I’ve been away from blogging for quite some time now and I honestly really miss it.
We went through a very busy season where I needed to find extra time. So I stopped blogging. Looking back I’m not sure blogging should’ve been one of the things I cut out.
I think some tougher seasons we’ve gone through since I’ve regularly posted here would have been made easier by having this very therapeutic way of processing and coping with challenges.
But, alas, what’s done is done. Enough about my regrets.
Moving forward I am really excited about getting back into blogging! I am excited about connecting with other moms whose experiences mirror my own.
I am excited about having a safe place to get stuff off my chest. A place where I can be transparent without fear and without being misunderstood. A place to be very honest about the challenges as well as the beautiful moments of life as a mom to a child with special needs.
There is something so comforting, so beautiful and cathartic about reaching and being reached by other moms who completely get it.
So I’m making blogging a huge priority and I’m pumped up about getting back to it! But I’m making some changes to how I approach blogging so it can remain the priority I want it t be and not be something I become burnt out on.
There were some things I previously thought I “had” to do as a blogger. Several of those things took the fun out of it for me and made it more time consuming than it needed to be.
Here’s some changes I’m making and how I’m approaching it this go around:
1) Link Ups: I am only doing link ups I am genuinely interested in. I am not going to do ones that are for the sole purpose of promoting my own blog or just because someone asked me to.
If you do link ups the right way you are supposed to read and comment on a few other blogs that have also linked up. When I did link ups I wasn’t genuinely interested in and were for the sole purpose of getting my own blog out there, I found it draining and time consuming. I would spend way too much time trying to come up with a thoughtful comment when I didn’t really have anything to offer to that particular niche.
I have found some great blogs from link ups, but only found myself continuing to follow them from the link ups that were regarding topics that really spoke to me. So as I get back into blogging my policy on link ups will be to only do ones where the topic genuinely interests me and I genuinely have something to offer.
2) Blog Reading: This time around I am not going to read someone else’s blog just because they read mine, or leave a comment asking me to read theirs, unless their blog genuinely speaks to me.
There are so many awesome voices in the blogging realm, but just because someone has a great blog if it doesn’t speak to me and add to my life in someway than its not a good use of my time to read it. Just like there are people’s blogs I read regularly but they don’t read mine because my blog doesn’t necessarily speak to their life situation, there will be people who read my blog who have a blog of their own and their blog doesn’t necessarily speak to the season I’m in. And that’s totally ok, it’s great that there are so many voices out there to reach so many different unique interests and life situations!
I want to be intentional with my time and one way of doing that is to make sure time spent reading blogs is edifying and inspiring to me in the season and life situation I’m in and not something I feel I “have” to or “should” do.
3) Pictures: Finding the perfect picture for my posts was something I spent way too much time on. Way way way too much time, longer sometimes than I actually spent on writing.
This go around I’m not going to sweat the pictures as much. Previously I would spend hours searching the Internet for pictures to use, editing it and making sure I gave the photographer the proper credit. This go around pictures will still be present but for the most part will just be ones I take myself. And if I don’t have a picture that adds to the post I’m not going to let that stop me from posting.
My passion is writing, not photography. Therefore I want to spend the time I do have for blogging writing since that’s the whole thing about blogging that rejuvenates me.
And since blogging is something I’m choosing to do and not something I have to do I want to make sure it’s as rejuvenating as it can be!
So with those changes being made I’m looking forward to blogging regularly and just making it work!
Before I go here’s a couple of posts that inspired me to get back to it and make blogging work in my life:
On Breaking the Blogging Rules
Thanks for reading! “See” you soon!
Thank you so much for this post. I’m a new blogger and I’ve been struggling with pictures for my blog. It’s time consuming and I don’t enjoy chasing down the perfect picture. A friend who has a successful blog told me that I needed to include a picture with every post. It has been stressing me out. I love to write but I don’t enjoy photography. I so appreciate you saying that you aren’t going to let not having a picture keep you from posting. I think I need to take the same approach as well. I have 2 special needs kids and I don’t have a lot of time to worry about pictures.
I am so glad you found it helpful! I am finding so much more freedom in blogging without being so concerned about pictures. It’s making it less stressful too! It sounds like you have a LOT on your plate as it is and with that it’s so important to keep blogging as non-stressful as possible. You definitely have to just make it work for you and spend the time you do have to blog doing what keeps you wanting to keep at it. I love the name of your blog and the meaning behind it by the way