Sunday Afternoon Tea - Ten Years of CTB&Me

This was my favorite header...

I type out the number and I know it is true.  For I was there in the beginning.  However, it is still difficult to believe this blog is now ten years old.  How the times have changed.  We had been living in our home less than a year and our elderly kitties, Sasha & Storm, were both alive.  They are now both at rest under the dogwood tree out back and Victoria is the reigning queen.

When I first started blogging, Christopher didn't have his driver's license and I was spending a great deal of time in the role of chauffeur.  He had just begun to take some classes at the Community College to round out what he was learning at home and at the homeschool co-op for graduating high school.  He was involved in fencing a few times a week and we both volunteered at the County library a couple times a month.

Stephanie had three very small children and I believe my son-in-law was still working as a professor.  We kept up through emails... which is how this blog came about.  I have written before that I once sent out an email a couple times a week to my daughter, two friends, and my late brother-in-law who would print it out for my sister to read.

Stephanie suggested I start a blog instead.  You know, one that would be only for family and close friends.  I didn't know what a blog was so she sent me a link to Amy's Humble Musings.  The rest, as they say... is history.

I remember coming up with the name for the blog as I thought of things I love like coffee and books and everything British (especially Tea Time).  Thus, the name... a play on the airline saying "coffee, tea, or me" (was that a 60s movie?).    I couldn't get everything in the title for I also loved writing about the pantry, which is what I did at my previous online gig, and there was not room to say anything about cats.  But both subjects were well covered in the past ten years.

Blogging has brought with it many wonderful memories and cherished friends.  I had written for a preparedness website before and made good friends there (who are still my friends) but blogging made it easier to just... ponder and chat.

Blogging helps writers become better at their craft and bloggers learn to develop a thick skin... although it is never thick enough.  But through the years I had to learn to not let comments bother me or to give up blogging.  More bloggers I have known gave it up due to comments than for any other reason. But mostly blogging is quite wonderful.

Long time readers will know my posts have been shorter and probably less wordy these past couple of months, especially the Saturday posts which require more research... but I'm slowly getting stronger.  Victoria is curled up close to me and I can hear my husband talking to himself in a nearby room.  Some things never change.  ;)

You have blessed me so much with your friendship, which is strong even if we have never met in person.  There are some of you I only stay in contact with once or twice a year and a few whom I email back and forth much more often.  Although do forgive me if I dropped the ball on emails and didn't respond again over the summer.

I'll continue writing as long as I can and as long as I know people are reading.  Blogging has changed tremendously over the past ten years and I am thankful for every comment, as we receive far fewer than we once did.  (Except for my friend, Vee.)  There are so many other places online for competition for those of us who have smaller blogs.  That being those of us who are for the most part, not professional bloggers (Amazon credit doesn't count).

I kept Coffee Tea Books & Me small on purpose and declined opportunities to expand. I want it to be just what it is... a safe place on the Internet for my friends and family.  Albeit a lot more friends then I think Stephanie ever envisioned when she suggest I take up this new thing called a blog.  ;)