Lately I have had several people ask me how I have time to blog. I don't know I just make time I guess. I have said it before, but I do believe we all make time (and find money) for what is truly important to us. How we spend our time (and money) shows what is important to us. I do spend some time almost everyday writing or reading blogs so they must be important to me. I had to think it through though. There are lots of other things I could be (or maybe should be) doing yet I choose to spend time here. Why?
Well I started blogging as a means of communication, to keep up with family and friends. Tim started this and then other family members and friends joined in. I started blogging when Tim got too busy with work.
Since then blogging has become more of hobby or entertainment for me. I don't scrapbook or cross stitch or knit. I do like to read, but honestly reading or writing blogs is easier with four kids than reading a novel. We don't watch a lot of TV. We do sit in front of the computer a lot! :)
Blogging is a quick escape or break. It is some me time between kids needing me. It is adult talk! It is a chance to have contact with the outside, to see how loved ones are, to learn some frugal ideas, to laugh at the funny stories, to know that there are others going through the same stuff and interact with each other. I recently read on someone's blog (sorry I don't remember which one) that blogging was community to her and I guess it is to me also. It isn't the same as face to face community, but there is a sense of community none the less.
Finding time isn't all that hard. Time is found in the mornings when (if) I get up before the kids, in the afternoon when two are asleep and the other two are playing or at night after they go to bed (well all but nightowl Vivian.) Sometimes I will read blogs while Vivian nurses. It is a bit difficult to type then, but I have done it! Often though I will think through a subject I want to write about during feeding times, or dishes or cooking or picking raspberries!
So I am wondering why do you blog? Whether you read, write or both why do you choose to use your valuable time to be here? When do you find the time to blog? This is an audience participation blog! Please share with us!
I blog to entertain my people! To show them how wierd we really are down in the middle of nowhere.
ReplyDeleteAs you know, I blog to share what I learn about the family history with other members of the family.
ReplyDeleteI read blogs for information sometimes, to laugh -- yes, for community.
Aunt N
hey stephanie
ReplyDeletei've been thinking about this a lot since i read it last night. why do i read others blogs? i don't blog very often myself but i like reading them. i think i've come up with my answer. it's connection without the commitment. i can sit down and enjoy finding out what's going on in my friends lives and see how they are doing/what they've been doing. but i don't have to respond if i don't want to. that may sound obnoxious and i don't mean it to.
i am not a phone person. i just never seem to have the right time to talk or want to talk. without a cordless phone, it's hard to talk while the kids are awake and there's always at least 10 'can you hold a minutes' during the conversation. and then when the kids are in bed and the house is quiet, i guess maybe i'm jealous of my quiet time and hanging out with jeff.
i hope i don't sound really antisocial. i love hanging out with friends talking face to face, doing stuff, having our kids play. and we tend to hang out quite a bit on the weekends. especially sundays.
so, reading blogs makes me feel connected to my friends, but without the pressure of having to stay on the phone when really i'd rather enjoy sitting and relaxing for an hour before the kids wake up.
there you have it. connectedness without the commitment.
hope wasn't more of a response than what you wanted.:)
kellie
I thought of another part, too. The first blog I started reading was DH's cousin by marriage. I had already read some of her Christmas letters and knew she was witty. Plus her husband had had a serious medical problem and she was using the blog to keep the family informed of his status. For a long time, that's the only blog I read or cared about.
ReplyDeleteThen when I found out "you guys" were doing blogs, I thought it would be a good way to get to know you better since we don't see you often (but we still love you, and would like to know you better).
Then I started checking out some of the blogs you guys linked to, and now I've got a whole list of possibilities. I still only visit fewer than a dozen regularly, but if I don't get my "fix" (like when you guys don't blog), there are more fish in the pond.
With regard to the friendship without commitment, I think the tools we use regularly, answering machines, e-mail, blogs, allow us to fit in "keeping in touch" when the timing is convenient for us. So we probably do better at keeping in touch than we would otherwise. For example, sometimes I read a blog and want to make a comment, but am under a time constraint. Later, when I have the time, I'll often go back and add the comment. OK, there's my 4 cents!
Aunt N
Great feedback thanks guys! And where are the rest of you? !
ReplyDeleteKellie
I so agree about the phone thing! Even with a cordless phone it is difficult to have a conversation especially if the other person has kids too!
Aunt N
I do the same thing with my list of blogs. The ones I check regularly and the ones I check when the regulars aren't posting
I blog because I like to talk and I like to tell my opinions, so my blog is a place for me to voice my opinions or go on about nothing.
ReplyDeleteI read other people's blogs, because I am interested in their individual lifestyles. I can't very easily travel around studying people, so I read their blogs to broaden my worldview and to learn how other people deal with the different things that befall them so that I have an idea what does and doesn't work in such situations.
It's all about learning for me.