Ways my life has changed since I started blogging

I've been writing this blog for over a year now. To be honest I'm very surprised with myself that I've kept it going this long, especially after my previous blogs fizzled out very quickly. The difference this time is that instead of just writing to myself I've discovered that there is a whole world of blogging out there that I wanted to be a part of. I've really found myself part of a community, and although I'm only at the bottom end of the scale I'm loving being a part of it.

I started this blog at the very beginning of my maternity leave, which probably helped because being away from work meant that my life is centred upon my family and home. I'm back at work now, but now that I've laid the foundations I think that it will be much easier to continue.

Before blogging I used to spend a lot of time faffing about online anyway, so at least now this faffing has a focus. I have also noticed many other ways in which my life has changed since I started blogging:

• I take a lot of photographs. I particularly now photograph everyday things, rather than just special occasions.

• I don't devote as much time to the baby journals as I used to. Writing the blog has proven to be a much better way to document events in the life of our young family. The main benefit is that photographs can be added instantly, rather than having to wait to get them printed out. My intention is to look into getting this blog, or at least parts of it, printed out so that I have a permanent record to keep (please do let me know if you have any recommendations for companies that can do this!).

• I must admit that sometimes I organise an activity or trip out for the sole purpose of blogging about it.

• But because of this we've done lots of things that we perhaps wouldn't otherwise have done.

• I joined Pinterest around the same time as I started the blog, and I've already done many of the activities that I've pinned. Pinterest is full of ways to entertain children, crafts for children and craft inspiration for myself. I've also found lots of new blogs through it.

• Related to that, I've also picked up my crafting a lot more. I enjoy blogging about things that I've made, and it inspires me to get things finished so that I can share them. I still spend time crafting in my evenings.

• I've found that bloggers and tweeters are a lot more honest about sleeping habits than real life friends. I take enormous comfort from reading my Twitter timeline first thing in the morning, particularly at the weekend, and seeing that many other people have also suffered from disturbed nights. Perhaps people are more willing to admit to these things from behind a screen rather than face to face.

• Talking of Twitter, I didn't see the point before I started blogging. Now I'm there throughout the day, lurking away and trying to pluck up the courage to join in a conversation. I thought it was just a place to shout about what you were up to, but in reality it reminds me of the old AOL chatrooms that I used to frequent in the early days of the internet when hardly anyone was using it.

• I used to lurk a lot on forums and would never actually take part. Now I'm much more confident about joining in with discussions online and I really enjoy it.

Fellow bloggers, what has changed in your lives since you started your blog?