Hello! Hi! How are ‘ya?!
Wow, it’s been a long time since I’ve written a blog post.
That didn’t really happen on purpose. Life gets in the way and other things take priority. I’m sure you’d all nod along with me if I start listing the reasons and the ways in which that happened – life is busy and full and Moms just can’t do everything! 😉
So here I sit at 4:11 AM (yes, you read that right. The husband just left for work and I can’t get back to sleep. Though it wouldn’t be unusual for me to be awake at this time of the morning…but that’s a whole other blog post!), for the second morning in a row, thinking about how many things I’d love to blog about.
So I’m just going to take that leap.
For a while there, I not only thought about, but really did put some time and effort into blogging. It wasn’t enough to turn it into a “job” but I was working on heading that direction. But…
Oh so many “buts.” The reality is that eventually the list of things I wanted to blog about far outweighed the time and energy I had to devote to it. And the more I learned about SEO, and Alt Text, and the best images for Pinterest, the longer it took to write a single blog post. When it came time to renew my blog hosting, I simply let it lapse. And despite twinges about letting it go and all of the content disappearing, it just didn’t make sense to pursue something that, in that time and place, wasn’t a priority. It didn’t even make it on the Top 10 list.
That was somewhere around the beginning of the year, and over the months, the urge to blog would appear here and there – especially when I would see people repinning (on Pinterest) my blog posts that were no longer attached to actual content! That is where I found myself again yesterday morning, thinking that “eventually” I would…
Well, that I would do all kinds of things. Because frankly, early mornings like that are when you can often find my brain whirling with ideas.
I ran across a concept months ago about how we all get so much INPUT every day, consuming social media, and emails, and podcasts, and reading books, and interacting with people, and so on. About how easy it is to let that be how we live life, with all of that coming into our heads, especially as the first thing we would do every day. And instead, it was suggested that starting the day with OUTPUT, like writing or journaling first thing in the morning, might be a better option.
That made SO much sense to me, and although I’ve never considered myself a writer, my life right now does involve a lot of writing, I also read a few books on writing and found one of the consistent suggestions was having a dedicated time and place to write. So, at some point, I decided that all that quiet, empty time early in the morning, when the house was dark and I couldn’t do anything “productive” would be a good time to write (stuff for work, journaling, scrapbooking, etc – not specifically blog posts).
I can probably count on one hand the number of times I’ve actually followed through with that goal, but in my head, it still remains something I want to do.
Then the A-ha moment yesterday. Blogging doesn’t HAVE to be done any certain way. I don’t have to either post consistently or not at all. I don’t have to pursue putting it out there or getting more followers, if I don’t want to. I can simply take it back to what I spent years doing as a hobby – sharing things when I felt the urge to do so. And I don’t have to rein in the rambling, if I don’t want to 😉
All of that to say, I’m reviving the blog here – on a free, “unprofessional” site! – and I’m just going to let it be what it wants to be.
So, let me give you a picture of what life looks like right now for me.
We are in a season of so many transitions right now. My kids are both teenagers and I’m actually loving these ages. They have their ups and downs and I’m learning a lot. (and feeling the urge to share some of that insight – so you’ll probably see some blog posts about that)
We just moved into a new house. In fact, it was three weeks ago yesterday. The whole process was both something we had been thinking about for a while, and also an unexpected, crazy-fast whirlwind once things got started (and not without its hurdles – you’ll probably see some blog posts about that).
We unpacked pretty quickly and are mostly settled in. Those that know me well will already be predicting that I have a mile-long list of projects and ideas for the house. (You’ll definitely see some blog posts about that!)
We walked through some really interesting houses…
(seriously, doesn’t everyone need a pink and purple claw foot tub?!)
We moved back to our home town about 6 years ago (wow, time flies!), with the intention to build our dream house on the family farm. That still hasn’t happened (it’s on the list!), but we did end up buying a Fixer Upper and doing SO much work to make it our own. (I would love to share about that – you’ll probably see some blog posts) But, the house was pretty small, and we wanted a little space to spread out. In my head, I just figured we would probably end up with another Fixer Upper and have to put in the work again. The housing market here is crazy though. Almost anything that goes up for sale is snapped up in no time and you never know what will be available at any point. We walked through some really interesting houses with huge potential (and needing SO much work!). The house we purchased is actually NOT a Fixer Upper, which is kind of a relief. As I’ve already mentioned though – I have SO many ideas for making it more functional for our lives, more our style and taste, etc, etc.
I may not be pursuing my own blog as a career right now, but I do maintain websites/blog/social media for a couple of people. I have also been dipping my toes back in the Interior Design world. It’s interesting how things come around again. I went to school for Interior Design and did that for a few years before I decided to be a full time stay-at-home-mom when my youngest was born. Now, I semi-regularly help out a long-time friend (and college roommate!) with her design business. All of these pursuits are kind of evolving as we go along, and I’m getting a lot of practice at letting life flow, taking things one step at a time, prioritizing different things on different days…
As I said – transitions.
It also happens to be the end of August and I can see Fall on the horizon. The kids are back in school and that is going to be an exercise in flexibility and changes on all our parts. With the restrictions and considerations of the pandemic, things work differently for school and sports and all the things. We’re all figuring it out as we go.
I think that can be said for everything in life right now. I’m just figuring it out as I go.
..
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
alaynascreations 