The Blogging Community

I have been thinking a lot about blogs and both their purpose and audience. I read quite a few blogs on a regular basis. I also continue to be surprised when someone totally unexpected admits that they follow MY blog! I LOVE finding that out! I started our family blog when we found out we were pregnant. I knew that I would want a record of the whole experience, but I also took a gamble and thought our families that weren't with us each day would like to read along as well. Once Jackson was born, my blogging slowed down a little, but I still wanted to continue recording the new things that happened in our life. There are many woman who host blogs devoted to menu-planning, recipe sharing, organizing, and money saving. I LOVE "flipping through" those blogs for new ideas! I have also found a large group of families that blog about the adoption process. I find this fascinating! I stumbled upon one through a link on a friend's blog and have just clicked along through many amazing stories. Josh makes fun of me about reading some blogs of people I don't know. The main reason I continue reading some after I accidentally find them is to gather new and different ideas for my job: being a mom. That helped him make sense of all of this blog reading :)

I also think it's interesting to think about the friendships of blogs. My college roommate, Allison, and I have kept in pretty good touch since college ended. But, our blogs have helped us stay even closer! She was a steady reader of mine while I was pregnant and I have loved reading along with her pregnancy! Some other good friends from college also have blogs now. Brandi and Becca are using their blogs to update their family members since they all live across the country. Blogs definitely allow you to become closer with people. Emily was in my cohort in college and we were definitely friendly, but we didn't really keep up except for the occasional Facebook message in the past years. However, now that we both have babies and blogs, we have a new venue to share ideas and our lives. (She made my super cute new banner, by the way!) I have become what I would call friends with a few other ladies through their blogs. I found them through friends of friends, but have been so struck by what they said that I just had to let them know I was reading along and post some comments! Both Shadley and Emily seem to appreciate any and all comments, so this had led to some fun sharing of ideas! I also think blogging is a great way for travelers to share pictures and updates. We have some family friends who are in the Peace Corps and it is so interesting reading about what they are doing!

This is not necessarily another suggestion for comments, but do feel free to read along and post your thoughts!