, etc), so I can keep doing more of that.

I adore you guys!

See you so very soon, friends!

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