I have been thinking a lot the past few weeks on the direction I want to take the blog. I have been "technically" blogging for 4 years. I put it in quotes as my posting has been very sporadic. My best year I have achieved a post a week. I have been thinking about the following options.
1. Closing the blog, period.
The thing is, I do like writing here. And more importantly, I like keeping a journal of the happenings of our family. You know what they say, the days are long but the years are short. I want to remember this time in our life. I know the readership is very very small for my blog, but it is not like I made any effort to improve it. I have been a very bad commenter and stopped commenting on even the few blogs I read.
2. Closing the blog, and starting afresh anonymously.
This is a little tricky, I have held back on some things here on the blog as I was just not ready to share it publicly. And because of that, I sometimes feel I am not being completely myself. One reason for holding back is respecting the privacy of my family members, being anonymous will help with that. But there is a part of me that doesn't want to do that. I am not sure exactly why, but it feels strange.
3. Continuing with the same blog and being committed.
With my blog, I have a neither here nor there approach. I post very randomly, but I expend a lot of mental energy thinking about it, but not actually doing anything. I hate to be so lukewarm. I don't post my blog in facebook, other than my mom and sister, no one even knows about the existence of my blog in the family. (I have a very extended family). I am a fairly private person, and I know it sounds weird, sometimes it is just easier for me to have complete strangers read the blog than family. I have never felt comfortable sharing the url with anyone else, but I wonder if this is the year I shed my inhibitions and move forward and be comfortable with who I am and our family circumstances?
4. What about theme and how much is too much?
I don't care for a theme for my blog as I like to write about daily life more than anything. Yes, I have opinions on "Biblical" womanhood and submission, and parenting, and frugality but I don't really care to make a blog on those lines. But I also know that a daily life blog is not exactly riveting information to anyone other than ny mom. I always liked it to be a smorgasbord of things, the way I am in real life. It is also a hard thing, maintaining a blog and knowing the balance about how much is too much. I have, as I mentioned before chose not to share certain things without being deceptive. Looking back, I now have mixed feelings about it.
So in summary, I am confused. Hubs is ready to buy me a domain as per request and as usual I am completely indecisive about the whole thing.
Opinions, anyone?
4 comments:
I can relate to much of this, including having an easier time sharing with strangers than with those I am close to. At the same time many "strangers" have become people I considers friends, even if I only know them through a computer screen at this point in time (yourself included). Funny how that stranger to friend thing winds up working out. ;)
I quit blogging completely for awhile last summer and received many emails asking me to come back. With friends and family around the world and the very real possibility of living overseas in a couple years, blogging is a good way to keep in touch. With blurb books it's also an excellent way to scrapbook the years for an anti-scrapbooker like myself.
FWIW, when it comes to privacy, I sincerely regret blogging under my real name back when. Even with the blog private there is a cache of my writings still and that was something I wish I would have thought about that. This was especially reckless consiudering my husband's career and now I sometimes worry about people googling me. If you google my name you can find some of my old writing. Live and learn.
With my new semi-anonymous blog I feel a bit more free even though I am restricting a fair bit of what I share due to my husband's new career move. I've also grown to a point where I don't really care what people think anymore and it was largely for this reason I shared the URL in my holiday letter this year. The Army toughened me up. haha.
If I may offer a bit of unsolicited advice, don't feel too much pressure to write. Do it freely when the words flow and the time is plentiful. For smaller memories, the sorts not enough to fill an entire blog post, I like to keep a notebook. This is where I record the cute kid sayings and the little funny memories. I can write in short bursts in the midst of life when blogging may not be possible, useful, or appealing.
Not a helpful comment exactly and for that I apologize! Whatever you decide to do with your blog I do hope you'll keep me posted as I enjoy keeping up with y'all even if I seldom comment.
Your comment came in three times, Amy! Once in the spam box and twice here. I deleted one of them. Anyway, thanks for the comment. I appreciate what you had to say. I think it is a good option, the one about the notebook. The pressure I feel is not really to post to have a post. It is more to remember later as in oh, Neil did that for the first time today etc.
I like what Amy had to say. As you know, it is taking me a long time to process what is going on in my life. I'm not ready to share it...and may not for awhile yet. Nothing earth-shattering, of course. But personal growth and some loose ends that are staying loose. :) Anyway -- always good to think things through and evaluate where you are.
I enjoy reading your blog.I am not somebody who can be so open to anybody and everybody.When I read your blog I see that there are lots of things that are similar in my life.I feel hmmmm there is somebody else out there who does or think or do sthg similar to our family.It could be health, vaccation,frugality etc.,Anyways somethings are very very pvt and I think as you said which can be shared only with mom or hub or best friend or a sibling,and I don't see that as deception if you don't post.As Amy said whatever you decide is fine.
Love,
Georgia.
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