Five years ago today, I began posting on this little site called Brown Sugar Toast. 800 posts later, here I am – still pecking away at the keyboard.

There are many things I’ve learned through these five years, but the biggest one is this:

If you don’t know your why, you’ll give up.
(and the nerdy part of me wants to say “you’ll give up and die” because it rhymes, but I’ll refrain.
except I just said it.)

Here’s the tricky thing: a lot of times your “why” changes over time. When I began, my “why” was mainly because my husband encouraged me to do it and I thought it sounded like fun. Fast forward 5 years + 800 posts + 2 more kids + a husband in seminary. The “it sounds like fun!” argument rarely holds up water around here anymore. Yes, it may sound like fun, but why else should you do it?

That’s one of the main lessons blogging has taught me. Besides that, I’ve spent a whole lotta time writing, designing, creating, photographing, social media-ing, and giving myself headaches over html coding. I’ve learned more than I realize. And this becomes evident when people ask me questions about blogging and I realize there’s a lot of learning that’s gone on in the past 5 years. There have been tears involved, but I think the blood and sweat have been kept to a minimum, thanks to the fact that most of my hours involve sitting in a climate controlled room in front of a computer.

And you know what? All this would be without purpose if it weren’t for you. So thanks. Thanks for reading, sharing, emailing, commenting, liking, pinning, and all that. You guys have been a blessing to me through this journey and really? I wouldn’t be here without you. So imagine a heart-eyes emoji here just for you.

Happy 5 years, Brown Sugar Toast. Here’s to another 5.