Wednesday, March 30, 2011

To Blog or Not to Blog

As you know, I blog regularly. I think it is like an instant scrapbook for me. A way for me to instantly memorialize, categorize, and summarize what we are doing. I love it when the girls want to look at themselves on the computer and scroll through the pages. I love it when I see a freind in the courthouse who has never made a comment on the blog and she tells me "I am going to do your advent activity calendar with my kids next year." Or a deputy (again who I had no idea even knew I had a blog) tells me that the pictures of my kids are so cute. Or a neighbor tells me "I'm stealing your Parting of the Red Sea craft idea." This feedback just rocks my world!

A few weeks ago I had a blog-related crisis. Unbeknownst to me, there is apparently a limit to the amount of photographs I can upload to my blog. Who knew? Well, I reached the limit and was unable to upload any more pictures.

So, I could either stop blogging, blog only text articles, or figure out a "technology" solution. I really debated if I wanted to continue to blog as I have been, with so many pictures.

My gut reaction was that I wanted to, but I wasn't sure why I still wanted to blog. Certainly I love the feedback I get. I love participating in the online dialogue and exchange of ideas (as I have said before, nearly every single idea I have I have stolen from some other blogger). I was an English major and do like to write; the blog provides an outlet for some of my writing skills. I like the fact that I am keeping a record of what we are doing.

So, I decided I wanted to continue to blog - with all the pictures. My husband is my IT guy and he spent a lot of time trying to find another solution. We considered starting a new blog, but I kind of like having everything organized together. We tried a few systems where we can upload our pictures to a photo sharing site and then link to them on my blog. This somewhat worked, but I was unable to format my blog posts like I wanted. I am a bit embarassed to say that we spent hours trying to solve this problem, with a few arguments.

So, we finally ended up paying Google $5 a year (I know that is not a lot of money but I am cheap and wanted a free solution) to increase the amount of space my blog had. I actually was quite busy yesterday and have not had a chance to test it and make sure I can upload more pictures. I'll try very soon and get back on track!

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