May is the my one year of intentional blogging anniversary.

That’s right, I’ve been pounding out the keys here at Holy Spirit-led Homeschooling intentionally for a year.  I thought it would be fun to share my blogging story; especially since the Lord gave me the vision for a 2nd deal & free stuff site last month, FreeHomeschoolDeals.com; and then my NASA-tweeting buddy Jenn and I bought a 3rd site together, The Homeschool Village.

  I have received a few emails wanting to know WHAT I am doing.

Has my husband left me?

Where are my children?

Do I ever leave my pajamas?

HOW many hours per day am I on the computer?

Those are great questions by the way; I figured sharing the journey that I’ve been on will help my readers understand all that the Lord has done.   My readers have been so incredibly supportive and encouraging.  One sister wrote me the other day “Thank you for all that you do.  Although I don’t see how you do it.  I’m sure you’ll write about it one day.”

So, here we go…

One Year of Intentional Blogging ~

Photo: Heather

I started Holy Spirit-led Homeschooling in Spring of 2008 on the old HomeschoolBlogger.  I started blogging as a way to share pictures and little updates from my family’s full-time travel schedule.  My hubby had a temporary job contract in-which we traveled (for FREE) for a year all over the country.  Believe me, homeschooler’s dream, we packed up our books and 3 kiddies (ages 1, 4, 7) and milked that opportunity for every learning experience that it was worth.

I played with my blog after that.  I learned about the Weekly Wrap-up and focused on reporting what we accomplished in homeschool every week.  I would look at other blogs and wonder how those bloggers were able to do product reviews, write for other sites, and share their heart on wider subjects.  Some blogs – dare I say – looked as if they may be turning a little profit too.  I’d usually leave those blogs with a glazed over look.  My head would spin; but a seed was planted…how else could blogging be used?

I’ve always had to have a creative project on the side. My parents are extremely artistic and visionary.  My mother raised and breed Arabian show horses and is a fashion designer who designed for the International Horse Show; as well as had her own fashion shows at the Kennedy Center.   I grew up with a creative role model who always had a project spinning. Now in her retirement she paints murals on barns and still trains horses.

Gabriel in Grandmother's Barn.

I don’t tame animals or sew, but whether it was online college classes, an outside ministry, or failed attempts at writing a novel, I’ve always had my own projects in the works.  In fall of 2010 I signed up to start my last 5 classes through Liberty University to pull together a slew of credits that I’ve gathered over the years between having a 2-year degree in computers, being a licensed nurse, and having many other classes.  For my early morning mommy-time creative outlet I was on the last stretch of completing my B.S. with a double-major in Education and Computer Science.

Something wasn’t sitting quite right.  I didn’t have peace about taking those last 5 classes.  I was kicking my feet; I wanted those credits! I was pregnant with our 5-th blessing, Liam Joseph (18-months now), so I knew that my hormones and “feelings” could not be trusted.  I kept pushing down this nagging desire to…to…blog.  Along with this wish to blog I’d find myself crying out to Jesus because I felt so much stored up in my heart that I couldn’t get out.

I remember praying and writing in my prayer journal dated 11/24/2010- Lord, help me get this out.  Help me find my voice.  He kept replying, “trust me” and he’d fling this blogging desire all over me.

This push to blog, to really write and share the purposes that swirled in my heart, continued to demand attention.  Around this same time I was helping my state homeschool group with their social media.  Mind you, I was just a mom with a Facebook account and no additional social media experience.  Through the work that I was volunteering to do with my state group the Lord began to train me in social media.  I learned Hoot Suite, how to manage a Facebook page and Twitter account, and I started spending time reading blogs for daily content on our state page.

In January 2011, right after I had our sweetie Liam, I decided that I was going to give it a go.  I obeyed the Lord (it happens) and dropped my last 5 college classes.  Oh, that hurt.  I felt I was so close to a goal that I had plucked away at for years.  I decided that I would follow the leading of the Holy Spirit and put my early morning hours into writing for Him.

I would blog, intentionally, for Jesus .

The very first website that responded to me was Heart of the Matter.  In March 2011 my first article Homeschooling for Free or Nearly Free was published.  I was actually embarrassed that day.  So many people came to visit Holy Spirit-led Homeschooling and I wasn’t ready.  It was like having someone show up and your house was a mess.  On that day the Lord showed me that blogging could be a powerful ministry tool, and needed to clean up my blogging house.

Day two from my One Year of Intentional Blogging story is coming up.  Don’t forget to come back tomorrow and link up your favorite post(s) for Big Family Friday!