Happy First Blogiversary, Mom's New Stage!

It's my birthday.  Fête me properly, dammit!

Late spring, 2011.  Chicago, IL.

A mother of two children under three wonders what the hell has happened to her.  She feels like a flabby, poorly dressed, irritable and exhausted shadow of her former self. She finds some of what she once was with her mom friends.  She looks further in dance classes, in stores, and at the bottom of too many bottles of wine to count.  

She finds bits and pieces, but in the words of U2, can't seem to find what she's looking for.  

Finally it comes to her. "I know!" she says, bursting with almost hubris-like sentiment. "I'll start MOMMY BLOGGING!" She decides to explore her longing to write by blogging about motherhood.  And dance.  And moms in the arts.  And other random s--t that strikes her fancy.  She plans to showcase her intriguing thoughts, and to dazzle people with the delectable soup of searing wit percolating in her little cabeza. 

She finds a name and hires a web designer, and on July 15, 2011, Mom's New Stage is born.   

As you know, that mom is me.

Over the year, it's been an education. I quickly learned that being somewhat clever and knowing how to use apostrophes and conjugate better than 75% of the U.S. population, doesn't mean that people will flock to your blog like foodies to a lobster roll truck.  I learned that the mommy blogger network, sites like Voiceboks and BloggyMoms, are indespensable to growing a blog.  I learned that you can write/do blog promotion or you can get some decent sleep (so as to avoid being a steaming cauldron of bitch energy with your kids as well as strangers the next day), but not both. 

hjdks.bvoeujves;/algv  - Ouch! Sorry. No, not a link for you to check out.  Just my barely six-hours-a-night head falling on the keyboard. 

Yes, I'm okay.  Thanks for asking.

Anyway, I am still learning about SEO and how to effectively use social media.  My skill in these areas only slightly surpasses what you'd get if you gave Atilla the Hun a Betamax.  

Humbling.

But there have been many successes too.  Four posts on Mamapedia.com  Guest posts on several very cool sites such as Full of it, Cocktails with Mom, HaHaHaiku. Profiles on the moms behind lemonade handmade jewelry and The Kids' Table, as well as mom alums of North Carolina Dance Theater and Hubbard Street.  Recognition by my peers, the super fierce-awesome, Val Curtis of Mental Chew and Kathy Radigan of My Dishwasher's Possessed, who will be including one of my posts in the third edition of their new weekly online magazine, Bonbon Break. 

Blogging is about not only building an audience, but creating, and becoming part of a community. Out of the blue people have emailed me and told me how much Mom's New Stage means to them.  An old acquaintance discovered my blog from random googling, sparking a re-friending.  And, of course, there are the my blogging BFFs - women for whom I would take a swig of bourbon and remove my own molars - even though we've never met in person.    

The connections have been immeasurably gratifying.  I love when a mom tells me that a post expressed exactly what she's been feeling. Or that I made her laugh.  

The best connection, I have to say, has been the reconnection to myself.  I was definitely in need of a new dance partner, something at this new stage of my life to devote myself to artistically.  

So happy birthday, Mom's New Stage!  Thank you for being, in terms of my creative life, a triple espresso.

And to my readers, I can't thank you enough for all your support.  It means a lot to me.

And baby, next year, we are going to WERK!


-Keesha