~ The History of 1+1+1=1~ Part 1 ~
~ Part 2 ~
The next big fork in the road on my blog was definitely Tot School. Here is the very first post I wrote about it, which was written in February 2008…just a few months after the blog began. Here was my 2nd Tot School post, where I first mentioned the possibility of a Linky ;-). Here is the first post with Linky, with a big whopping 3 linking up! All ladies that were “friends” of mine through Little Laplinks!
By March of 2008, the Tot School button was born…thanks to Valerie! 
She created the button for me and kindly sent it to me. I was so excited and thought it was so cute—I still do! Valerie totally hooked me up as a friend, sharing her talents simply just to be nice. She inspired me to always try my best to be the same way online.
I wrote a post setting a few Tot School guidelines in April 2008, mostly for myself-so I would stick to a schedule. Tot School began posting weekly on Sunday’s then and I have never missed a weekly post! It continued to grow, and grow and evolve into the main portion of my blog. This certainly made sense and was a very comfortable place for me since I am college educated with a degree in early childhood education and am a certified Kindergarten teacher!
Soon I began getting emails and comments from readers, asking for my advice on early childhood issues. I was VERY uncomfortable with this at first. I struggle with pride and humility like any human, and it is something I really work on in my life. I NEVER want to be a know-it-all, and I was very hesitant to offer advice at all. Who did I think I was? But I prayed, talked with my husband and realized that maybe I could offer my thoughts and help someone. Here is the first time I did that publicly.
The invention of the “Tot Book” was the next milestone for this blog. 
It was one of my crazy ideas that I went with, and it too has evolved into something much bigger than I ever imagined!
The infamous “Minute-by-Minute” Tot School post was written in August 2008, and was a post I am SO glad I did. I remember it was so hard to do, but I felt led to do it. It is an old post but one that is still a top-visited post here, as I know it helps show the reality that readers need. We are not as picture perfect as we may first seem ;-). I have plans to do another post similar to this one in the fall after we get going. I’d love to give readers a real glimpse into what a day is like balancing Tot School, Preschool, and 3rd grade!
Getting pregnant with Ladybug was another fork in the road for my blog. I opened up here with my post, I am not Supermom. Soon after that post, I had to write another difficult post, entitled-Not What We Expected, which shared the news of my husband being diagnosed with cancer. This blog took much more of a personal turn than I ever expected during the cancer season of our lives. This post was the one that really showed me the value of online friends. You all became VERY REAL to me and my entire family when we all saw the results of our Prayer Geography project. It is at this point that I really realized God had bigger plans for my blog than I ever anticipated. It wasn’t about numbers {for me it never was actually}, it was about people. People were real, even if I only knew them online. I have since met a few online friends in real life, but most of you I only know online. Even more of you feel like you know me, yet I don’t know you at all. I also feel that way about a few bloggers, so I completely understand that.
In December 2008 I introduced the series, “Behind the Scenes”, 
which has turned out to be one of my favorite parts of this blog. It is a place I can reach out in a more random way, either related or totally unrelated to homeschooling. I have since written many posts for this series and I love writing them. I am a nosy person myself and I love details. I write these posts for others who might be out there like me ;-). If you ever have a topic you’d like me to write about, please email me to let me know. I keep a running list of ideas and requests I get. Sometimes I get to them, sometimes I don’t, but I definitely like hearing ideas!
2009 was a big year of transformation for this blog and my online life in general, I will save that for the next post.
Part 3 coming soon {hopefully}…
