The Blog Project Year in Review

Remember the blog project I did in 2010 with three other women? Well, Froggie decided to resurrect it with me and we each got to invite another friend to join us. She invited a mutual friend (someone I met through her) and I invited a friend whose blog I really enjoy reading. So now it's Froggie, Mom of Many, Moma Rock and Merrylandgirl. Hope you enjoy the topics that we'll be exploring!

This week, Froggie picked the topic: Since it's our 52nd post: Write about your thoughts on the past year of this project.

(The other option was to rewrite a post we didn't feel 100% happy with the first time around. However, I haven't really felt that way about any of my posts.)

Before reading ahead, first see what everyone else had to say on this topic:
Froggie
Mom of Many
Moma Rock

I want to thank Froggie for resurrecting the blog project in the first place. I’ve had a lot of fun working on the posts and I look forward to Thursdays, when I get to share them. I don’t post as much on my blog as I used to, so this is a good way to keep it current. I also look forward to learning what the next topic will be each week and then getting to write about it. The ladies in this group (including myself) have picked some fun, as well as thought-provoking topics.

Ironically, I actually did re-do a post, but it was one from my previous blog project. When Mom of Many picked the “theme song” topic, I had told her that we did it already, but to be fair, she wasn’t involved in the first blog project group. (Neither was Moma Rock.) So I went with the post and had even more fun writing it the second time around. I felt the song I chose was even more fitting to my personality. It inspired me to buy the CD with that song on it and I still think about that post when I listen to it.

Some of my favorite posts over the past year:
*The one where we had to share what flaw we’d wear on a T-shirt. Froggie got this idea from “Glee.”
*TV show, book or movie most like your life. I chose “Desperate Housewives” at the time, but am thinking how glad I am that it’s nothing like my life this season. Things can change a lot in a year…especially on a TV show!
*Dinner with anyone dead or alive, courtesy of Mom of Many. I enjoyed writing this post and thinking about my grandma and how she’d fit into my current lifestyle.
*Disney character most like myself. I learned more about how I was like Belle than just the book connection.
*Looking back on the past 10 years, thanks to Froggie. It was fun to reflect upon, especially after reading “What Alice Forgot.”
*Favorite Things. I enjoyed doing this one a lot and also reading everyone else’s responses. It seemed like people really got into this topic a lot and were creative about it too.
*Celebrity doppelgangers, thanks to Moma Rock. I knew mine for a while already, but still enjoyed writing about it.

There weren’t any topics I didn’t like, but I will admit that Moma Rock challenged me a lot to think outside my comfort zone. The first time was when she asked about a strange custom that is normal for me. It wasn’t something I thought about much, but I did come up with an idea and went with it. I still hold true to this idea! Then she asked us to be food critics for an imaginary restaurant. I have a hard time describing food to make it sound enticing, so this was definitely a challenge. When I had to write about plastic surgery, I revealed a lot about myself. (I’m not linking to that post here, but if you want to see it, you can do some research.) Talking about safety was such a broad topic that it was hard to narrow it down. I found a way, but felt I probably missed some things. Not enough to want to do over the post, but after reading other people’s posts, I felt like I went off course with the topic in some way. Froggie and Mom of Many also challenged me with some of their topics. (The only reason I’m not implicating myself is because I only picked topics I could easily write about, even if they were a challenge for others.) Back in September, Froggie gave us the topic of “Sexuality” and kept it open ended. I did not feel comfortable writing about it on a personal level, especially given who could read it from my neighborhood. So I went with the pop culture side of it. Mom of Many asked about toughness in females, which wasn’t something I thought about much either.

Overall, I am really enjoying this blog project and am excited to see where it will take us this coming year. I still have a huge list of topic ideas, even though others come to me and I abandon the idea I had for something that blew it out of the water. I hope to use more of my ideas for topics this year though. I can’t wait to hear what topics the other ladies have in store, as well. I’m sure they’ll be fun, unique and challenging.