Interview with a Blewbie (Blog Newbie)

Latte Mommy tagged me for this interview style meme. Here's everything you wanted to know about me and my relationship with the blogging world.

How long have you been blogging?

I started my blog on November 5th, 2007.

What inspired you to start your blog, and who are your mentors?

My Sister-in-law, Amy started a private blog over the summer. She posted once, and then added me as an user. We were going to use the blog as a bulletin board so our kids could share pictures and stories with one another. The project was abandoned, but not before Amy planted the blogging seed in my mind (well, her and Mark Cuban).

Shortly after I started my blog I found Gulf Coast Mommy at "I Love you too Much", and was inspired by her ability to tell a tale. Her blogroll lead me to The Mama Kelly at Taken with a Grain of Salt and before long I stumbled on Rachel at From the Land of Monkeys and Princesses. These woman showed me that a blog should be funny, engaging and wonderfully written. Their comments and interest in my blog encouraged me to work on my writing and keep on posting.

Are you trying to make money online, or are you doing it just for fun?

I do this for fun. In the beginning I was trying to get my posts to show up in Google search results. I read that by having Adsense, Google would index my site. I signed up and Google indexed me. I have no idea if anyone has ever clicked on one of these ad's, and I never bother to check.

What 3 things do you love about being online?

1. The community. I transitioned from stay-at-home mom to working mom less than a year ago. I miss hanging out with other moms and being home with my kids. Blogging allows me to interact with moms, hear great stories and get advice. It's like a virtual play date. I love it!
   
2. The challenge. I do not consider myself to be a good writer (there may actually be some grammatical errors in this post that prove it). Blogging allows me to practice this skill while recording the memories that matter most to me.
   
3. The process. Blogging helps me process emotions and remember pieces of myself that I had lost. For example, last week I posted about a cake I had made. I intended for it to be a bragging, "aren't I awesome" post. I ended up thanking my mother, because she taught me to love cake making. I was half way through that post before I remembered watching my mom make cakes and recognized how that impacted me.
   

What 3 things do you struggle with online?

1. Time. I blog in the evenings after my kids are asleep and before my bedtime. I find it impossible to get to bed on time anymore.
   
2. Getting behind on my blog reading. There are days when I don't get a chance to sit down and blog. It feel terrible when I am unable to make it around to all the blogs I like to visit. I end up with a huge pileup in my Google Reader, and have to lurk or comment on posts that are several days old in order to get caught up.
   
3. I'm going to have to say Time again, because it is my bedtime and I am not finished with this post yet! Yikes people, how long should it take to answer a few questions? Certainly not two hours!
   

Enough about me, how about you? I would like to interview...

Honeybell at The Bell Pages
Liz at The Lizness
AND
PB&J in a bowl, is it possible that you haven't been tagged for this yet?

Thank you ladies, I can't wait to hear your blogging story.
And so not to leave out the very important and often overlooked blogging daddies...

Suburban Daddy, who is celebrating his one year blog birthday!

Congratulations! I'd love to hear your take on this strange and wonderful world.