A Nomination



It was a little over five years ago that I decided to give this whole blogging thing a go, for the all same reasons a variety of other women I know and respected did too. To document pieces of our life after children. For me, the arrival of three boys who came stacked one after another in the quick span of four years - as it unfolded in the early seasons of motherhood, when I was still prone to feeling slightly isolated by my own self doubts, alienated by daily plights and frustrations.

I settled on the name House of Habit after weeks of debate because I thought it suggested a notion of home and routine, and married my love for alteration to a site title that would later become name to our business, which in time, we would have to be alter due to a furniture hardware company overseas springing up and snagging the same name a year later. It wasn't easy for me to replace, I rearranged some letters and even embraced what the alternative represented for me as a newly adjusting suburban housewife with a penchant "for old folk songs, late nights, and long car rides" who was slowly getting use to life as a domesticated "inhabit" instead of a high school English teacher like I had planned just before the fickle seeds of fate & fortune pushed that whole plan out of frame.

In the beginning I was drawn to a few popular blogs that looked pretty on the outside but a little soulless at the center. Sites that looked like glossy television ads with enviable home decor and fine tuned lifestyles, as well as a few I stumbled upon on the other end - good, grounded gals dressed in thrift store digs spilling heartfelt sentiments and quirky outfit posts I looked forward to weekly. I figured I would try my best to carve a mark somewhere in between. To tell the life stories that appealed to me, in a narrative I let dissolve after college but still missed painfully on occasion when I faced the fact of my love for writing slipping by the wayside. Writing here, in any form, sought to feed the void that caved inside of me after becoming a mother. While learning to juggle new roles and responsibilities that left little time to for writing in any other form other than what I've managed here.

And so it goes. A small ordinary blog about an ordinary family that hung quietly on the radar without much push or promotion (because no matter how hard I try in "selling" this space, it's just not my thing) until the unexpected boom of Instagram propelled people into a dazzling web of voyeuristic cravings for glorified versions of the "every day." Giving new cred to lifestyle bloggers with a certain knack for cramming mundane highlights into a neat grid built of square space experiences, and blog audiences grew as a result. So while I still wonder at times why anyone finds anything I publish here intriguing - I try my best not to ever doubt too hard my own intuition. Because as soon as I do the passion for blogging looses all appeal for me. And while I might never manage to push this site as hard as I love it, the unique opportunities I've gained over the course have been nothing short of incredible. Five years later I'm so grateful to be making a side living from home while my boys are young, writing reviews for things I enjoy, taking photos of people I cherish, visiting places that I love, and telling the stories that move me most. As well as learning the ropes of self employment that in the past I never thought I could possibly manage. I don't question where any of it's headed, or take for granted anything it's become. All I know is that I am grateful for the organically grown community built here, readers like an extension of my real life friends and kin.

Latest reason for major gratitude being news of a House Inhabit nomination as "Most Influential Parenting Blog" on Red Tricycle's annual "Best of the Web" categories who's readership now circulates 8 million. The biggest award in the "mom blogging" community of which I'm still not sure how I was included, but wanted to give a big, genuine thank you to anyone who took the time out to vote, or who reads here or on other media sites and supports me and my family from afar. I hope you come here and find something of substance and positivity. And take the sentiments I share with a good sense of humor. It's an honor to be nominated, so however it happened, know it means more than you know.



Link to vote House Inhabit ("of habit") HERE

and for a couple other fun categories to check out Here and Here


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