a thank you

I wanted to take a quick moment and say thank you to all of you for all of your sweet comments on my last post. Recently I've had a bit of a hard time blogging in this space. My readership has a grown a lot from the five readers I started with, and at times I struggle with not wanting to post personal things here due to thinking about so many people reading what I have to say. There will always be a line for me as far as over-sharing or taking away a special moment's "special-ness" by putting them here, but when it comes down to it, I love blogging and I love writing, and being able to share my thoughts and words with all of you is such an amazing gift. Recently though I've thought a lot about what this blog and what it means to me - why I continue to do it, why I have sponsors/if accepting money is discounting the value of what I produce here, if this is something that could endanger my family in any way, and often those thoughts can become quite discouraging. While on my extended vacation I didn't blog for an entire three weeks. I honestly enjoyed it, but also missed it. I thought about all the reasons I love blogging, and the reasons I don't. I thought about how, no matter how long I do this, on some days I enjoy sharing, and other days I feel like I'm making a mistake putting myself out there in such an extended way. Back and forth. It's weird. But the interesting thing about blogging to an audience of this size is that all of you are along for the ride. I have gotten such support for each of you in the different stages of my life, from being a newlywed to teaching to pregnancy to motherhood...and I appreciate all of that more than you could know.

When I started writing this post, I was just writing to write, and writing to express my gratitude. Somehow I ended up discussing something that's been on my mind for awhile, and it feels good to start to make some sense of it. I'm such a thinker by nature and writing is the best thing for me because it allows me to organize all of this, even a little. My main point (it's somewhere in here, I promise!) is still a huge thank you to all of you for reading. I'm definitely not going anywhere. If anything, this weird little bump in my blogging road has really refocused me and reminded me why I do this and what I should be getting out of it.

Sometimes I think as a blog gets bigger we allow the audience to take on the role of navigator- giving us directions, telling us where to go, all while keeping ourselves under the guise of driver and being in charge. Something is lost there. Continuing this space for me, and for Henry and Hank is the most important thing to me. Being able to write and feel as if I am contributing something here gives me a greater sense of identity, outside of a wife and mother. It's truly my outlet.

So moving forward, I'm going to cut myself some slack. This is my reminder to myself to have fun with it, stop anything on this blog that causes me stress, and just get back to the basics. Write. Share things and people and businesses I love, and create a warm space that encourages discussion and creativity.

So yes, my point: thank you. You are all a part of my life through this little corner of the internet, and I just want you to know how much I appreciate you, your comments, and your emails. I feel truly lucky to be able to reach out to so many of you via this site, and above all else I treasure that the most. I hope you have the best day. :)