my bloggin’ history…and future

Blogging.  I’ve done this before.  I think about three or four times.  I had a homeschooling blog.  I had a book blog.  And then my favorite was one called Pirate Mom Dot Com (I don’t actually type out the link because I don’t own the domain any longer, so I can’t vouch for any content that might be there now).

I stopped blogging at Pirate Mom rather abruptly.  I just blogged one day, and then I never did again.  I’ve regretted that from time to time.  I actually had a fair amount of readers that spanned beyond just my family and in-real-life friends.  I usually posted about 2-3 times a week.  So, it’s fair to say that some of my readers may have feared for my well-being.  I was sorry about that.  It’s an uncomfortable feeling to be thought of as dead, especially if you aren’t.

Even though it seemed like my blogging exit was sudden, I had been thinking about it for awhile.  You see, I was at an interesting place in my life.  I had just had my third child, and while I know other women have babies and go right on over-achieving and wonder-womaning, all the while sporting the latest fashions and perfect lip gloss, that wasn’t me.  I was directionless.  And busy.   And wearing yoga pants.  And hormonal.  And the baby had eaten my lip gloss.

I had also sort of lost my focus concerning my blog.  I didn’t know what direction I wanted to go.  I was starting to get some offers to review products and advertise on my blog for income.  I was interested in that.  I think.  But I didn’t really know what I was doing.  One company sent me some kind of potty training contraption that fit around the base of the toilet like half of a doughnut.  It was so a child could rest his feet there and not feel like he was going to fall into the commode.  This thing was about three feet wide, and my baby was six months old…a good three years away from using it.  I felt a little panicky that I had this big plastic thing already, but I couldn’t review it for the company that sent it for at least thirty-six months.  So, despite this weird and random example, I just didn’t know where I stood on the whole money-making/review-writing angle of blogging then.

I didn’t blog for a week.  Then I waited three weeks.  Then three weeks turned into four months.  The next thing I know I hadn’t posted anything in a year.  Then I started getting emails that I needed to renew the domain.  I didn’t.  I couldn’t.  I was too wrapped up in homeschooling my teenager and ten year-old and laundry and cooking and fishing lip gloss out of the baby’s mouth.

But here I am.  Again.  Over five years later.

I am wanting this to be a place of encouragement and light-heartedness and fun.  The blogs that I use my precious time to read are ones that make me feel good, that make me feel encouraged and inspired, that make me want to turn my computer off and *do* something.  I want to write like  that.  I want to write about the things that I’m comfortable with, things that I love, and things that I want to know more about.  I want to write with passion and humor and knowledge and candor.

I hope that if you’ve endured this far, that you will come back.  I have a lot of ideas stirring about.  I have a lot that I want to accomplish and try here.  And I hope that you’ll join me…again.  I’m 99% that I’m not having any more babies, and the baby that sabotaged the last blog is six and half years-old now, so I think I’ll stick around a bit longer this time.