Hi guys,
Wow! Today marks my 100th blog post.
On the top right of my blog you can see when I started – 7 May 2017.
Over 19 months of consistent work and reflection 🙂
I made the goal of making a weekly blog post and getting to 100 posts before I review how it’s been going.
I think I missed maybe 2 or 3 weeks due to having a baby (Jan 2018) and being overseas for my Grandma Taina’s funeral (Sept 2018).
It’s gone so quickly and my confidence is growing slowly over time although I still get butterflies when I post something new to you guys 😉
So what Leki and I thought would be cool would be to share how we organise these weekly posts.
Here’s how we do it:
- DIY website
- Organising our time to plan the content
- Tidying things up
Make your own website
First step is either buy your own domain or start blogging on a shared platform like www.blogger.com!
What’s a domain? It’s the www.yourname.com.au in the address bar of your web browser.
I thought MyWifeLife was cool and after I searched for whether it was available – to my surprise it was 🙂
I used GoDaddy.com for my web hosting and domain registration.
The second thing I did was sign up with WordPress.com and started playing around with my website design and layout.
Now I understand it’s pretty basic at the moment.
I’ll be working on making it a bit more ‘beautiful’ in 2019 but I wanted to get the regular weekly posting under control first before I worry about the fancy stuff 😉
And that’s it.
Think of a domain name, register it, buy and design your website and publish interesting information so people can relate to you.
Planning & Blogging
This is very much a team effort.
Leki and I work on this project together and we really enjoy it!
Why?
Because we talk about what we’d like to share and it keeps us close when we have deadlines to meet.
The constant planning and communication is something that helps us in our relationship as a couple, improving on things individually, gives us a direction on how we want to parent our kids and allows reflection on how we can be there for our friends and family.
Let me give you some examples.
On the individual level I’m not very good at spelling. I’ve written before that I don’t even know how I passed high school and got my VCE certificate. That’s not a joke I should have failed English and Maths… easily.
So when Leki told me I should start a blog and that it’ll help you with your confidence I didn’t believe him. I was too worried about my own insecurities to see how it can be a valuable teacher.
For the first 6 months I struggled to post up a selfie on my blog site (although I do selfies all the time).
I’ve now grown to a place where I can start to make short video messages (vlogs) which 19 months ago would have NOT BEEN A REALITY… believe me!
In terms of documenting our lives it’s been such a great tool to reflect on how my kids are growing among other things.
Do you remember when your child started crawling and then began hauling himself up but isn’t quite walking? I forgot to document that stage of child development with my 3yo Emelina and now my 11mo Kyneton is not far from being up and walking and so I can share his milestones with you but more importantly keep it as a record on my blog forever!
I have visions of keeping this blog for the next 21+ years so I can bring up these old stories on their birthdays 🙂
At the couple level – it gives us an incentive to stay connected. Leki writes the blog and I read and review it. I then add my own phrases and give feedback before adding some photos and shooting my little video message to partner this blog post 🙂
2019-onward
So right now Leki and I spend about 2 hours a week on this project.
Leki spends an hour writing it.
I spend an hour reading, uploading photos and shooting/editing the video.
That’s it.
We then put it up and see how it goes 😉
I really hope you continue to enjoy witnessing our little project and I’m excited for what’s to come in 2019 and beyond!
As a last comment I do strongly recommend you try and start your own blog because the benefits from it outweighs the negatives.
I thought I should keep my details private. Nope, you know what suburb I live in and what my family gets up to.
I thought I could get by having a blog without having to do selfies or shoot videos with my wrinkly face 😉 Nope, you’ve seen me up close and personal.
I thought I’d never have the confidence to spell, write and speak to people that aren’t friends or family without exposing my failure of being a poor student. Nope, I did it anyway.
You can share things that help you and others which is very rewarding… just with a little effort and steady consistency.
I love you all.
With love,
Belinda xo