Blog Every Day in May

I’ve discovered something about blogging these past few months… once you stop {or slow down significantly}, it’s hard to start back up again.

Because there is a rhythm to blogging. Your head is constantly churning with ideas, your camera is clicking pictures, your fingers type out words as fast as they can. You carve out time daily or weekly to edit photos and respond to comments and questions over email. Blogging is so much more than publishing a post each day.

But once you fall out of this rhythm, it’s so hard to pick up where you left off.

I have not been able to blog much this past semester. These four grueling months of school have taken their toll on me, especially with taking an extra class, which pretty much zapped the little free time I can sometimes find during the school year. Let’s just say I’m thankful for everything I’ve learned this term and very pleased with some of the work I’ve produced but I am ready to be DONE with school {for a while} starting this Friday.

But back to blogging… I don’t think people need to apologize for not blogging. It is just a blog after all. And I also think that if you feel burnt out and disenchanted by blogging, by all means, you should take a break or quit altogether.

But I am neither of these things. I am not sorry for a few measly posts a week lately, nor am I tired of blogging. I love it. It’s so therapeutic and I truly believe that writing in this space for fun makes me a better academic writer as well.

But I’ve lost my rhythm over the past few months. Sometimes Micah, knowing my desire to blog, would leave the house for an hour or two on Sunday evenings so I could have time to write. But when he left, I never knew what to do with myself. Should I FINALLY post pictures of the baby shower I hosted in January? Should I write about something current and exciting that happened this past weekend? Should I just sit down for an hour and edit pictures and hope I have time to write a post to go with them at some point during the week? Should I respond to the 100 encouraging emails from readers congratulating us on Baby Russum and asking questions about my pregnancy? All those tasks sounded fun and worthwhile, and since I couldn’t decide what to do with my limited time, I often found myself doing nothing… and by “nothing” I mean folding laundry and watching Call the Midwife and ignoring my blog altogether.

But all that changes this month, because I am joining my friend, Jenni, in a little challenge she is calling “Blog Every Day in May.” You can read more about it on her blog, but basically she has provided a fun list of prompts to write about each day this month. With the semester ending in just two days, this is the perfect time for me to jump on the bandwagon. Want to join me?