First up, I have a winner to announce. The winner of The Friends We Keep (and the bonus 40-minute Bible study) is:

Comment #20 –Viv

Congrats, Viv!

Also, I found out this week that my blog has been nominated for three awards in the Book Blogger Appreciation Week Awards. I don’t know who nominated me, but whoever you are, thank you so much — I am truly honored! And judging by the other nominees I’ve seen, I know I’m in good company.

I’ll be sure to let you all know if I make it to the “finals” in one of the categories, so you can vote for me!

C. (10) has been reminding me for over a week that my 3-Year Blogiversary was coming.  I knew it was sometime in March, but he had searched back through the archives to find out exactly when I started Callapidder Days. And as you may have guessed by now, it was on March 10, 2006.

So, Happy 3rd Blogiversary, Callapidder Days!

In honor of my blogiversary, I thought I’d share some things I’ve learned from blogging and about blogging over the last three years.

1. I am apparently capable of maintaining a blog for longer than a month or so. Before Callapidder Days, I had started a few other blogs, posted a few times, and abandoned them. Why did it “stick” with Callapidder Days? I think part of it was because I had real-life friends who were blogging, too (Dianne and Jennifer are the first two I found out about). The other part was discovering the fun and community that exists in the blog world. My first exposure to that community was through Works-for-Me Wednesday (hosted for years by Shannon, and now hosted by Kristen). And from there, it just grew. Before I knew it, I was hooked.

2. I never, ever thought my reading challenges would be as big as they are. Back in the summer of 2006, I asked my friend Jennifer if she thought anyone would want to participate in a low-pressure, fun reading challenge. She encouraged me to pursue it, and Fall Into Reading was born. Little did I know that a couple years later, hundreds of participants would show up for my twice-yearly challenges and that I’d be able to give away all kinds of great books every year. These reading challenges have been one of the most exciting and fun parts of the blogging adventure!

3. I’m still insecure about my posts sometimes. You’d think that after three years of blogging, I could just write posts, get them out there, and forget about them. But that’s not true. Sometimes, as soon as I hit the “Publish” button, I begin thinking, “Oh, that post was so lame. Why did I even write that?!” And then, if I only get one or two comments, or if I don’t get any comments for hours and hours and hours, I convince myself that it was the Stupidest Post Ever and that no one will ever visit my blog again because it is Lame-O. Ugh. I hate that. I want to just “write for myself” — write what is on my heart or what made me laugh, without worrying about what others think.  To be honest, I often do. But not always. I still love comments and love thinking that people enjoy my posts. It’s that annoying pride creeping in again, I guess.

4. Blogging isn’t all or nothing. I can’t even remember all the times over the last three years when I came thisclose to quitting the blog. Many things prompted those near-blog-abandonments: no time, no mental energy, thinking maybe I should focus my creative energy on something else, deciding I simply had nothing left to say. But I could never quite bring myself to walk away. Instead, I’ve learned that I can take breaks, I can do easy posts like pictures of my kids, I can post twice a week instead of five times a week. I don’t have to be A Daily Blogger or No Blogger At All. I can blog in a way that works for me, and works with whatever my current circumstances may be.

5. Blogging can take up lots of time, even more time than it should. This is one area I still struggle with. Back when we were new to the blogging world, Jennifer and I would email each other about trying to find balance — we were trying to figure out how to read and comment on all the blogs we liked, maintain our own blogs, & grow our blogs a bit…. while still taking care of our home and family responsibilities. It’s not an easy thing to achieve, at least not for me. At this point, I’ve achieved a kind of balance, but it’s not always satisfying. It seems that there are three areas of blogging for me: writing for my own blog, reading the blogs of others, and commenting on other people’s blogs. And I can’t seem to do more than two of them at the same time. If I’m keeping my “computer time” in check, I just can’t manage to do all three. Right now, I’m posting fairly regularly, and I’m reading blogs often, but I don’t comment very much. I don’t like that (especially since I just noted in point #3 that I love to get comments on my own blog), but I haven’t found another  solution that works. Perhaps sending my kids off to boarding school would give me more time, but then I wouldn’t have them around to give me blog post ideas, so I’d be right back where I started. Besides, I kind of like having them around.

6. I am a geek. Okay, I guess I always knew I was a little bit of a geek, but blogging has driven that point home even more. I’ve discovered that I love tinkering around with design and code and CSS and all kinds of things that I knew nothing about three years ago. I’ve gone from having a standard “out of the box” Blogger template, to working “under the hood” of WordPress, modifying my theme extensively. I’m definitely not a graphic designer and have very little sense for what “looks good,” but I still have fun playing. I enjoy everything from creating my reading challenge buttons to making little tweaks to what happens when you hover over a link in one of my posts. See? Total geek.

7. Blogging has been a positive thing for our family. As long as I’m keeping that aforementioned “computer time” within reasonable limits, blogging has been a good thing as far as family goes — both immediate and extended. C. (10) is one of my blog’s biggest fans and checks it first thing most mornings, to see if I have a new post up. He also likes to engage in “bloggy talks” with me, which I always enjoy.  Chad likes seeing what I’m thinking about, especially if he’s out of town. (And he loves seeing pictures of the boys when he’s gone.) Other family members get to see a different side of me through the blog — one that’s maybe a bit sillier or a bit more opinionated. And from what they tell me, they like that. (And if they didn’t like it, they probably wouldn’t tell me anyway, because then I’d blog about them!)

8. I appreciate all the people who stop by to read Callapidder Days. Honestly, I can’t say this enough. To all of you who visit my blog, read my posts, join in the reading challenges, and/or leave comments: Thank You! While blogging in invisible obscurity would provide some small amount of enjoyment, it is so much more wonderful to share this adventure with all of you. I am incredibly honored that you take the time to read the words I manage to string together.