Dear Reader, as I celebrate 10 years of blogging

Today, I celebrate 10 years of blogging.

10. Years.

I feel like this is a pretty big deal. On one hand, this is just part of who I am. A couple posts a week, sharing a bit of info, or insights, into my life, and parenting in general.

I didn’t even have photos for months on the blog.

I thought it was be fun to share the words I wrote in my very first post. They are below. That was all I wrote (you can see the original post here).

I thought it was be fun to share the words I wrote in my very first post. They are below. That was all I wrote (you can see the original post here).

It was a short post but reading them 10 years later, I feel like I’ve stuck with my plan.

Well, after 2 years of planning to do it (since leaving work to be a stay-at-home mom) I am finally posting my first blog!

I mostly want to do it because there seems to be such a great group of mom bloggers out there and I like the thought of being a part of that network.

What will I blog about? Anything and nothing. Mostly mom stuff because with a toddler and infant I’m pretty immersed in all things baby and kid. But beyond that, I’ll blog about great products I find, especially things that are green related or great deals – because I love a good deal! I’ll also post about stuff that’s happening around Orleans and Ottawa, because that’s where I live and there’s so many great things to do in this city.

So please enjoy – I’ll try to keep it light, fun and when possible, a little informative.

A Little Bit of Momsense then, and now

“Anything and nothing”. Ha. This summarizes so much about how I use social media and my blog. I wanted to connect with my community. I wanted to connect with fellow moms and bloggers. I wanted to share helpful information that other parents could use.

I didn’t want to dwell on the hard stuff, although it was many of you I turned to when I faced it.

10 years by the numbers

1496 published posts.

146 drafts (oh some of these are fun to read – and some of them are ranty. Ha!)

5522 approved comments (and a bazillion comments caught by my spam filters!)

I won’t bore you with all of the social media numbers and stuff (but let’s just say I should be embarrassed by the number of tweets I’ve shared!), but I will say that I started with Twitter as a conduit for this blog. A way to share and connect and tell people what I was writing about.

Eventually there was a Facebook Page. Pinterest. Instagram. YouTube.

This blog has facilitated the meeting of some of my most dearest friends who are helping me in my parenting journey, and supporting me no matter what I do.

This blog has introduced me to a creative world of work that I love – where I can help others, and be given the opportunity to grow. The clients that I have managed to befriend over the years have been a gift.

This blog has given my family opportunities that we never would have expected. Visits to unique and special places, connections to adventures that contribute to our memories.

However, no matter how I spend my days, or what new, exciting gig I am working on, I come back to this blog as my home. My words are where it all began.

At the heart of it all was this website. It’s my home base.

And that has blossomed into so much more. I’m a writer. A speaker. A social media strategist. A cheerleader. I feel so fortunate that this online space has grown into so much more.

Every time someone has reached out to tell me they tried one of my recipes, or checked out a favourite family place we like to play, or started a blog because they too wanted to join this space like me, I feel incredibly happy.

I started this blog with the intention of having my own little space in the growing online world. I thought that if I could share my words, I would feel satisfied. And if I could connect it somehow to a future career, even better.

I never, in a million years, envisioned all that blogging has brought me.

Because, without sounding too sappy, dear reader, this blog has brought me you.

Whether we connect here, or you have found me on one of my (many) social media accounts, or we chat via email. Or we have coffee in person. The people I have met and connected with have mattered in a way that I didn’t think possible.

You have been so kind listening to my stories. My rambles. Sharing my updates. When I work with brands and advertisers, you ask thoughtful questions or offer support.

You lift me up from behind these words.

Through the years my children have remained faceless and nameless, and yet, I feel like you understand my life as a mother through my stories and snippets along the way.

You’ve heard about our toddler activities, preschool worries, and how they are growing as lovely pre-teens (even though I am still unsure what I am doing as a mother at times.)

It was my online world that I turned to when my husband was diagnosed with cancer. And there was a moment I haven’t spoken about often is one I will never forget.

I sat in the waiting room as he had surgery waiting for the doctor to come out. Alone. Scared. Worried. I had told friends who offered to join me in person that I would be fine. Because that’s what I do. I tell people I’m fine.

But I wasn’t. How could I be? Instead, I turned to Twitter.

To all of you online. You virtually held my hand. You sent messages. You joked with me. You distracted me. And eventually the doctor came out to tell me everything was fine.

This scene repeated itself when I was at the clinic during his chemo for months. Or in the middle of the night, when I was alone. My babies sleeping. My husband recovering. And I couldn’t sleep as the stress and weight of it all sat on my shoulders.

But you there there. (You and Angry Birds!)

And it had a happy ending (he’s cured, dear reader), and that was ages ago (2010!), but those are the moments of this space that I can’t forget and that I hold dear. This is why when people roll their eyes at the possibility of online connections, I know better.

I know the truth and the meaning behind our presence in these spaces.

When I attend conferences (I’ve even been a conference speaker), when I go to networking events, when I am pulled into hugs in person, it always feels like years of online connections, all of that energy, snapping into place like lightening at once.

This blog is little. But I feel it is mighty. Because it holds so much of me here.

I have always kept a wall up with my stories in some way. There’s been a guard and I like pieces of light break through when I feel comfortable.

Some of the stories I didn’t tell were never really mine to share. Some of them for family privacy. Some of them simply too painful.

But you always had the true me, even if it was edited and a bit refrained. It was always me and continues to be.

I didn’t want to be anything but real. But authentic. But true. And I hope that has come across in my posts throughout the years.

This blog has always been for me. And while it’s built a foundation of so much more, online and offline, of a life that I am proud of, of work that I am proud of, this is always where I will call home.

Thank you for welcoming me to this space 10 years ago.

Thank you for continuing to welcome me here now.

Blogging as a parent, a mom blogger, typically evolves as our children grow.

But I hope you know that this was never really just about my kids. A Little Bit of Momsense is me. The pieces I am so happy to share with you.

There is a piece of me that will always live on this blog, no matter what I am writing about. The piece of me that rests here the most is my heart.

Thank you for 10 years.

Here’s to many more.