Home School Life

A little over a week ago I set up an account with Google Analytics, and I just have to rave about it here. It is so cool! Because of this blog tracking service I know that people as far away as India, Norway, and New Zealand have visited my little blog! I know that most of my visitors live in my hometown and that my sister visits my blog a lot!

It tells me how many of the visitors I have are new and how many are returning visitors. It tells me how long, on average, people stay on a page and which pages they’re visiting most. I can even know which browsers people are using.

I find all of this information so satisfying because it is quite easy to feel like I’m posting into a void. I get a few comments, and occasionally someone in my life will reference something on my blog, but other than that I’m just not sure anyone’s reading. But it’s okay. It’s a nice little reminder that the reason I’m doing this is for the benefit of myself and my family. And we really do benefit.

Though I can definitely see how blogging could become an obsession that would chain me to the computer more time than I’d like, in many ways blogging is actually good for me. Keeping this blog is helping me to build a layer of consciousness about my life. Usually I go about my life happily, with little awareness of how I am perceived by others. I’ve realized, though, that it can be quite useful to know how others view me and that by trying to cultivate this awareness I’m just attempting to look at the world (myself) through another’s eyes. Somehow thinking this consciously is much more difficult when it gets personal, but still just as important.

Today we’re headed out to get one more present, then home to make 5! pairs of pajama pants! Think it’ll all happen before dinner? Hmmm. . .