Back in 2008, my blogging hobby began. Mostly because I read that blogging would increase traffic and sales to my Etsy shop and partly because it made me feel useful in the midst of crazy, unpredictable parenthood. My Etsy shop eventually took a back burner along with other things. (Etsy shops take enormous amounts of background legwork!) Not that I haven't been sewing behind the scenes but time constraints have kept me from publicly selling my goods.
You know, parenthood doesn't always leave a mama feeling accomplished because of all of those annoying little tasks that never get done. Those undone, annoying, little tasks that bury themselves into your psyche and make you feel like a failure, or slacker, or even a slob. The sink full of dirty dishes (even though you have a dishwasher), the overflowing laundry baskets, the garden of crumbs on the kitchen floor, or the toy store that somehow managed to set itself up from one end of the living room to the other, all left this mama feeling unaccomplished.
Those sorts of things pushed me to blog back in the day. Publishing a blog post was an accomplishment! It was something that I could cross off of my to-do list. Blogging got me through some tough times that I'm sure I'll share details about in the future. My Etsy shop benefited from a meager traffic flow as a result of blogging so that's a plus in my book. I wasn't in it for monetary compensation so that was OK too. So you see, taking a break didn't cause the stock market to crash or the interstate to back up so I could afford being slack. It's all good.
So why did I take so long to come back? A great number of reasons. Probably the biggest reason was an expansion in our family member department. (You'll probably hear that crazy story eventually too). My kids come first over my hobbies so blogging took a serious back seat. I guess it would be fair to say that a broken computer had a big part also but I wasn't in any hurry to remedy my computer situation anytime soon.
Just what are my plans?
Well, I've been seriously planning upcoming crafting tutorials, a few cooking tutorials, numerous informative posts on things from azalea pests to natural healing. I expect there will be a lot of sewing, crafting, experimenting, food preservation, and (hopefully) a lot of garden growing going on.
Probably what I'm most excited about: A very special weekly series called, "Dementia Stories". Writing about the bare bones and sometimes ugly truth of dementia and how it affects my family is something I felt led to share many months ago. I'm finally taking the plunge. Maybe there are some of you wonderful people out there that would benefit from knowing that you aren't alone when care giving. Maybe you too will learn to laugh at the little things. Let me warn you, there will be a lot of humor thrown in as I've been taught to laugh my way through the tough times by my precious mother and mother in law, many, many times over the past few years.
Times have changed. I have changed. My circumstances have changed. I'll do my best to make you happy. It's all good. I hope you'll enjoy the ride along side me!
