Class with Blogelina: To blog or not to blog - or something like that...

I am attempting to take Blogelina's Profitable Blogging for Beginners Online Class over the next few weeks and I am very excited that I am doing something that is blog related and something to improve my blog.  I say attempting because, well, I missed the first class... sigh.  I was all prepared and then, fell asleep.  I do this a lot.  Thankfully, all the notes are on-line and there is a brilliant community.  This gal has thought of everything and for that I say - Thank you!

The first assignment - goals.

#My7links post actually hit upon on one of the main focuses of this first class and that is - the importance of setting goals.  Okay, so maybe it did not have anything to do with setting goals but it did have to do with making lists (my post, not her class).  Lists are for organizing and focusing thoughts, just like goals are and that is what is important here.  Focusing ones blog.  I struggle with this because I have not completely found my voice, yet, but I am pretty close.  Then again...

When I started my blog, I was bored and I wanted a hobby.  I kept going with this blog because I have stories I would like to share, eventually.  What sustained me was my boobs.  Maybe not exactly my tits, but I wrote a lot about breastfeeding (even my first contest was breastfeeding related) and that gave my blog some weight or substance and allowed me to branch out from that point. Sure, writing about breastfeeding had a lot to do with the fact that breastfeeding is what I was doing the most of and can be all consuming.  It is certainly one of those go big or go home affairs.  But, it is just one part of me.  In a nut shell, I was writing what I knew at the time. I kept (or keep) going because of the opportunities.

Believe it or not -  I am still breastfeeding.  Sixteen months and counting!  I just don't write as much about it because it is not the focal point of my life.  I came to a point, when I was writing more often and felt that I needed to figure out my identity.  In short, I had an identity crises.  I knew I would not be writing about my baby or my son all the time, I knew I would not always be writing about breastfeeding and I knew I wanted this to be about - me.  I no longer liked the name for my blog and thankfully it was easy to change.  Apparently, I had unknowingly knew that I would want to write about being a woman and a mom but not necessarily a mommy.

I can be funny (I think).  I can entertain (I hope).  I wanted a way to express myself that was not an immediate extension of my family but one that incorporates them as well as allows me to be creative.  I even think that because of this I may be able to blog longer then if I had decided just to write about the baby or even my school age kid.  I did not want to be a mommy blogger but a mom who blogs because, let's face it... I get bored with my kids and kid related things - how would I be able to make that interesting and hold an audience for very long if I was bored?

So, there it is, my goals anyway - write a blog, that incorporates my family but entertains.  I get an outlet, that allows me, to tell my stories and hopefully *fingers crossed* an audience that wants to read them.  And, the bonus is all the other "perks" that comes along with writing a blog such as writing about products that I think are worth wild and getting to do things that are out of my comfort zone.

I am not looking for the biggest following just a small corner and if I can make a few dollars and a few friends along the way - so be it.

note: I do not think being a mom is boring  (because - duh, its not)  nor do I think my kids are (obviously they are not) but I think talking about them to much would be.