Tag, I'm it

I was honored to recieve a tag from my new mom blogger pal, Tracey, over at morethanaminivanmom, on my top 5 reasons for blogging. I've been thinking long and hard, and like the game of movie tag I played recently, I'm hoping that it will motivate me well past my writing about it. So here goes:

1. I have great material. My son has been making me laugh on a daily basis since he pooped loudly into the microphone of our new videocamera at age 2 weeks. More than anything else in my life, parenting has formed me into a new person, and I find it to be the most inspiring, boring, crazy making, thought provoking, challenging, gut-bustingly funny gig around.

2. I like the feeling of community that I get with blogging. Not that there are a whole lot of people who read my blog, but there are lots of blogs that I like to read. We recently moved to a new state, and while we wait to make the kind of friends that only time will allow, I have found camaraderie here online. Before Joe-Henry was born, I was an actress, doing mostly stage work, and there is a wonderful community of artists whose company I truly enjoyed. After Joe-Henry was born, I found that community again with other moms, and it was so comforting the first time he pushed me to the limits of my patience to find that while it wasn't fun, it also wasn't the lonely experience it could have been. I wanted to rejoin the land of grown up women again, too, and blogging has helped me with that so much. Women bloggers, in particular, especially the nice, funny smart ones that I've met online, always chime in after a particularly stressful post, and while I don't feel "absolved", I do feel "resolved".

3. Per number 2, I am inspired by the things I read every day from each of you. Suttonhoo's blog detritus is always, always giving me great stuff to think about and ponder, and pretty pictures to look at to boot. I live for my Mondays, when I read Catherine Newman at Wondertime, and I love checking in daily with my blogger pals morethanaminivanmom and Franklin5. I think of blogging as my way of contributing to the conversation of these incredibly bright, thoughtful, witty women.

4. It's a break from the monotany of housework, although I have stopped using it as an excuse to not get anything done, and think of it as my coffee break. My time where I can check in with my brain and my heart, and stop obsessing over that fact that I am the only one in our house that knows how to load and unload the dishwasher. It gives me perspective and a sense of value.

5. I like to write. Who knew? My husband has always been an incredibly gifted writer, and I felt sort of intimidated at the thought of putting it all out there. I feel challenged to do better each day, to find a different way to say something, to do something for someone reading that might take them out of (or into) their experience a bit. It's a creative outlet, and I find I'm a lot more fun to be around if I've had some of that kind of time for myself each day.

So those are my reasons. I'd tag someone, but the only people who chime in regularly here have already been tagged recently, so I'll leave it to you - if you read this, and the question inspires you to answer, have at it!