Life at Oak Grove

What inspires me to write?  How did I start blogging?

Well it all started over four years ago.

I had a friend who was blogging already and I decided to try it out.   I was also starting to homeschool and wanted to connect with other homeschoolers.   My blog was on Homeschoolblogger back then.  I also found that blogging was a bit like journalling.

After a year, I transferred my blog to Blogger mainly because I wanted the flexibility of adapting and modifying my blog.

My friend was also working for The Old SchoolHouse Magazine and told me about a new marketing project that would be starting the following Fall.  She suggested that I try to apply on the TOS Homeschool crew to review homeschool products.   I applied and got accepted.   When the year was completed I decided to separate my reviews into a different blog and expand on it.    I was part of the TOS Homeschool Crew for three years.    And since then I have expanded my opportunities in various ways – books, food products, drink products, toys and so on.

So now I have two blogs – well make that three.

LIFE AT OAK GROVE – my personal and family blog where I write about our homeschool, participate to the Ultimate Blog Challenge, the 365 Project and share my thoughts about life.

CANADIANLADYBUG REVIEWS! – this is my review blog where I give my honest thoughts about books, products, food and so on.

MOUTHWORTHY – I started this in the Fall of 2009.   Here I try to present the restaurants we go to when the kids go to AWANA or on dates.    This is updated sporadically. 

This year, I was also approached by Woodall’s to become one of the bloggers.   This opportunity permits me to write about camping, discovering new areas with kids and so on.   LINK WOODALL’S

Now to be honest I don’t put anything and everything on my blog.  I like privacy and I am careful to respect the wishes of other people in the family (close and extended). 

My inspiration is mainly from our homeschool adventure, our travels, our camping experience, the Ultimate Blog Challenge suggestions, the 365 Project challenge – I am flexible.   

One thing I make sure I am careful with is how much time I spend to blog.   I don’t want to overdo it – so sometimes I am more quiet than other times.

Same goes with the reviews… I am very careful not to have to much of them to do.    I have reduced the quantities of reviews I do drastically since one year as I was not enjoying it as much because of the fact that it was demanding too much of my time.  Now I have strong relationships with various companies and publishers which I cherish.    More recently one publisher has changed their blogging program for international bloggers (I’m from Canada) and I won’t be able to receive real books anymore – to top it up if I take a ePub version (which is available for me to review) I will have 60 days to read it and review the book.  After that I won’t be able to access it anymore.   Such decision means that they will more than likely loose a blogger to review their books. 

I don’t know what opportunities lies ahead of me but I am keeping my eyes open and continue to seek out new products to review.