Blogging Archives - The Sweet and The Salty

I’m Just Going to Write

By Jody July 16, 2021

Where do I want to go with writing on this blog?

I haven’t written here in 2 years, yet every time it’s time to renew I never want to let it go.

I keep saying I’m going to blog again but then I don’t.

Most of the time I’ve blamed it on lack of time.

But really it comes down to being scared.

I’m scared of putting myself out there, of saying the wrong thing and offending someone, of the possibility of hurtful and negative comments and the list of fears goes on and on.

I’m also fearful of the pressure I’ve put on myself for the blog to be/do something that I don’t really have the time or energy for. So a lot of my lack of not taking action here has to do with my own expectations.

But I do have the time and energy to write here occasionally and have this as a creative outlet and hobby I can do from home.

So I’m figuring why not dust this space off and write here again? I encourage my children to do hard things, to push past their fears (if it’s reasonable to do so). So here’s my opportunity to put that into practice in my own life and push past my fears to do something that I do really want to do.

So here I am, blogging again. I’m a bit rusty and it may take a bit to figure out exactly what I’m going to be writing about but I’m just going to put in the effort, write and see what happens.

Just Start

By Jody February 23, 2018

Well it’s been quite awhile since I’ve posted on here.

Where do I begin to get back into blogging?

Do I go back and post about all that has happened in the year plus since new words have graced this site?

Or do I pick up right where I am now and trust that as time goes on inspiration to fill in the gap will hit?

I’m going with the latter, starting again from right where I am.

A year ago one of my closest friends sent me a bracelet that says Just Start. For blogging it’s taken a year for the message to soak in. To just start.

And while just starting with blogging has taken awhile to sink in, there’s been a steady stream of just starting in other areas that has taken place since my friend’s gift of encouragement landed in my mailbox.

There was the just starting with transforming the way I eat, therefore losing a good chunk of weight and feeling better, by going through a nutritionist.

There was the just starting of regularly using the treadmill that had been sitting dormant in our family room, thereby lifting my mood and increasing my energy.

There was the just starting of going to nearly 8 months of counseling, healing deep wounds and giving me a framework to reshape thoughts and details surrounding difficult events.

All of the above things that I just started were things that always seemed so elusive to me, things that I didn’t think I could actually do.

I was frozen by fear until the message of just start, even if I don’t do it perfectly or how someone else does it, sunk in to where the fear melted away and gave way to action and action is giving way to transformation.

While blogging has been one of the main things I’ve wanted to just start, there’s been a domino affect as a result of these other things I’ve just started. That domino effect is leading me to have the courage that I can make blogging happen, that I do have the time and energy to write here on a regular basis and that it is something I can just start (and keep up with!).

So that’s what I’m going to do, put finger to screen, write from where I’m at and just start.

Let’s Talk: What things have you just started that were hard for you? What are some things you want to just start and what is holding you back from it?

Doing What I Really Want To and My Struggles With The Internet

By Jody July 18, 2015

I always tell myself when I start blogging, then stop, then start again that this time I’m really going to stick with it. But it always turns out to be quite a struggle for me.

I think of elaborate ideas and ways to piece together words to pour out my heart, but wow at the end of the day when I sit down and have time to write it’s the last thing I do.

It’s definitely not the last thing I want to do, it’s just the last thing I actually do, and normally by the time I get around to getting started I’m too tired to flush out the ideas I carried around and thought about all day.

It’s a battle, not doing the things I want to and instead continually doing the things I don’t want to. (I take comfort knowing I’m not the only one who has had this problem. Paul of the Bible wrote about his struggle with this in Romans 7:15. Of course our circumstances are very different, but still helpful to know I’m not alone in this).

For me, this means wasting quite a bit of time poking around the internet. Looking at this site here, researching this thing there, checking out this persons life here, and it sort of just ridiculously goes on and on. Next thing I know I’ve squandered away a ton of time, again.

It gets frustrating, and I’ll frequently say how I really really wish I had more time to sit down, write, and get it all out. But then I realize that the only point of frustration is my own lack of self discipline in this area.

And so here I am tonight, actually writing.

I pulled myself away from the lure of just mindlessy browsing the Internet, subconsciously allowing whatever I come across into my heart and into my life.

Doing some comparing, feeling inadequate, and maybe a bit envious anyone? That’s how I feel a lot of the time after I’ve purused around the Internet.

I don’t even think it happens at a conscious level, the comparing and dissatisfaction that comes from spending too much time on the Internet looking at other people’s lives and the way they do things. It’s almost like its a subtle subconscious but pretty damaging thing that happens.

I’ll start off good, going from website to website feeling pretty okay about my own life and what I accomplished that day only to log off feeling a bit off, feeling a little bit more and more discontent each day after a session of browsing.

So tonight I stopped myself from going down the same hole I have been night after night (the thing I don’t want to do) and instead I opened up my writing app on my phone and started writing (the thing I want to do).

I thought for sure out would come some of the deeper thoughts and feelings I’ve had lately about special needs parenting combined with parenting a “typical” child, or some of the organizational tips I’ve implemented recently that have really helped calm our house quite a bit, or even about some of the possible tough things health wise on the horizon for my son.

Instead of a post about any one of those things, out came a post about how dissatisfied I often feel as a result of undisciplined time roaming the Internet and how its keeping me from doing something that I really want to do, (write) and that the only one to blame is myself.

That might sound harsh to myself but I’m actually pretty glad I can blame myself. Because that also means I can change myself.

It means I can take a very honest look at how I’m really using my time, how where I’ve been spending my time really makes me feel, and make changes accordingly. Recognizing a problem is half the battle, right?

So I’m hoping that by being honest and acknowledging that, “hey, I have a problem with too much aimless wandering time on the Internet that subsequently results in feelings of failure and dissatisfaction,” that I will be able to take the steps necessary to curb that habit and replace it with a more rejuvenating refreshing one.

And I really hope that habit I replace it with is writing here on this blog on a regular basis.

It is what I really want to do.

I hope that it ends up being what I do.