10 Things I’ve Learned through the Simply Me Project

With the 1 year anniversary of my blog drawing near, I’ve been thinking a lot about what I’ve learned over the past several months. I’ve been kicking myself because I’m not going to finish within the year. But when I read the posts from the beginning of my blog, I realize that my point wasn’t to achieve the goal of cooking all the recipes in Simply in Season. It was to have fun doing it; to learn something along the way. I definitely have! When I started this project, I didn’t even know what a blog was until I heard about Julie & Julia. It began as a way to keep track of the recipes, to keep myself accountable for actually finishing (not sweating it too much if I didn’t meet the deadline). It has definitely been a learning experience. Here’s what I’ve discovered:

1. I love to write. Growing up, I wanted to be a journalist or a writer. Then, in college, I was drawn to public relations. I ended up in marketing and then fund raising after college. For the first part of my career I wrote a lot of marketing copy, but now days I really don’t get to write that much. I had forgotten how much I love it.
2. I love to read. I love getting books to review. I love reading other people’s blogs. Now I have an excuse to do it.
3. I love to cook. OK not the super complex recipes, but the simple ones that taste great and don’t take too much time. Surprisingly enough, I put baking bread into that category. Actual hands-on time isn’t very much when you let the KitchenAid do the kneading.
4. I love living in Michigan. I have always loved the four seasons, and now I am able to celebrate them by eating the vegetables that ripen at certain times. The diversity is incredible.
5. I love making new friends. DH used to tell me that I was a hermit. But I have met some great friends through blogging; many of whom I get to meet up with once a month at our West Michigan blogger meetups. I also go to the Slow Food Book Club meetings when I can, even though I didn’t know a single person when I started. I thought it would be good for the blog, so I went.
6. I love Twitter. I used to think it was the dumbest thing ever. I would tell people it was pointless; that I really don’t care what people eat for breakfast. Now that I’ve discovered HootSuite and how to search so it’s not just a jumbled mess, I LOVE it. Someone compared it to a cocktail party; I tend to agree. It’s a great way to meet new friends. (See #5. Many of my new blogging friends are on Twitter and it’s a great way to keep in touch).
7. Portion Control is key. Despite eating much healthier foods, DH and I have not lost any weight. I realize it’s due to us eating pretty much the whole recipe, no matter what the number of servings is. This is something we definitely need to work on.
8. You can make money blogging, but it takes a lot of work. And a lot of time. And a lot of luck. I’m definitely not going to quit my day job any time soon.
9. What vegetables and fruits are available in which seasons. I know, it seems so simple.  But I never really paid attention before.
10. More than I ever wanted about HTML and the technical side of things.

So what’s next? I’m not going anywhere, but I am looking forward to expanding  the sources of my recipes.

This post linked to Gratituesday, Top 10 Tuesday and Works for Me Wednesday

You may also like:

1. Update on the Simply Me Project
2. Simply Me project udpate: 3 months in.
3. 10 Things I Learned at the Food Blog Forum Seminar
4. Simply Me: A year of eating locally . . . mindfully . . . simply.
5. Hangover Brunch, Alice Waters, and Pages Project