A life to live not just to blog about

 

My two little loves

When I started my blog I wanted to rekindle my passion for writing. I wanted to have an interest, a hobby. Something that was for me. Something that I enjoyed doing. I decided that as a working mum of two lively boys I would write a weekly post about the happenings and musings of my life as a manic mum. The first year I managed 33 posts, far from one a week but still not a bad effort. Seven months into 2017 and I have managed a measly 8 posts. Five of which were in January and February. March saw it dwindle to one a month with May being completely by-passed. There are a couple of reasons for this;

1/ I realised quality not quantity was important to me. I wanted to stay true to writing about what was of interest to me and not what I thought would be popular. I (as all bloggers do) love to see people reading and sharing my posts but I've come to be at ease with the fact that's not why I write.

2/ I use more mini posts on facebook which take a lot less time to do and seem to be easier for people to read rather than clicking through into an essay of a blog post. Plus I love the instantaneous connection and interaction. Sharing the moment in the moment.

3/ My priorities changed. Reading comments on blogger forums from hobby bloggers (like me) or professional bloggers they all resounded of blogging taking over their lives. When I was aiming to write regularly, as a working gal it meant my blogging needed to be done on an evening, whilst the youngest napped on a Friday and any other snatched moments in between. Basically any free time I had. Along with many other bloggers this resulted in everything else taking a back seat. Tidy the house or blog. Do the washing or blog. Catch up on some work or blog. Cook tea or blog. Have a conversation with the hubbie or blog.

To blog or not to blog?

For a while I chose blogging. From around March I chose life. As much as I love writing I know that for the moment I want and need to concentrate on achieving in my job (after all that is what allows me to have a life to blog about!), have the house in order (makes me feel calm) which means using the evenings and that Friday afternoon nap time to whizz through some jobs or extra work rather than hitting the key board.

As I write this I'm not quite sure why I am. I know that the pressure of producing a weekly blog wasn't put on me by anyone but me. I'm 100% confident that those reading this won't have even noticed the decline in my typing. What I'm trying to say in a not so eloquent way is it's ok and healthy to recognise that we can't always have it all. Sometimes something has to give and that's fine. I did have a mini stress and internal paddy that I didn't have the time I wanted to write. Until I realised that the reason I didn't have the time is because I have a life to live not just to blog about.