Featured Blogger: Gretchen White of Lifenut
Mile High Mamas is proud to present our next Featured Blogger: Gretchen White of Lifenut!
What is the name of your blog?
I have two blogs. Lifenut is my home blog and Snap Cake is my photo blog.
How did you choose this name?
Lifenut has nothing to do with politics or abortion. I’ve had people and blogrolls lump me into a certain political stance simply based on my name. That annoys me. Lifenut is our “family brand”. Long before I began blogging, my husband and I made mix CDs, titling them Lifenut, Lifenut Segundo, etc. based on a shorthand name my brother gave to a song we liked. Whew! When I decided to start blogging almost 5 years ago, it was a given my blog should be called Lifenut, too.
Snap Cake came from a Lifenut post I wrote about a cake my husband and oldest daughter baked while I took a nap. When I woke up, it was waiting for me. My husband wrote “Mommy’s Nap Cake” on it with icing. When I took the picture, I titled it mommysnapcake. I thought Mommy Snap Cake sounded, uh, snappy. So I used it for my photo blog.
How did you get started blogging?
I began reading blogs during the months leading up to the presidential election in 2004. I read blogs on each side of the political spectrum. At first, I thought all blogs were political. I found a few parenting blogs by accident and thought hey, I could do that. It started as a way to keep in touch with relatives and friends. I also looked at it as a good way to practice writing.
What platform do you use? (I.e. Blogger, WordPress, etc.)
I’ve always used downloadable versions of WordPress on my own domain. I had a secret, alter-ego blog for a while using Blogger, so I am familiar with how it works. I much prefer WordPress. For Snap Cake, I use Pixelpost.
What do you wish you had known when you started?
I wish I had realized how consuming blogging can be, especially at first. I walked around seeing the world through blogging eyes, looking at every trip to the mailbox or funny conversation as blog fodder. It really clouded how I interacted with people, including my family. There is an inauthenticity about living life for the good soundbite or punchy conclusion that I couldn’t stomach after awhile. Thankfully, I decided fairly early that blogging was going to be just a hobby in my life, much like one might have a hobby collecting stamps. I resolved to put blogging in its place, somewhere just below finding the best potato salad in Denver.
What blogs do you most admire?
The blogs I admire the most are the ones who have been around since I started blogging. I feel I grew up with many of them. I’ve watched their babies turn into school-aged kids. I’ve watched them go from short to long to short to long hair, pounds gained, pounds lost. I’ve read about new babies, deaths, cross-country moves, graduations. Also? There is a difference between admiring a blog and admiring a blogger.
What is your best tip for moms who are new to social media?
For the mom who is new to social media…I’d say to leave your phone at home, your camera at home, your notebook/laptop at home. Sometimes. Beware of being swept off your feet by the wiles and batting eyelashes of all these tools we have to put ourselves out there, into the big broad world. Remember home base.
[...] you do, you might want to read about me and my blogging and social media philosophy over at Mile High Mamas, where I am the featured blogger of the [...]
I so admire your moderation. You blog so well, and yet you manage all your other activities so well, too!
I needed this a few years ago: “I resolved to put blogging in its place.”
Such an excellent feature of Gretchen! I am laughing because I feel like I’ve been reading you forever and never once thought of the connection people might make with you and abortion or politics LOL.
Steph
Great interview, lady. I had not idea how you got started blogging and I agree on the time-consuming part. Once you get sucked in, you’re hooked!
I love reading how you got started! I too never thought of your name as political. I love reading your blog because it is so rounded. Never the same thing and never boring!
I love reading your blog, Gretchen! I had no idea people would assume your blog was political, either. I love the way you thought of “Snap Cake”…so sweet!
Loved hearing the “why” behind both blog names. Like the others, I never assumed it was political, but I never knew the significance.
Great advice! thank you ! I love that your husband wrote Mommy’s Nap cake, that is so thoughtful!
We love your blog and just wanted to stop and say hello!
I have ALWAYS wondered how Lifenut came into being. I’ve also never connected it to anything political or social-issue-y. Interesting.
I don’t know if I have ever told you this, Gretchen, but in one of your other (very rare) articles on blogging, you gave some advice that changed the way I blogged. You simply said, “Be bold.” That gave me the courage and motivation to go there with some of the things I talk about, and it also provided me with the guidance I needed to take on a project like Simple Kids. So thank you for that. A thousand thank you’s, actually.
SO GLAD that the election of 2004 inspired Ms. Mopsy to take up this craft.
Such sage advice on blogging! As a new blogger, I can totally relate to how you described the feeling of always having your blog hat on. It’s true, I never thought it would be so time-consuming. And, it can take over your life if you allow it to.
I’m so glad I read your interview at this time. It was like it was meant for me. I like your conclusion, to think of it as a hobby. And never let it rise above the more important things that make our house a home!
There IS something special about the bloggers that you grow up with. I love that I can mention you to Jason and though he doesn’t read your blog, he knows who you are. After all these years, I see you as my friend, and I often pray for you and your family…because you’re like family