The Blog’s Half Birthday: What I’ve Learned in 6 Months

In my very first blog post EVER, I shared a list of things I never thought I would do, with authoring a blog at the top of that list! To celebrate the blog’s six month birthday, I thought I would update that list with the top things I’ve learned over the past 30 weeks. What a journey it’s been the past half year! Just over 1,800 visitors have read the pages of Librarian in the House. I know that is modest, but that’s a pretty exceptional spike from the previous 6 months when I was impacting only TWO bookworms. 😉 My daily prayer is that I would use my background and gifts to inspire others to enjoy reading with their kids.

“Things I Never Knew About Blogging”

How much it would keep me accountable and creatively inspired. I’ve always said that I blog first to keep myself accountable to creating the literacy rich life I want for my kids. It’s a message I’ve had to come back to repeatedly when I’m tempted to turn to the computer to tend to the blog “real quick” (no such thing) rather than turning the pages of a book with my kids. The blog has been a catalyst to keep me current and to keep me from becoming lazy. Boy is lazy parenting tempting! But the blog has helped to keep my goals for my family at the forefront of my mind. I want to keep bringing my readers inspiring ideas, so I had better challenge myself and keep fighting the good fight!

How much each and every comment means. I’ll always remember the first time someone “liked” the Facebook page who wasn’t one of my existing (personal) friends. And the first time someone found the site that wasn’t a “friend of a friend.” And every time that I was ready to quit and then that ONE comment came in, and I realized that I actually helped someone enjoy reading with their kid. And then the frustrations and time spent didn’t matter any more. I totally understand the phrase “sharing is caring” now. I appreciate every. single. one. of my readers, comments, likes, shares… and text messages from those close to me who prefer to remain anonymous. You know who you are, and so do I.

How much I would learn. About myself, about parenting, about literacy, about writing, about photography, about website design, about how social media works, about time management, about perseverance and love for my craft. I’ve also learned that there’s just so much I don’t know! I am more excited than ever to continue evolving and growing the blog to inspire more and more bookworms! There are days when my dear husband finds me in tears of exasperation, trying to understand how to add an expires header to static resources by putting code in my root .htaccess file. “Now I understand why, in teaching reading, decoding doesn’t equate to comprehension!” I lament. It’s been so rewarding to be challenged at this time in my life when I’m knee deep in diapers and my adult conversation comes once or twice a day for an hour or two at a time!

How much time and work is involved. I mean, I knew it would take creative energy, research, time “in the field” (or, on the story rug, as it were). I didn’t know just how much time would elapse from seed idea to hitting the “publish” button. Even my shortest posts take hours to complete (read: several days’ worth of naptimes! lol). I never want to publish content that hasn’t been carefully considered, tested with my guinea pig bookworms, researched, linked as appropriate, images added to enhance readability, and of course proofread & edited.  Most of my posts have about 5 drafts before publishing. I hope that you can tell! 😉

How much I’d learn about my faith. While I strive to make the majority of my content accessible to readers of any background, my own faith is inextricably linked to my writing process. In my blog’s short life, I’ve grown in my faith as I’ve prayed for direction, inspiration, scope of influence, and God’s blessing on each post. In fact, this whole blog was really a holy nudge; I actually fought against it for months, doubting my ability and voice. The song “You Make Me Brave” was playing as I signed up for my domain name, and it continues to speak a message to me of my identity as a beloved child of God.

Thanks for reading along! I really and truly appreciate each one of you. I hope to continue inspiring you to enjoy reading with your little bookworms! If you have suggestions for what you’d like to see featured on the blog, I’d love to hear!

Keep Reading!

Melissa

One more I could add: How hard it is to keep my posts short! LOL. Thanks for reading to the end. 🙂