The History Behind Mom Grows Up

So…You are a writer now…?

I think it’s time we discussed the history behind my blog. It was a combination of many things, really, but the number one reason I started this blog was because we were broke. HA! I wish I could say it started as a passion project, but it truly did not.

When given the choice to do nothing or to work, I will always choose nothing. It’s not that I’m lazy, or maybe I am, but I’d rather answer to no one and do what I want. Being a techie blogger was never in the cards because I’m terrible at both technology and writing! So I guess you could say I nailed it with my “career” choice. 

once upon a time I was a teacher

But when we had kids, I was happy to walk away from my job as a teacher to stay home. Money never meant much to me, and I didn’t love teaching anyway. I was fine not having a lot and not going on elaborate trips as long as we could pay our bills. I started brainwashing my kids into believing Disney World was a marketing scheme from the time they turned 3, I mean, I was serious about the sacrifice it would take to stay home. We were crammed into an 1,100 square foot house, but we were happy. 

Until I started homeschooling, and I quickly realized if the kids weren’t going to school, they needed somewhere to be free and away from me. I wanted them to have woods to roam, trees to climb, creeks to splash in, and space to become individuals. Meaning, we had to get out of our small house on a small lot. The kids would need some space – from us and from each other. 

Then an opportunity too good to pass up came around: a house with acreage that was only 5 minutes from my husband, James’, office. This house was exactly what we needed, and it was now or never. Everything about it was perfect…

except the cost.

It would literally double our mortgage! After all the bills and groceries for the month were taken care of, we would only have about $200 left over each month. We were no strangers to money being tight, and we always managed before, so James and I took our chances and bought the house. 

Then some unexpected home maintenance and repairs got the best of us, and suddenly we had NOTHING left over at the end of the month. We were no longer tight, we were TIIIIIIGHT. Considering I was homeschooling and our kids were so little, I had to find a way to bring in some extra cash by working from home. We didn’t need a ton, but just enough to not feel like we were in a 1800s women’s corset, if ya know what I mean. 

I began searching online for “at-home” jobs.

If you’ve ever done this, you understand how I eventually arrived at blogging. They make it look so easy, don’t they? Before I finally settled on blogging, however, I tried all kinds of other shenanigans – VIP Kids, online tutoring, surveys, mystery shopping, and the list goes on.

Finally, I committed to blogging. It seemed simple enough, except for one small detail. I had no clue what to blog about. What the heck would I even share? What could someone possibly learn from me? My life was/is kind of a mess.

Enter BBG

Well, at the same time I decided to start blogging, I also started the BBG exercise program, and was still in my disillusioned phase of weight loss. The one where I actually believed I’d be a success story in a mere 3 months. I had a light bulb moment and decided what I would blog about – weight loss and fitness.

“I will dramatically change my body, forge a path to weight loss success, and have all the answers. People will naturally come to my blog for advice. Then, I will give them x,y,z to do in order to succeed like me. I will make money from this…somehow” Oh my gosh, I had so much to learn. And that, my friends, is the premise behind my blog’s name. To learn things and do better: to grow up.

The plan was to wow the people with my fitness/weight loss transformation, but I wouldn’t stop there. I was also going to change habits in all realms of my life and share what methods worked for me along the way. The blog would be about everything from budgeting, to housekeeping, to homeschooling, to parenting. Off I went bravely, yet naively, to figure out how to change my life, and share what I learned in the process. 

Now that I knew what to write about, the rest would be easy…right? So once again, I found myself in #poorJames wallet as he slept, in the wee hours of the night, retrieving his credit card in order to buy a website domain name. “MomGrowsUp” was born, May 2018. It’s crazy to think this blog is 2.5 years old now. They grow up so fast.

the blog took off!

And the next month, just as the web had promised, I was making money. Not! Of course I floundered. Not only was the technology side the most frustrating thing I’d ever encountered in my entire life, but I no longer knew what to write! I had major writer’s block, and I couldn’t think of a single thing to say.

It usually went down like this: I’d open my computer screen, stare at it with dead fish eyes for about 20 minutes, shut the screen, and walk away. The first post I wrote was “WW vs MyFitnessPal.” Funnily enough, it’s still my most popular post to date. In fact, if you google “MFP vs WW” in any variation, my page is around the top on the google search! I have no idea how that happened. 

That first year I only wrote a handful of posts. My blog averaged about 10 views a month from strangers because my family and friends never read it and still don’t to this day! Hahaha! It was a raging success, lemme tell ya.

I barely worked on it that year, so I don’t know why I expected different results. I probably thought I’d fall bass ackwards into success, but that obviously didn’t happen. That rarely happens. It’s a lot like dieting and working out, isn’t it? We barely put forth any effort, hardly make any sacrifices, and feel gypped when we don’t get results. Face. Palm.

As far as my “fast transformation” getting me readers, that was another fail. Probably on account of my not transforming. I was still at the same weight I was when I started. Hahaha! So now I had a blog, no inspirational story to show everyone how great I was, and zero ideas about what to write. Wonderful.

For a moment it looked like I had just wasted money on this, but for some reason, just like with BBG, I didn’t quit. Sure, I toyed with the idea of giving up, but like usual, I kept on with the philosophy that something is always better than nothing. And maybe this would eventually pay off if I just kept going.

So I kept going.

Then, 1 year after I purchased the blog, a miracle happened: I made my first 50 bucks! It was now June of 2019. I wondered, Could this thing actually work…if I put more work into it? Each month for the rest of that year I continued to make at least 50 bucks! By the end of 2019, I had made a whopping 450 dollars since the beginning! Wow!

I’m sure you are all thinking this is a flop of a success story (but hey, I never said it was a success story, just a history lesson). The thing is, it really was a success! I was somehow making money writing random posts, when I felt like it, on a blog that looked like a third grade project. I had kept at it, just like I kept at it with my fitness, and I was actually getting somewhere. Man, these two journeys truly parallel each other! 

As I continued working on my blog and fitness, something incredible happened. I started learning. I learned about blogging, weight loss, and myself. Finally, I stopped feeling the pressure to follow in everyone else’s footsteps. Their footsteps might have led them to weight loss and blogging success, but they aren’t me! I was never a follower before, so why am I following now?

No wonder I felt so uncomfortable. It was time for me to forge my own path, both in weight loss and on the blog. I decided I was just going to do what made me happy and others could come along if they felt compelled. And if not, no biggie. This was for me now. All of it.

Things slowly started changing

The more I stayed true to myself, the more views I got on the blog, and I started to find my footing. I also started to slowly achieve weight loss success. Seems that people didn’t need another inspirational, unattainable transformation journey. They needed someone they could relate to. Someone who struggled, and took their sweet time, but still made progress.

People wanted relatable stories to show them they could do it, too. Turns out, I’m just the person for the job! In fact, for the first time in my life I would say I’m overqualified. Not only that, but for the first time in my life I found a job I actually wanted to do! I had learned a ton, made progress, started to grow up, and now I finally felt like I could help people…like I had something to say.

Where I’m at today

This year, my blog has quadrupled in profit to $200/mo. I understand that may not seem like much to some, but for me and James it provides the wiggle room we so desperately need. When we did our budget last month, James saw how my blog was the only reason we could afford to go out to eat now and then, or visit friends. He was thankful, and I was thankful that I started blogging and never quit.

In addition to helping make ends meet, this blog has been instrumental to my fitness journey. My blogging and weight loss endeavors have been on similar paths with a similar theme since the beginning: never quit. Whether it is good, bad, or ugly, just don’t quit and you will eventually get somewhere.

Perhaps in another year’s time, I will have 6-pack abs, and my blog will bring in a thousand bucks a month. Wouldn’t it be incredible if both these little projects, that started in the wee hours of the night, with no direction, actually got somewhere? I think so. But even if things stay just as they are, I’m super proud that I started, and that I continue to learn, grow, and try my best.

Follow me on Patreon because I’m still on a fitness and weight loss journey!