Two years ago today, I went online and decided for two reasons to start a blog. The reasons were to show my family and friends the progress of our house building and to share pictures of our kids.
I was two weeks from my due date with Elizabeth. It had been ten years since I had a child and was nervous about trying to have a normal delivery and avoid a C-section. It was very cold and I was anxious about our 90 mile drive to the hospital to have a baby. Nathan, Hunter and I were cozy in our tiny little rental house and excited but praying for a healthy baby girl/ sister.
I was about to embark on my first maternity leave which was weighing on my mind. My type A personality was going to learn to “let go” of work and enjoy every day of maternity leave.
I thought that this blog during my maternity leave would be a good way to show new pictures rather than email around to family and friends. This was also pre-Facebook in my life. I emailed a few friends the link to the blog but otherwise kept it off of blog listings and search engines (and still do).
I did not realize at the time I would be blogging a few times a week at a minimum. 364 posts later, this blog’s original purpose remains for me to share our daily life, children’s activities and life on the prairie with our family and friends.
However, blogging has evolved and grown into an experience for me and for family. The Pinke Post has become a part of my daily life. It no longer is a place where I just post pictures to share with family and friends. It is an outlet for me. A point of sharing. My get away to write and put my thoughts that are racing through my head into words.
I remember distinctly being about Hunter’s age and handing my dad a stack of letters one morning before school and asking him to take them to mail for me. Of course really he was going to put them into his mail bin at his advertising agency where they always magically got sent. He looked at my stack of letters, all to people I kept in touch with like my Great Great Aunt Iris, friends from Cooperstown Bible Camp and basketball camps I had met. I wrote letters to many. My dad said me “Katie, you should go into communications. You are a communicator.” Of course I did not like that idea. I wanted nothing to do with what my dad did. Surely I had bigger and better plans.
But in the end of course my dad was absolutely, dead on right. I am a communicator. I love connecting with people. I love relationships. I love how each person has a story. I work every day in communications both professionally and personally. And this blog has become my personal communications outlet. Gone are the days of my letter writing with a few exceptions like to sweet Iris who at 104 years old still writes me and I oblige and return a letter to her.
This blog also has helped me connect with my camera again.
I took a few courses in photography in college, back in the days of film and dark rooms. I love photography and hope it grows into more of a hobby again when I have “time” for hobbies. Maybe I will actually edit photos and buy some fancy software to do so. But for now my photos remain raw, unedited but show our everyday life on this blog. Truthfully, I still have not read the directions on my digital camera but have had a lot of fun taking pictures to post on this blog.
Even pictures when I just stretch out my arm with the camera to remember a moment. A moment like this week when my 8 1/2 month pregnant forever friend Jennie got up early to come to my hotel to have a cup of coffee with me and then sit in my hotel room while I got ready and packed, just so we could catch up and talk.
The purpose of this blog has grown into documentation for our children. I do not scrapbook. I barely get their name and birth details written into a baby book. But I blog about our children and their lives. There is nothing more fulfilling in life than being a mother. It is the most rewarding and challenging role. A role that I cherish. This blog allows me to share myself as a mother and give glimpses into my husband’s daily life too. He does not blog. He doesn’t have Facebook or Twitter. But he does smile for the camera. Now I blog for my kids, for my husband and for our family. I can put our blog into a simple software and print an annual book for our family. So our children will have an annual edition of the Pinke Post that they can look back on…
and remember their Saturday morning smile at age 12
or finger painting at age less than two
or getting their evening bath as a baby.
This blog has given back to me in ways I never knew or imagined two years ago today. And I hope it continues for years to come.
Katie–I love your photo/blog…It helps me feel connected to you and your family.
Happy anniversary!
Roxy
Perfect. I wish I had said it because that’s exactly the way that I feel! What software do you have for the book? I just reached my unofficial one year anniversary of regular blogging and would love to do that too!
Happy Weekend!!
Katie, I’m so glad to be able to check your blog-I wish I had your communication skills! I love the new holiday look, too.
By the way-how fun to see Roxanne’s comment. I’m reading With Love, Libby right now and am enjoying it so much!