It’s hard for me to believe but I am celebrating the one-year anniversary of Boss Mom. I started this blog a little more than year ago with the goal of sharing my thoughts as a working professional mom and providing a platform for working moms to vent, share advice and gain support. Given the statistics of how many people start blogs only to abandon them months (or even weeks or days) later,  I didn’t know how long I would be able to keep it up. But along the way, something that surprised me….I fell, deeply, madly in love with blogging. A year later I feel like I can officially call myself a Blogger!   Part of what I love about blogging is being able to connect with so many women of different backgrounds and perspectives. I’ve learned alot and I’ve made some terrific friendships along the way to boot.

So what’s next for Boss Mom? Well, one thing I’ve learned is there is still alot I don’t know yet about the “business” of blogging and I’m keen to learn. You’ll notice that there aren’t any ads on Boss Mom and I haven’t done many giveways to date. That will continue to be the case though you will see the occasional giveaway for products or services that I’m passionate about and want to share with you.  Blogging for me has always been, above all, about sharing ideas and building community. I’ve been taking Jon Morrow’s Guest blogging class (thanks to Jen Gresham for introducing me to this great resource), which has been an wonderful education in blogging  so this year you’ll see a number of guest blogs from me on other sites. I’ll be sure to let you know about those. Other things on the horizon include a new masthead and design for Boss Mom and free dowloadable resources.  I’ll be stepping up my Facebook presence, something I’ve been quite lazy about but know that particularly for on-going conversations, it’s a great platform. I’ve tried to keep my content a mixture fun and serious topics that focus on the issues that working moms care about, however I’d like to hear from you.  What topics would you like to see covered in Boss Mom? Health and Fitness? Marriage and Relationships? Time-management? Healthy eating? Let me know in the comments section below.

Finally, I can’t close out this post without thanking all of you for your support. There were times that my life got busy, or I was too stressed out to write and I would slack off only to get a nice email or FB post asking where I was. Sometimes the only motivation I had to write was knowing that day’s post might touch some other Boss Mom (or Boss Dad) out there. You kept me going and for that I thank you! Let’s make 2012 a great year.

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I’ve just returned from a fantastic weekend in DC where I attended the Blogalicious Weekend 2011 Conference. As this was my first blogging conference, I didn’t really know what to expect. I ended up having a blast. The breakout sessions were great to be sure but even better were all of the fantastic bloggers I met over the weekend. Here are some highlights:

Black and Married with Kids. I was a fan of this duo’s blog before the conference but after meeting Lamar Tyler (who along with his fab wife Ronnie run this site— with four kids!) I became an even bigger fan. Lamar encouraged bloggers to venture out beyond the written word to incorporate video into our blogs. His message of how to effectively get your voice heard in a crowded social media space was both refreshing and encouraging.

Rene Syler AKA Good Enough Mother. Keynote at the Saturday luncheon, Rene had us whooping, hollering and nodding our heads at the trials and travails of being a working mother. I had read her book Good Enough Mother years ago, but it was the first time I had heard her speak. She shared her personal story about surviving breast cancer, being fired from CBS morning news and her personal path of reinvention. Her message about letting go of perfection and being “good enough” resonated deeply with all of the mothers in the room.

I sat down for breakfast with the delightful Tara Pringle Jefferson, creator and founder of The Young Mommy Life . At twenty-five, Tara is wise beyond her years. She spoke the day before at a session on finding your voice and I found her to be authentic, humble and refreshingly honest.

Spanglish Baby. While checking out the Blogalicious Expo I had a chance to meet Roxana Soto, one of the founders of Spanglish Baby which focuses on raising bi-lingual and bi-cultural children. We bonded over stories of our two-year old sons and the importance of raising children who were globally minded. I shared that we are raising D2 bilingually thanks his wonderful nanny, who is from Oaxaca, Mexico. Over the weekend I cruised the site and it is packed with helpful information from the best methods for teaching children a second language  to recommended books and music to ignite your child’s interest in other cultures. This will be a site that I return to over and over.

I was super thrilled to meet the star of Food Network’s “Big Daddy’s House” Chef Aaron Mccargo, who is also a brand ambassador for Aunt Jemima Frozen Foods. Aaron is promoting his new cookbook Simply Done. Well Done. and he demo’d a few recipes as well as shared cooking tips. As someone who loves to cook, chatting with Aaron was a highlight of my weekend. Look for future posts where I will try out some of his recipes as well as attempt to make “clean eating” versions of my favorites.

In addition to these terrific people, I met a whole host of bloggers whom I had gotten to know on Twitter but had never met in person. It was great finally to put a face with a name.

While October has been a very busy month for me professionally and personally, I am so glad I took the time out to attend Blogalicious Weekend. I came away from the weekend inspired and jazzed to take Boss Mom to the next level. And of course, I am already marking my calendar for  Blogalicious Weekend 2012!