Life Archives - Page 7 of 13 - The Sweet and The Salty

Making it Work

By Jody January 12, 2015

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

Excuses and Updates

Thanks for reading! “See” you soon!

Reflecting and Reevaluating

By Jody January 1, 2015

I know a new year doesn’t guarantee a change but I do think it’s a great time to reflect and reevaluate things. As I reflect on this past year I realized I wasted A LOT of time on I don’t even know what.

For example I spent literally weeks and days and hours researching and agonizing over essential oil diffusers thinking they would be the cure all for my son’s frequent colds and the chaos that occurs when he is sick. I finally bought two and have literally used them for less time then the time I spent researching them. Turns out they didn’t make life easier and cure everything like I thought they would. Even when I did use them my son still kept getting sick and the chaos keeps going on.

Same thing with these amber necklaces to help my daughter teeth and me get rid of systemic inflammation. I spent so much time researching and trying to decide which ones to get and we don’t even wear them. Turns out I’m going to have to eat healthy and exercise to get healthy and my daughter is going to drool and have pain while she teeths, no matter what necklaces we wear.

The list of things like this could go on and on this past year, wasting time trying to escape reality, neglecting the people I care about while trying to find ways to protect myself from things being hard and always trying to find some elusive way to have complete control of everything. All while forsaking the things that will really help and bring about change.

Moving into 2015 I really want to spend this time I’ve been blessed with wisely. I know it sounds frivolous with diffusers and necklaces but based on the amount of time I wasted and the stake I was putting into these things to make things easier I realized there’s a lot more going on in my heart than what was meeting the eye.

My prayer is that this year will be a year of finding true contentment in what is, freedom from fear of what “could” happen, and a year where some of mine and my husbands innermost hopes and dreams come true.

I hope everyone who reads this has a blessed New Year and that 2015 will be a year full of positive changes and progress!

I’m Back…and What We’ve Been Up To

By Jody May 28, 2014

It’s been a long time since I’ve written here. A whole lot has happened since my last post.

Here’s a bit about what we’ve been up too 🙂

First thing, Champion turned four years old! This means he has doubled the length his life was predicted by doctors to be, and I know he has many more years of birthdays to celebrate.

In addition to reaching four years of age he has also accomplished another huge milestone. He is now officially a nose picker and I could not be more proud of him!

The amount of effort and coordination it takes for him to break muscle tone at his elbow, isolate his pointer finger, bring his hand to his nose, accurately find his nostril, insert his finger and keep it there is something I didn’t think we’d ever have to deal with with him.

Celebrating the little things definitely keeps me from being sad about some of the bigger things. And of course prayer helps with that too 🙂

In addition to turning four and becoming a nose picker, Champion officially became a preschooler. A preschooler in a general ed class to be exact!

Having him in school has been an amazing experience. We’ve seen jumps in his development since starting and we are really happy with the services he’s receiving.

We are also thrilled with the staff who are working with him. He qualified for a one on one aid and I feel so comfortable dropping him off knowing that she’s there with him helping him along throughout the day. School has been a really good experience (except the whole germs and lots of colds part of it.)

It’s really been quite busy these past several months since I last sat down to write here. It’s actually been about nine months I think since my last post. Wow a lot can happen in nine months. I mean nine months is the amount of time it takes to grow and birth a baby.

Oh wait, that’s the other thing that happened while this blog has been quiet! In addition to turning four, learning to pick his nose, and starting school, Champion became a big brother! That’s right, we had a baby!

This past April we excitedly welcomed a baby girl into our family! She came suddenly, very suddenly, a few weeks early and landed in the NICU. She is now home and doing wonderfully. It has been an amazing experience to watch Champion fall in love with his little sister. He is such a good big brother and we are excited to watch their relationship grow and develop as the years go on.

Whew, these past few months have definitely given us lots to be grateful for. I’ve really missed writing here in the midst of all our changes. It feels good to be back.

I look forward to continuing to share more regularly about our journey as we raise our miracle in the making son and now his adorable sister (with her own miracle story!) as well 🙂

Thanks for reading! See you soon 🙂