As today is the third anniversary of my first blog entry, I thought it would be fun to share why I started (and keep) blogging in the first place!

I started blogging because Ryan asked me to. He’s been blogging for a *long* time, and he thought it was something I should start up. I had no idea what I’d write about, or who would care to read anything I could come up with, but since it was important to him, I figured I’d give it a try. Those first few months had very few new posts, but I tried to come up with something once in a while, just to remind myself that I actually had a blog.

As time went on, though, I found more things to write about. Something I’d read in the news, something amusing one of the children did, something I was considering…I realized that all those things gave me stuff to write about. Yes, most of the time I’m really just talking to myself in a more technologically advanced way, but I enjoy being able to write out my thoughts, feelings, and experiences. I guess pretty much like when I was seven and had my first diary, only my blog is hardly full of private thoughts, and I have a lot more thoughts than I did when I was seven!

I’ve also come to appreciate blogging as a kind of digital scrapbook. I can go back and look at pictures of the children, remind myself of things we’ve done in school, remember fun things we’ve done as a family. I also find myself reading back over old entries, just to see if I’m interesting. The jury is still out on that one, but when I look back over some of the things we’ve done, I have to say, that at least *I* find our adventures interesting!

As time went on, I realized that other people were actually reading my blog. That’s a pretty good feeling, I have to admit. It’s my hope that I’ve given people something to think about, or helped someone in some way, or just made somebody smile. I’ve had some evidence that on a few rare occasions, those things have happened, and while I would keep blogging without it, it does help me feel that my blog has a bigger purpose than just being something I do for myself.

So I started blogging out of a confused sense of obligation, but I keep doing it because I enjoy it, and because other people seem to appreciate that I keep writing, too!