I first saw this meme over at wisecraft and thought it quite interesting. I love Blair's blog. There's something about its, I don't know, clean palette, that really appeals to me. Her work is always inspiring. Not just the crafting she's doing, but the blogging as well. She's one of my daily stops and this project was particularly inspiring to. It's made the rounds since I first saw it, but as you know, it takes me awhile to get my act together these days.

1. Do you promote your blog?

In a word, no. Unless you count shyly admitting that I actually have a blog. I've finally started doing that.

2. How often do you check hits?

Well, I don't really. I know that I can, but I almost don't want to. I'm asked often if I can determine where my readers are coming from and how many I have, and while I know it's possible to do that, I'm not sure I want to just yet. And I'm not sure I could tell you why. Every comment, from those from friends to those from folks I don't know, is a lovely and special surprise. I certainly recognize an obsessive part of my personality, so do I want to start checking hits and mess with that? Tap, tap, tapping the refresh button? I'm not sure.

3. Do you stick to one topic?

The subheading of bluerainroom is "home, craft, life," and I guess that says it all. Someone else, when working on this meme wrote: me, me, me, me, me, me!!!! Okay, fair enough. I was first drawn to blogging by the abundance of knitting blogs, but soon saw that those blogs that were about life and how it's well, lived (not even necessarily well-lived) were most appealing to me. When we were still in California and I was struggling with adjusting to motherhood I spent some time trying to find a therapist who might help me navigate this new and challenging phase of my life. Have you ever tried to find a therapist? It's almost as hard as finding a good hairstylist. I spent several sessions with one woman until one day, after I'd said (yet again), "I don't know, I just feel..." She cut me off with this: "I don't care how you feel. I want to change what you feel." After a horrified moment where I thought (audible gasp), "But all I care about is how I feel!" I never went back.

This is my memoir. My love letter to my family and my life. If I'm good at anything, it's at crafting a life for my family, that's what's most important to me, and this is my chronicle of that. I've been interested in memoir for a long time, but never felt memorable enough or clever enough to produce one of my own. Our life here, and what I craft of it is as close as I come.

4. Who knows that you have a blog?

I was slow (and still am) to come out of the closet about this. I wanted to get my feet under me before going very public, and man, talk about wearing your heart on your sleeve. I want people to know now, but I hope they understand that it was nothing more than shyness that kept me from cluing them in from the beginning. Who knew I could do it or would even like it? It doesn't really come up in casual conversation either. "Hi. I have a blog." So what started with a very few friends and family is growing. They are telling friends, I assume. I hope they are, because I'm still not brave enough to wear this:

Ripples in a pond. That's fine by me. Stop in and say hello.

5. How many blogs do you read?

Did gazillion really become a word? It must have because typepad spellcheck caught it. (Typepad spellcheck did not catch "typepad" or "spellcheck" however.) Seriously, I have many. Again, because I'm lame I don't subscribe to anything (I know I need to get a handle on this), but I have a nice ritual of checking in on my faves when I need a break from whatever it is I have my hands in at the time.

6. Are you a fast reader?

This seems a funny, somewhat random question, but yes, I can be. My only time to read these days is before bed and that doesn't allot a lot of time. Falling asleep gets in the way. So I've slowed down.

7. Do you customize your blog or do anything technical?

Oh to change my masthead each month or with each changing season. Oh to know how to do those little buttons on the sidebar. Oh thank you Typepad for doing everything for me.

8. Do you blog anonymously?

No. We're all right here. I toyed with the idea. But I wanted to be myself. I wanted us to be us. I totally understand why people use the barrier of nicknames or hide behind DH or DS or other monikers, but it didn't feel right to me.

9. To what extent do you censor yourself?

Well, you know. You've been around for some of the sadness and laments! Some of the details I will stay sketchy on, but the heart of what I'm feeling is pretty much out there. At one point during this post I almost asked for permission to write some of the things I wanted to say. And then I thought: No. My blog, my feelings. I need to just go ahead and say these things.

10. The best thing about blogging?

Well, for starters, you. I can't tell you how exciting it is to get comments on my posts, whether we've never met or I had coffee with you that morning and you heard already, in great detail the story I just posted about. So, on a broad stroke, it's the conversation. The global conversation. Knowing that something I've written is impacting someone enough for them to want to tell me. Me! (my own little Sally Field moment) It's exciting and thrilling. I can't tell you or thank you enough.

For me it's the opportunity to write nearly every day (I promise I'll get back at it. I'm writing a lot at work right now, and the ability to string sentences is pretty much wrung out of me when I get home at night.) that is measured and thoughtful and crafted. For me, blogging is not journaling. It's not free-form, and while sometimes it flows, it's not loose or necessarily easy. I like thinking about my life in terms of writing. I like setting on a theme for a post. I like having an image catch my eye and adding pictures. I like the work of crafting the words and living with them. I look more closely at my life now, and I'm grateful for that. I circled the idea of blogging warily for the better part of a year. Now I CAN NOT imagine not having it in my life. I'm enriched beyond measure.