Blog questions

I received these two questions via email from a blog reader.

My 2 biggest questions for you would be:

1. What did you do before you were a stay at home mom? And was it an easy decision to quit/how did you know?

Right before Elijah was born, I wrote a post entitled "How I became a writer." This post basically details my life from teacher to writer to mom. I think it gives you a pretty good idea of what I did before I was a stay-at-home-mom.

I am an English teacher by profession. That is what I am trained to do. I have kept my license current so I could go back to this at any point. My switch from teacher to writer came more by chance (or God) than anything I do. I enjoy writing. I am so lucky to have gotten paid to do it. I am actually back doing a few hours of writing a week for the folks at the RLS Foundation.

As for being a stay-at-home mom, it was the only thing I really ever wanted to do. However, because I worked for home, when Isaac was born, I had the ability to drop to part-time and do it from home. It worked out really well since Isaac was such an easy kid. I think it would be much harder once they aren't sleeping half the day. When Elijah came along so quickly, it became quickly evident that I would not have the time to try to keep working. I remember having some conversations with my husband about continuing to work full-time when I had Isaac and continuing part-time when I had Elijah, but I think that was just me naively thinking I could do more than was really possible.

I have to be very honest here. I totally respect those individuals that have to work and cannot stay home. Many people do not have a choice. They need their income. However, while a second income would be nice and we definitely have to trim to make it one income (side note: my husband is a doctor but he is a RESIDENT right now. They really don't make a ton of money) I am so in love with staying home for my boys and giving up some "extras" is way worth it. I truly feel that being home with my boys is the most amazing thing I could be doing. I feel like every moment is education with them. I am reading to them, talking to them, playing with them. It is very exhausting and very busy, but I would not have it any other way. I know that I will never regret choosing to be home with them. I am so blessed to have the opportunity to stay at home. One of the reasons John chose to go back to school was because we recognized that his job as a graphic designer would not afford me the luxury of staying home with children. And I really wanted to do that.

I was never a "career" person. In fact, I often wished that I was when I was going through five years of infertility. I felt that if I had some sort of "dream", then losing the dream of parenthood would be easier for me to digest.

If you are looking for advice, my advice to any mother or father out there would be, if there is any way possible for you to stay home with your child, do it. You'll never regret it. However, if you can't, release yourself from any guilt you feel. God knows best. Do what He is leading to you to do. He will guide you. He will take care of you. I know many people who did not have stay-at-home moms and they turned out just fine.

2. How many views per day/ followers do you have on your blog?

I get approximately 400 views per day. This translates into around 3000 hits per week. Of course, this could be 1 person viewing 400 times! ;) I know many people come back a few times a day so that doesn't mean I have 400 people who read my blog. If I had to guess, I would say that I have about 250-300 regular readers.

I really try not to get hung up on who is reading my blog. I say this, and I mean this. If not one was reading it, I would still do it. It's my hobby. It's my online journal if you will. I plan, following my friend Joia's lead, to turn each year of my blog into a book that my children can have someday. So I would do this just for them.