How Blogging Helped me Publish My Children’s Picture Book

I’m happy to share Tracy’s story of how blogging helped her publish her first children’s picture book. Tracy is a very faithful momma and she loves Jesus. Like Tracy, blogging has changed my life too. It has helped me overcome the baby blues, helped me gain confidence when I lost it, and taught me skills I never thought I could master.

Starting a blog and sharing your advice allows you to connect to thousands of other moms. It allows you to help someone on the other side of the world with your message that you may never ever have reached before. We truly live in a wonderful time!

Below is Tracy’s story, I hope you sign up to her list and check out her new children’s book! Let’s support moms in all stages and phases of motherhood!

*This post contains affiliate links.

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Blogging and Publishing my Children’s Book

There I was at bedtime, standing in the middle of my hallway in my pink fluffy bathrobe with my pup Zoe at my feet, while holding my 2 month old son, as my 2 year old twin girls were running all around me. It was a moment of struggle in my busy motherhood trying get everyone calm and ready for bed…and in that moment I felt God call me to “write to other moms”.

On this particular night, I felt God specifically asking me to start a blog so I could share my mom story including my children’s book, “Zoe in Double Trouble”. I really had no idea about what a blog was or how I’d ever have time to write to other moms and families, especially in such a busy season of my life, but I did take the first step, listened to my heart and started researching blogging.

Right away, I fell in love with the stories of mommy bloggers. I loved that they were able to do amazing things from home while being wonderful moms too! I really love being at home with my kids so I thought somehow blogging may be a wonderful way for me to share my children’s book “Zoe in Double Trouble” as a piece of my heart to uplift the world, from the comfort of home.

Years before, when I was walking my twin babies with my puppy Zoe, as everyone kept saying things like “oh you’re in double trouble”, God planted a seed for “Zoe in Double Trouble” in my heart. I wanted a story that would help all kids know that no matter how many messes they make or how often people may say “double trouble” to them, they would know that they still bring double the love to the world!

Prioritize Your Book and Blog

Balancing blogging while writing a children’s book was hard at first. I had to decide where to put most of the little time I had. Blogging helped me see how important writing “Zoe in Double Trouble” was to me because every time I wrote, I kept circling back to positive spins for messes of motherhood.

Another big step was sharing this dream with my husband and blogging helped me share a visual with him. Even though my husband thought it all sounded like way too much for me, he supported me in each baby step because he could tell it was making me happy. Yes, sometimes he caught me staying up too late or waking up really early to work on my children’s book “Zoe in Double Trouble” or Your Twin Mom blog, and worried I would burn out but this was a fire God placed in my heart that I just needed to fuel and it wasn’t blowing out any time soon.

I had a big goal of completing “Zoe in Double Trouble” for my twin daughters’ fifth birthday. It was important to me to think of the best times for me to work on this passion project; times that aligned with my values of being a present wife and mom. So, I was intentional about my goals each day and tried to achieve them in set time slots.

“I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength”. Philippians 4:13

 

Find Your BIG Passion

You know you are passionate about something when you are willing to write about it all the time.

I knew God was calling me to write and I knew he planted a children’s book in my heart, but blogging helped me see what I was so passionate about…being a faithful, fun-loving mom to my twins plus one.

When I found Suzi’s Blog by Number Course, it was a God-send and gave me my first big step in sharing my writing with the world.  Suzi was wonderful with getting back to me in the beginning as I was reflecting where to focus all of my passion. She could tell I had a passion for helping kids, so this helped me see even more how my children’s book “Zoe in Double Trouble” could help kids and families around the world.

God brought Your Twin Mom as the title of my blog to my heart, but I kept thinking I wanted to welcome all moms who were passionate about faith and motherhood. Suzi helped me see how the title of my blog, Your Twin Mom, could relate to both moms of twins and any other moms who wanted to be their better mom selves, or find their own inner twin mom and I loved that she revealed this passion in me to uplift other moms in faith.

 

Connect with Other Moms

One of my favorite things about blogging is connecting with other moms like me. Suzi’s Blog by Number course had great tutorials for connecting with more moms and authors on multiple social media platforms as well.

I have seen the value of motherhood and that I am not the only one in the world who enjoys kids activities. Blogging revealed to me simple ways to enjoy motherhood with my kids. So, in a sense blogging has helped me value motherhood even more. I started connecting with many other Christ-centered moms who also felt a huge pull in their hearts to be a big part of their kids’ lives, and be intentional about how they spend their time together. I am so thankful for these connections.

When I created my book “Zoe in Double Trouble”, my blog helped me connect with more children’s book authors who believed in my story too. Your Twin Mom not only helped moms connect with me, but it also helped more authors see that the passion behind my children’s book “Zoe in Double Trouble”, was even deeper than a silly puppy who gets new twin sisters in her life, but more about families having a positive perspective and showing our kids or siblings that we love them, no matter how messy life gets (just like God loves us in all of our messes too).  

 

I Discovered New Things About Myself

Blogging helped me see how creative I am in my own ways. On this journey, I also found this new love of creating videos and talking to moms at events or on “Twin Momspiration Tuesdays” where we share faith and family fun.

Now I see how God blesses each of us with unique skills and gifts. Blogging helped me see how much I love creating fun activities for kids, writing loving words for families in books, and inspiring more moms to be uplifted in God’s love.

I learned that there is not just the one typical kind of crafty creativity; there are millions of ways each of us can be creative. Blogging helped God reveal my gifts to me and now I can help shine a brighter light on all of the gifts my children have to offer as well as kids and families around the world.  This realization fueled my creative fire with “Zoe in Double Trouble” even more and helped me see that my unique story and creativity was what made this children’s book so special to share!

Stay Consistent and Stick with It

Blogging was filled with huge learning curves for me but Suzi’s Blog by Number course helped me learn how to create a professional looking blog, so I could attract more readers. It took time, but with doing what little I could every day, I was able to learn simple steps to build a beautiful blog. I enjoyed the DIY process of blogging. I wanted to get my hands dirty in as many aspects of blogging as I could. I found learning about these new skills also helped in the creation of my children’s book, “Zoe in Double Trouble”.

 

Learn New Skills

Because of blogging, I gained so much confidence with digital art. I had always sketched illustrations in the past, but because of blogging I had a new love of technology and the digital world. This helped me take the next step in creating my illustrations for “Zoe in Double Trouble”. From photography, to editing, to color themes…I needed all of these skills in illustrating and designing my own children’s book. It’s like God was preparing me in my heart and then with blogging, all of these connections and skills came together for this beautiful children’s book gift to my family and to families around the world.

 

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Get your copy of Zoe in Double Trouble on Amazon!

“Zoe in Double Trouble” will be released on 10/9/18! We’d love to share more momspiration with you at Your Twin Mom. You can join us in spreading the love @yourtwinmom on IG,Twitter, and @yourtwinmomgroup on FB, and enjoy “Twin Momspiration Tuesdays” on FB and IGTV for faith and family fun! You can email me at yourtwinmom@gmail.com!

Thank you to Suzi for inviting me here on Start a Mom Blog and thank you to her for her Blog by Number course that started the ball rolling with sharing my children’s book “Zoe in Double Trouble” and Your Twin Mom with the world. Her course was a big step that changed my mom life and enriched my heart!

So, what fuels your fire mama? What step do you need to take? Whatever it is, write about it and see what can blossom out of your heart through a blog or a children’s book or whatever God puts in your heart. Just take the first baby step.

Hugs, Tracy