Lindsay Maddox… Laughing my way through motherhood.

(And taking submission guidelines literally.)

Remember when MySpace wasn’t ghetto? That’s when my blogging career began. It started innocently: I wanted to lose weight and thought blogging would keep me accountable. I threw in some stories of my firstborn.

People commented.

Sometimes.

When my daughter entered the picture after a fully protected tango (99.9% effective, pshyeahright) on our new mattress (hence her “Baby Sealy” nickname for nine months), my blogging life turned into more than the occasional update. Screw weight loss; now, I had stories to tell. Good ones. Ones that involved tantrums, sibling rivalry and all of the hilariously awful things that being “Mooooom!” brings.

More readers. More comments.

It encouraged me to broaden my writing passion. I dove into writing contests and quickly found myself not merely entering, but winning. A lot. Soon, I would see my name in print.

In the meantime, motherhood was throwing all sorts of curveballs (and by curveballs I mean kids who played with their poop) my way. Stories erupted from my fingertips faster than my daughter blew out her diapers.

Then.

Call it temporary insanity. Call it… no, yeah, let’s go with insanity.

The hubs and I decided to give it one more shot. Surely, we could handle three under four.

“Lindsay, do you see what I see?” the doctor chuckled.

Two sacs. Two heartbeats. One enormous grin on my face.

Growing up, my parents, who are both twins (not with each other, mind you), informed me that if I had sex, I would have twins. Abstinence? Yes, please. Yet, when my first two weren’t twins, I felt a bit gypped. I mean, I was threatened promised!

Finally, my parents’ integrity was restored.

(Mostly. There’s still that whole “Santa” thing. I’m still not sure he’s real.)

One “Ohmigawd, I’m going to have four under four” revelation via blog post, and my blog took off.

I tracked the most popular posts and kept note for the future. I made it a point to tell readers all of the horrible stories. Instead of pushing readers away, it brought more in. Soon, I had over 500 fans on my Facebook fanpage alone. My page views skyrocketed.

I instilled rules upon myself:

1. No annoying ads. I hate them.
2. Complete honesty. No one benefits from sugar-coating the truth.

I can stop blogging and disappear into internet oblivion if I choose. But I won’t. There are too many sub-par blogs out there. My posts give wary moms a good chuckle and show them they’re not alone. I try to prove that there are funny moments, even in the worst situations.

My story is only beginning, but what an attention-grabbing opener it is. Through social networking, I am making a name for myself, but that’s merely the icing. Anyone can promote themselves; it takes talent and a great deal of self-sacrifice to draw people in and keep them.

Call me cocky, but I know I have a good thing here.

***

And, scene.

Wonder what that was all about?

Project Mom Casting has an open casting call to mom bloggers attending the BlogHer’10 conference. They’re looking to pitch a reality-based show about bloggers and the world of social media. If they like what I just said, I may be called for an interview.

If you’d like to give me some props, head over to the Project Mom Casting Facebook page and click “like” on my submission. Or, retweet this using @momcasting in your mention!

Don’t feel obligated to, though. I know you have more important things to do (like, I don’t know, play hide-and-go-seek with the kids)!