Did You Miss Me?

I've been gone from blogland for a few days. Several of you have asked if everything's OK. Everything is fine. Great, in fact.

It was an intentional hiatus. No power outage. No Blogger issues. Not even a long vacation where my Internet access was limited.

Just a self-imposed break.

What about my challenge to blog 365 days of the year, you ask? It's out the window. Because one of life's great lessons is that if something isn't working, you should change it.

I liked the challenge of blogging every day. Some days it made me stop and capture a story that I might not have bothered with otherwise. I liked the creative challenge of coming up with something.

But I don't think it made me a better blogger. In fact, I think the opposite was true. There got to be too many days when I posted something that was not as well written as I would have liked. Or I posted something other than what I really wanted to because I didn't have time to pull the photos together.

And more importantly, blogging every day didn't make me a better wife and mom. I won't blog when the kids are awake, so I have to squeeze it in a naptime or wait until after bedtime. By the time the chores are done it is late. By the time I write, it is even later. That leaves little time to spend with Jeff without being constantly interrupted by the kiddos. So when we go to bed, we often lay awake and talk for an hour. Less sleep does not make an energetic, enthusiastic mommy when the boys wake at 7 a.m.

Oh, and one other little thing: I've started working again. (Yay! More on that later.) I was fortunate enough to get a job doing strategic communications consulting on a part-time basis, mostly from home. I need to put some time and energy into that, too, and again, it has to happen in the evening or during naptime.

So, it is time for a change. A four-day hiatus was just the thing. Blog 365 is out the window and I'm moving on.

I'll probably still blog most days, because I really want to capture this time in our lives and because I do love to write. But I am giving myself permission to close the laptop and make a decent post a great one by finishing it tomorrow. I am putting my husband and my kids ahead of my blog

  

I'm trying to avoid becoming that guy we've all seen on vacation. You know, the one with his video camera glued to his eye the whole time. There's a difference between recording what's happening and being so absorbed in recording it that you forget to live it while you're there.

I intend to live every minute of this crazy, amazing life. And I intend to capture the stories and images, too, but when and how I want and in a way that works for me.

I hope you'll continue to join us for the journey.

© Trippin' Mama 2010