Today's post is all about how and why I started blogging. This little hobby of mine has turned into something I love much more than I expected, and now I'm kicking myself for not starting it sooner. Have any of you out there thought about starting your own blog but are hesitant? JUST DO IT! You won't regret it, I promise.
So while you all know that I am a teacher, one very little known fact is that I used to have a teacher blog I started in 2012. I had just made the switch to a new grade level, and was looking for ideas to tie in the standards but still have FUN while teaching. Unfortunately I had just come from my student teaching in a district where creativity was frowned upon and you were expected to teach EXACTLY by the book. I still had the "just follow the book" message ingrained in my head and was bored out of my mind teaching. Luckily though, I was now at a private school that celebrated and embraced creativity while teaching. My principal trusted that we were all good teachers (otherwise she wouldn't have hired us!) and trusted that the standards would get taught. She knew that happy teachers made for engaged teachers, which would trickle down to the students. One day I stumbled across the blog The First Grade Parade by Cara Carroll and my life was changed. At the time, Cara was a veteran kindergarten teacher in Texas who had several years of experience teaching her kiddos the standards while still making it fun rather than just the plain old boring/teaching from the book. I had so much fun following along with what Cara was doing in her classroom that I thought "I could do this too!". So I started my kindergarten teaching blog. I loved it, and loved coming home after school to share what we had done during the day.
Then, life got a little busy. I started grad school and got engaged all around the same time and the free time I used to have for blogging went towards grad school homework and wedding planning. Shortly after, we bought our house, which was a bit of a fixer upper, and all of our free time went towards that. I stopped working on the blog, and just considered it a fun chapter in my past.
The before and after of one of our house projects, our outside patio. The previous owners had planned to do an addition but then stopped, leaving a giant concrete slab. I saw an eyesore, but Devin saw a future outdoor patio. This was before we added the cabinet doors to the stone island behind Devin.
Even though I didn't keep up with my own blog anymore, I still kept reading Cara's and noticed that she had started another blog, Pearls, Handcuffs, and Happy Hour. This was Cara's personal blog about recipes she made, decorating her home, etc. Through her blog, I stumbled across another blogger, Shay Shull, also known as Mix and Match Mama. Again, my life was changed. I was a newlywed who wanted to learn about all things domestic and Shay was a "veteran" (I think she was married 5 or so years when I stumbled across her blog). I was learning so much from the way she did things and again, often thought "I could do this too!", but for some reason, never took the plunge like I did with my teaching blog.
Even though I didn't keep up with my own blog anymore, I still kept reading Cara's and noticed that she had started another blog, Pearls, Handcuffs, and Happy Hour. This was Cara's personal blog about recipes she made, decorating her home, etc. Through her blog, I stumbled across another blogger, Shay Shull, also known as Mix and Match Mama. Again, my life was changed. I was a newlywed who wanted to learn about all things domestic and Shay was a "veteran" (I think she was married 5 or so years when I stumbled across her blog). I was learning so much from the way she did things and again, often thought "I could do this too!", but for some reason, never took the plunge like I did with my teaching blog.
Fast forward to Lily Grace being born. For as long as I can remember, all I ever wanted was to be a stay at home mom. I had the best memories with my mom (a stay at home mom) growing up and so desperately wanted to be able to create those same memories with my kids too. So when I found out I was pregnant, I told my principal that I was due at the end of April, and was not planning on coming back the following school year. Even though I was excited to start this new journey as a mom, I was very sad to leave the school I loved so much. So upset that I even cried as I told my principal I wasn't coming back. I prayed every single day for God to show me the path I was meant to take, because something about the direction I was going didn't feel right. My whole life I had wanted to be a stay at home mom, but I couldn't imagine the school I had come to love so much not being a part of my life anymore. I went on maternity leave, Lily Grace was born, and I began my new job as a stay at home mom.
I will post part 2 tomorrow. Thank you so much for reading along and please come back to read the rest!
LOVE that patio! I too taught in a school that mostly thought of creatively teaching as using supplemental worksheets to go along with the books we HAD to use. It was rough going to bring in that fun element and all my creativity.
ReplyDeleteIsn't that the worst?? It's not at all why we went into this profession. Hopefully you aren't at that school anymore!!
DeleteWho knew you were such a blogging pro back before it was "cool" ;)
ReplyDeleteHahaha definitely not, don't go read it 😉
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