Out and In with a Whimper

My first blog post was on January 17, 2007, seven years ago. I went from spontaneous varied postings to a focus on reviewing books. From 100 posts a year to 30 posts to a consistent 300+ and back to 30. I went from 0 followers to thousands to hundreds (and probably back down to zero at this point). From posting a few times a month to every day, from random to scheduled, from fun to work, from love to hate. This blog has, to be cliched, been a roller coaster for me, and for the past two years, ever since my daughter was born, the blog has gone to pot. I had to make a choice between enjoying the stories or talking about them. I did not have time to do both as my daughter, my job, my life, was packed full of responsibility with very little time left over for the non-essentials.

The idea of blogging, serious blogging, with all the bells and whistles - reviewing books, joining challenges, reading 100+ other book blogs and commenting on posts, worrying about posting on a schedule, keeping up with new releases, joining memes, receiving review copies and posting on deadline, being involved with the "issues" of book blogging, concerning myself with what will draw readers in, measuring my blogging happiness by the number of comments on a post, and the list goes on - just terrified me. I loved it when I had the time, but now the idea of it makes me a bit twitchy.

So I let blogging go. Slowly. A book review here, a picture there, an apology post to follow up. A post a month, or every other. The slowest band aid rip ever. And then I made my last post on September 15, 2013. Stepping away from the computer, not having that extra worry felt pretty wonderful. But I missed it so much; primarily I missed that catalog of my thoughts on books. When I first started blogging, I thought of it as being just for me: something I could look back on over the years like a diary of sorts, focused on books but not exclusive to books. And that is what I want to return to.

I want to post my reviews of books, post about my adventures in mommyhood, post thoughts on teaching, post on whatever I want. My initial thoughts are that I will post twice a week or so - on Tuesdays and Fridays if I schedule in advance - but whenever I want overall.


Well, thanks for reading my ramble. I sincerely hope that some of my old blogging friends - and I miss you - will find their way back to me, and perhaps a few new people who are also more about the fun than the business of blogging will swing by from time to time to talk. I felt the loss of community when I had to step outside of it.

And now, just because every post should have a picture, here's the nutter and I at Christmas: