Make My Saturday Sweet - Blog Hop #52 ~ Amanda's Books and More

Friday, October 4, 2013

Make My Saturday Sweet - Blog Hop #52

Welcome to my weekend blog hop! Here you get to link your favorite post of the week and share it with other bloggers. Just remember to visit the last two links before yours and leave a comment and make their Saturday sweet!

Again I'm joining two great hops today and I've taken the challenge of answering their writing prompts for this Friday. My own hop doesn't have a theme, so you are welcome to link your family friendly blog below.

It's Create With Joy's 4th Blogaversary

and the theme for this week's

Friendship Friday is on blogging!

This is what she says about her 4 years of blogging and I totally agree with her, "Blogging keeps my life fresh. It opens doors to amazing opportunities, people, and friendships. It gives me the confidence to try new things. It widens my perspective. It gives me something to look forward to each day!"

Here are her questions for the rest of us:

•How long have you been blogging?

•What was your first blog post about?

•How many posts have you written?

•What is your favorite topic to blog about?

•How has blogging changed your life?

I've been blogging for a year-and-a-half now. I began in February 2012, a few weeks before Amanda's 4th birthday. My first posts were very short and posted on the same day. They were meant to be linked together, but I was new to blogging and didn't really know what I was doing. I've put them in order below. Just click on the title and it will take you to that page.

Thinking About Having Another Child?

Surprise, I'm Pregnant!

Choosing a Name for This Blog

Amanda's Favorite Things

I've written nearly 230 posts. My favorite topic to write about is my youngest daughter, Amanda, and the rest of our family is a close second. Blogging has allowed me to share the wonder of being a mother to Amanda and my other 3 kids. I also made many friends and have enjoyed their blogs too. For me, taking photos and writing about my kids on blog posts is like scrapbooking. Interestingly, I'm sharing one of my scrapbook pages with you today for the other writing prompt that I'm participating in.

Here's my latest answer to Finish the Sentence Friday.

The hardest choice I ever made was…
…deciding to stop breastfeeding my first baby, Jeremiah, after 4 months. I had high hopes of being a wonderful mom and giving him a good start in life. I read all the reasons why breast is best and endured endless painful breastfeeding sessions. He had colic and the first time I breastfed it felt like fire was coursing through my breast. No one had ever told me that it could be painful. Also, my nipples became raw and bled from the constant sucking from my fussy baby. I bought nipple shields made of silicon from the pharmacist, which I didn’t even know existed until I had the problem.

In my ideal world, I was going to breastfeed until he reached the age of one. However, I couldn’t take it anymore and finally quit. I was too hard on myself, at the time, but I didn’t have a support group. The only women I knew who were “supportive” were the ones promoting purely breastfeeding without the use of bottles and formulas in between.