People have asked me how I make time for blogging while mothering.
Honestly, it changes depending on the day and week and season, but I do know I’m a better mom because I write. Writing is my therapy that gives me a chance to process life while documenting what I want to remember. I’ve written longer than I’ve mothered, so, honestly, the combination is all I’ve ever known.
I started blogging in 2001 after a friend nudged me to join this new technology craze, not long after I graduated from college with a print journalism degree. I figured I’d have an online journal for a while and then move on. Obviously, that didn’t happen. As I started blogging, I was also beginning my journalism career, so I was writing publicly for both work and play.
When my daughter was four months old, I left the newsroom, thus quitting the professional writing gig. That was almost eight years ago – and I haven’t stopped writing. I’ve picked up some freelance assignments and earned a little money, but, mostly, I’ve been blogging while living, stringing words together as I make sense of my thoughts, and documenting what life with kids looks like.
I was trained to ask questions, tell stories, and write informative pieces. Many days, I know how to write far better than I know how to mother!
But writing helps me process what I’m learning in mothering – which has been the greatest adventure of my life. <<Click to Tweet
I write for me, really, but I’ve managed to make some friends and encourage other families as I share my stories. I do look forward to sharing my writing with my kids as they grow up. Really, that’s the heart of blogging for me.
These days, I write when I can. Usually, that means when my kids are in school. Sometimes I’ll get inspired while watching TV or riding in the car, so I will steal a few minutes and jot down ideas and sentences on my iPhone notepad. I also email myself regularly. (Talk about true notes to self!)
Obviously, my priorities have changed since I first started blogging. Yes, writing sometimes takes a backseat to living life with my husband and kids. But it’s in living I’m inspired to write.
Writing co-exists with mothering – and living – for me. In this season of having small children, sometimes I can’t write when I would like to because there’s laundry to wash and fold, lunches to pack, and kids who want attention. But I still manage find time to write. I’m grateful I don’t have to choose one or the other, but just rearrange what it looks like as I go through different seasons in life.
Kristin Hill Taylor believes in seeking God as the author of every story. She tells her favorite story about how God made her a mom through adoption (twice!) in an ebook called “Peace in the Process: How Adoption Built My Faith & My Family,” which is available at Amazon. God continues to surprise her with all the ways her life is nothing like she expected. Kristin lives in Murray, Kentucky, with her college sweetheart husband, Greg, and their two kids, Cate and Ben.