Why do you read my blog?

I’m stuck, a little bit, when it comes to the blog.

When I started it, it was more of a baby book than anything else.  I wanted a way to record motherhood, not just for me, but for my kids.  But it turned into more than that.  It’s not just a recording of milestones, big and small, it’s become a part of who I am.   Over the past six years, I’ve been blogging a few times a week.  I’ve written about breastfeeding battles, about anxiety-ridden toddlers, and cranky miserable tweenagers.  I’ve written about pregnancy, stepparenting, about being a wife, about not having a Christmas tree, and about why I don’t like keeping kosher for Passover.

What I haven’t done, yet, is try to write for anyone other than me.

I just wrote, knowing that nobody was really reading it.  I thought of it almost like putting a message in a bottle, throwing it out into the ocean and hoping that someone would read it, and want to respond.   That’s actually a good analogy, because it seemed as random as that.  I wasn’t throwing it in any general direction, I wasn’t researching water current and wind direction, I was just writing and putting it out there.

But – I want it read.  In the end, I write for the connection.  When people do reach out, with comments or facebook shares or likes, it makes my day.  Part of being a writer, for me, is having a reader.  Sometimes, my audience is my kids, sometimes my audience is me of several years ago.  Sometimes my audience is another mom, someone who’s got a little boy who only smiles when he’s with her, and a little girl with a love for the dramatic and a need to express herself all the time.   A mom with a toddler who wants to do everything herself, all the time.

To build the blog, everything I read tells me that I have to have interesting images, I have to make it searchable, I must learn SEO,   I have to be pinterest-able.  I want to build the blog.  I want those connections – I love the friendships I’ve made, the conversations and connections that we’ve made.   I like having readers – and I want to figure out how to make the blog better for you.

All of this is leading to one question – why do you read the blog?  Would helpful tips, lists and craft ideas make it better?  Please don’t tell me crafts, I really can’t do them.  Do you want book reviews (because that’s something I could TOTALLY do), or recipes?   Or do you like my blog just as it is, or maybe think I should blog more frequently?  Maybe more structure, a set schedule?  Okay, maybe this is leading to more than one question.  My point is that I’d love to hear from you about why you read my blog, what  you like and what you’d like to see more of.

And because every post should have an image – here’s one of my favorites…