Wow! I can’t believe I’ve been telling our story online at LaughWithUsBlog for five whole years! So much has happened in these years. There has been five years of changes in the kids, the birth of my youngest, and you went through three miscarriages with me, so much!
This blog has opened up our world. I went from being a stay at home mom who rarely left the house and had to say no to most activities because of the cost to being able to do lots of exciting things on a regular basis. As I thought over the last five years the absolute best thing that I’ve had the opportunity to do though my blogging was to travel to Peru with Operation Christmas Child on a sponsored trip. What a blessing! A few other things that have been incredible are working with Silver Dollar City and Explore Branson for an unforgettable family vacation, being a Busch Gardens Tampa Ambassador in 2014, a SeaWorld Texas Ambassador in 2015, and most recently a LeapFrog Ambassador–you will hear more about that soon!
I began this blog as a business. This was my intention from the beginning, and I was always open about that. As a business the income from my blog is so much more than I ever dreamed it would be. In fact, this last month was my highest paying ever making over $1000 more than my previous highest paying month. Have y’all seen our 12 year old van? I’m thinking I’m going to be making a down payment on something else pretty soon. Ha ha! I am so, so thankful to God for this avenue of income, and I really love what I do.
Keeping the blogging life balance. With that said, it is a constant goal of mine to keep the balance of home, family, and homeschool life. This blog thing will take over your life if you let it! It could very easily be a full time job for me right now, but I limit myself to an average of 10-15 hours per week. That’s it. Though I love my online work, my family is more important right now.
Ideally I would blog several times a week with a variety of posts including our latest laughs, travel, recipes, marriage, etc. That is sort of a goal, but realistically I’m a tired mom, and you usually just get my life such that it is. If I’m traveling, you get travel posts. If I’m cooking, you get food. If I’m going through tough times, you hear that. If I’m receiving lots of sponsored opportunities you hear about those. It’s not always what you want. I get that. Yeah, I actually read your complaints. 😉 My goal has never been to build the best website, write a book, or try to become famous. I just want to make an income writing about what I love. Pretty simple. And guess what? I feel so blessed to be able to do just that!
Through the years I have lost and gained readers. I get that too. Life is short. Don’t waste your time reading something you don’t enjoy or find beneficial, but to you that still stop by and read my stories thank you so much. I appreciate your every word of encouragement!
I don’t know what the next five years will bring. This business may continue to grow or unforeseen events may bring an end to it all. But I hope that at least some of you will still be with me for the next half decade of our lives. May we glorify God!
Thank you, thank you, thank you to each of you who has shared the journey with me!
You actually receive complaints about your blog???
I find your blog both enjoyable to read AND beneficial, Esther!!
Thanks for writing and for sharing ~ I’ll definitely keep reading = )
Ha ha! Occasionally, yes! Thank you so much Deb! You have certainly been an encouragement to me through the years. So glad we met on BlogFrog, seems so long ago. 🙂
How neat to be able to write about what you like and make money doing it for 5 years! I wish I could be that fortunate.
It is neat, and I do feel very fortunate. I really believe anyone can do what I’m doing. It takes time, research, and a lot of work, but anyone can do it! There is nothing extra special about me. And that is what is so great about this business, we all have something to share.
I witness up close the struggle it is to balance blogging with homeschooling five kids in five different grades. On the mission field I did some homeschooling, but never all four kids at once. I wrote many thank you letters and newsletters about our activities and that without a computer. Still not even close to all you juggle. I’m very proud of you!