Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Lazy Days of Summer?

It's official: our summer has begun and we are going at it full tilt. (What's The HomeFront Motto? Go Big or Go Home!)


This is only the first full week that school has been out, but I already feel like my kiester is being handed to me on a platter. I'm not an overscheduler by nature, but we've had a major confluence of events over the past few days. Playdates, therapy schedule changes, church fairs, doctors appointments - they've all managed to get squeezed into the span of ten days.


Of course, you know what this means. We will hit July and the kids and I will be all Hey, how come we don't have anything fun planned? Where did all our friends go? I'll tell you where they went: home! They are probably sick of seeing us so much.


I've got to learn to pace myself. It would be beneficial on so many fronts.


I've fallen behind on housework, meal planning and prep, and laundry. I am ashamed to admit how many times this week my children have feasted on butter noodles and orange segments, so I won't. At least they are whole grain noodles.


Another casualty of Summer '08? The blogging.


Each night, when I finally sit down to post, I am too stinking tired and I resolve to get up earlier than usual so I can post. But when I get to the computer in the morning, I start out with my Google reader (which now contains approximately 7200 items) in a fruitless effort to catch up, and by the time I am ready to compose a literary masterpiece, someone is wanting breakfast or equally inconvenient.


I haven't commented on any posts or answered any emails; I am dropping off the technological radar. And, to be honest, I always impose a little self-inflicted guilt on myself because I am weird and ridiculous sometimes.


I often catch myself reading different posts about how to grow your blog and increase your traffic and yadda yadda yadda, and every single time I do, this thought comes back to me like a boomerang in the teeth:


How do people find the time? Especially people with young children? Are they staying up until all hours? Do they get up with the roosters? Are their children letting them type while they play happily with one another never making a peep? And if they are, can my kids come over, because that scenario has never played out here.


And then I get a little panicky thinking, I spend so much ding dang time on this blog and I am not really doing anything with it. I'm not actively trying to grow it, and I sure as heck ain't making any money off of it. I could spend the time I use for blogging to do more productive things things like make my own cheese and make spool dolls for my children.

When I get to that point, I just have to remind myself that, in a way, I am live-blogging my life, and I've got to live it before I can blog it. Besides, I am not out to change the world, I'm just out to record and remember my little piece of it.

I know things will slow down and even out, and until then I'll just be around. I may not be growing my blog, but I am growing my family, and that's the way it should be.

8 comments:

  1. Anonymous8:05 AM

    Absolutely! I read someone's post the other day about growing their blog and they said they spent four to five hours a day to keep it up! Are you kidding me? I already spend more time than I should but I do have a life beyond blogging. I have had to resign myself to the fact that I will never have tons of readers or even tons of commenters but I will have a record of the busiest time in my life, something that wouldn't have happened if it weren't for blogging. You have your priorities right where they should be so be encouraged and I promise to stay with you dry periods and all...I know where you are coming from!

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  2. I constantly think about quitting but I started the blog for myself and that's why I continue doing it. Someday, maybe as early as tomorrow I won't remember some of the things I have recorded and it will be fun being able to read those archives.

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  3. Anonymous9:58 AM

    I'd be a lot more concerned about you if you made your own cheese and spool dolls!
    :)
    Christina

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  4. This is a very thoughtful post. I, a teacher but unfortunately not a mother, have often wondered how all of the moms find time to blog too. I will get up before the sun, finish a post and go visit a site or two (mom sites) AND THEY HAVE ALREADY POSTED for the day. You all amaze me.
    I have put my "blogging life" in the same place as my social life.

    I have decided in my social life that I would rather have 4 or 5 excellent and close friends than a huge circle of aquaintances. I think that many of us bloggers do that. Hey, and if by chance more come to the blog...excellent. If not? Oh well.

    You are doing the world's number one job- mother. The blogging will wait.

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  5. Hey, I'm off for July and August. Maybe we'll descend upon you if you're bored out there. Unless you want to come here. That's cool too.

    I fell the same way about my blog. Sometimes I'm like, Boy I wish more people read/commented, but then I'm like, I don't have time to entertain all the people I wished stopped by. We've got to try to remember that we're not Ree. Or Amy Welborn. We're us and we're good enough, smart enough, and doggone it, people like us!

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  6. I hear you. I've been struggling with all this myself. I'd love for my readership to grow by leaps and bounds (vain much?) but that would mean more work. And who has time for that? If my Reader gets below 75 it's a good day. I've decided that I'll post daily as a diary of my life to look back on someday, but reading others will wait until I have a spare second.

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  7. Anonymous11:40 AM

    Wow four or five hours a day bloggin? Not unless I was getting paid enough to hire a maid! :)

    I just found your blog and it looks like a fun place.

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  8. Preach it! I was feeling mildly guilty about not blogging this week, but then I got over it. I'm living life, and right now that does not leave time for blogging. Besides, I don't have anything to say right now.

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