blogging about blogging

It is boggling the mind but this blog turned 14 two days ago. Weird. It was called „Diapers and Music“ then but while there is still music in my life there are no diapers.

I don’t feel like writing a long post and reminiscing but I did look back at the very first entries and one the I still like – and that still holds true – is the one about inner children and inner parents. So if you like you can go back and read that one instead.

Giving myself stickers on the calendar for going to bed on time still feels like a good idea…

Today it’s eleven years that I started this blog. Every year I am a little surprised by the growing number. A little like looking at my growing son who might have to start shaving in the near future.

But the blog is still the blog.

And I’m still me.

I will be turning fifty this year, that will be a milstone, and I’m busy as ever, and I think I’m better organized and more productive but who knows.

Still living in the same house, doing the same job, married to the same guy, though. There are things that I don’t want to change as well.

I really should open a bottle of champagne later to celebrate.

And everyone of you, the people who read this gets a glass (or something different if they want), and some cinnamon rolls (I’ll be baking those soon), and a big thank you for coming back here to read time and again.

Thanks.

This year marks ten years since I started blogging. I’m not quite sure if that’s a really long time or not. Ten years on the internet is rather long, isn’t it?

And when I think about how I started this when my son was three and now he is a full-blown teenager – yes, ten years is quite some time.

It is rather nice to have a place on the web that is mine, one where I can make the rules and do what I please. Of course that leads to a somewhat weird mixture of topics and also to a place where you can find an English-speaking blog and a German-speaking podcast.

Ten years ago there was almost no knitting and certainly no spinning, weaving or sewing in my life. Since beginning this blog I have gotten back to playing guitar, I have begun playing ukulele, and I’m still singing and playing the piano. The thing with the writing started the same year I started this blog. I know that because 2006 was the first time I did NaNoWriMo, my first very bad attempt at writing a novel.

I am certainly busy as ever with all the things I want to do in my life, and also all the things I need to do. But busy is good.

I’m sitting here in that quiet space between me getting up and the rest of the family rolling out of bed. It is carnival break, so I’m the only one who got up at seven. I think that might be my very favorite time of day, when I have had breakfast, and am now enjoying that bit of time and space to myself.

Getting the writing done first thing in the morning (after breakfast) is very important because it is pretty hard to fit it in elsewhere. For writing – even if it is a blog post – you need to hear yourself think, and that’s not all that easy in the hustle of everyday life.

Of course there are people who write in the evenings, and sometimes I like doing that as well, but it’s much better to do it right away in the morning. Because no matter what happens the rest of the day there’s one thing I’ve already done.

So today I will go to Munich and meet a friend whom I haven’t seen in months, and I’m really looking forward to it.

But before I go I wanted to say hello, and say thank you that you are reading here, and occasionally leave a comment, and give me the feeling I’m not all alone with the things that go round in my head.

So I’m pretty curious to see where the blog will go in the future, for now I raise my tea mug to ten years and still going strong.

Well, it’s not exactly my blog anniversary today, first the anniversary was yesterday but I was just too busy for writing a post. (Yes, I could have written it before. But I didn’t. Sorry.) And also there was one other post on the blog, a year before that. But that post sat there, lonely and sad for a year without anything else happening which is why I declared February 11, 2006 to be the birthday of this blog.

Back then the blog was called “Diapers and Music”, and was hosted on blogger. My son had just started kindergarten, and there were still diapers and zippy cups in my life. Not for long, though, which is why I changed the name of the blog. And now my son is in 5th grade, and parenting is just a little less energy-consuming, and the blog is still here.

I have been thinking of stopping it at times. Especially since I don’t post here nearly as often as I used to. I do most of my writing on ravelry these days, and anyone who wants to find out what I’m doing day in and day out can go there and post-stalk me. But as much as I like that forum I still love reading blogs as well. So even though this here blog has become mostly a place where I post my podcast (and I know I should record another episode, and I will, soon) I still want it to be blog as well.

Two people who brought home to me what I love about blogs versus twitter or Facebook or things like that were Neil Gaiman and Frau Kaltmamsell. Neil Gaiman is taking a sabbatical from twitter and such at the moment, and has therefore started to post blog entries again. I do like following him on twitter but reading his blog is just so nice. Everything in one place, and it’s a proper read, I like it very much.

And Frau Kaltmamsell is currently writing a daily journal on her blog again. She does this from time to time, and while she feels that her daily life is rather boring I love reading about other people’s days. I’m immensely curious about how people spend their days, or what they put in their bags, or the small ordinary things. I often find those details interesting, and soothing.

So I’m thinking of doing a little daily journal blogging of my own for a bit of time. I’m not quite sure I can do this, and I definitely don’t know for how long. I also am not quite sure what you, my readers, will think of this. I know that I often quit reading blogs when they are updated too often. One post a day, when it is entertaining and interesting, I can handle. Multiple posts? Then the blog better be really, really good and interesting, or mostly pictures.

But I think there should be some kind of celebration for eight years of blogging. So there will be extra posts for a while. It might be that each of them starts with, “I meant to post yesterday but then I didn’t because…” We’ll see.

Anyways, thank you a lot for reading here. Because without readers and listeners the whole blog would be rather futile. I do have a paper journal for that. Thank you for reading, and being curious about my life, and for sharing your lives back with me.