I want to laugh at myself.... and some of you too!

Back in June when I was at the CyberMummy conference, I grouped with a load of other awesome bloggers and had my photo taken by the talented Jay. Well now Tara and Jay have gone and made a calendar of all the photos taken and I just know I am going to look truly awful!  Not because Jay will have made me so (I did ask her if she could skim off a few stone but she was not seeming too accommodating with that) but because that is what happens with me and photos and I am sorting of hoping there might be a few others who product cracking photos in this calendar, as boy I need a jolly good chuckle at the moment.  Aren't I mean?

Anyway mean or not, I am able to get my grubby mitts on a calendar by writing a post about my blogging inspiration and posting a photo that sums up my blog.  I did that once before for Tara's gallery and I have written a few posts around why I blog but basically I blog for many reasons.

Fundamentally, for me, my blog is Church, it is the place I share my faith and try to show people that Christians are pretty normal too, we have imperfect lives and we keep on failing but we pick ourselves up and try to do better the next time. Someone once left me a comment saying that they avoided my blog for a long time as my strap line advertises me as a a Christian and this put them off as they expected to get preached to and then once she started to visit she found she loved the warmth of my blog and kept coming back.  Perfect, that warmth is my faith.

My blog is also my personal therapist, all those things I would love to say to someone who would sort my head out get blurted out here and it makes me a tad vulnerable but it helps so much.  I just worry about giving my poor mum a heart attack.  I actually think the day anyone has to really worry about me is when I choose not to write it down and to push it under the carpet and hide.

My blog is also a personal account of my family life, I love to share my children's milestones here and to show photos to my family and friends who live far away. When I take the time to read back over posts from years ago it is amazing to find that I remember that Miss E used to refer to me as 'my darling' when she was 2.  Something I had forgotten and would have lost if it had not been for my treasured blog.

Then lastly my blog has opened up a whole new world for me, both in terms of new friends across the world (some I have met and see often and some I have never yet met but feel very comfortable and happy with) and in being paid for my writing skills and being seen as an inspiration to so many people.

Life has changed a lot since I started this blog back in February 2008, it was definitely one of the best decisions I have made....