I find a blog is something I won’t self host since my homelab is mostly a dev environment and with that it isn’t super available.
However I do recommend github pages and use some jekyll theme.
Other than that, you can always self host Hugo or Ghost, although when I tried that I always found I ran into issues.
I tried on 3 widely separated occasions and still found issues so maybe it’s a problem with me or my environment.
Either way, people seem to mention those two so I’d recommend them if you want to selfhost, if not, github pages.
I basically did the same, picked up a 12U rack and a Dell R220 as my PfSense box.
Been so stable and can handle anything.