Hello There. It's Me.

When I logged on to my blogger account today, I was surprised to see that my last post was in February 2019. How is that even possible? Time flies.

For those of you who are friends with me on Facebook, you have basically been privy to my micro blogging all year long through my #iamthankful posts that I try to do every Monday - Friday. Whether I'm sharing about what God has been teaching me, showing my quirky side, or letting you in on what the kids are doing, it's become my easier way of blogging my thoughts, with the added bonus of becoming Facebook memories for me to look back on in later years. If we're not friends, I'm sorry that you've missed those posts. 

The fact of the matter is, my life continues to get busier by the day. Or so it seems. Since August, I've been driving an average of three hours a day, taking five kids to two different schools in another town. By the time I drop the last three off and occasionally get my 20 minutes of walking in, I have a maximum of 5 hours to tackle my freelance work, which is really more like 3 hours, after dealing with household chores, getting dinner in the Crock-Pot, and anything else that may need to happen. Throw a grocery shop in there, and we're looking at about 2 hours at home for work before it's time to jump back in the ol' SUV and hit the road to sit in car lines. 

Once I'm home with the five, it's time to oversee chores, homework (which intensifies every year), home schooling that we're doing to fill in the gaps (like reading and math), dinner, taekwondo (at least two nights a week), and anything else that might be on the calendar. And as I collapse in our room each night and stare at my husband and try (unsuccessfully) to come up with some kind of quality conversation that doesn't revolve around the children, I think, "I did this to myself." I make choices that keep me busy. 

I choose to post on Facebook each morning, which eats into the time that I have at home to work and do laundry. I choose to send my kids to two different private schools, located in another town. I choose to pay for taekwondo and cart them there and sit for an hour each time, because I think it's beneficial to their growth and development. I'm making it a priority to say yes to as much as possible - within reason - even when I'm feeling thin, stretched, like butter over too much bread.

And so, in this season of life, blogging has taken a back seat. If you follow my Busy Nothings page on Facebook, you'll probably have noticed that I'm not even posting there on a regular basis. I just don't have the time. And when you wake up one day and realize that nothing that you've written has changed the world, and no one is reading your blog posts, and you'll never be in that 1% of bloggers who become rich and famous and get a book deal, it rather takes the wind out of your blogging sails. Or at least it did mine. But...I'm not going away just yet. 

Before we adopted the kids, I always loved setting goals for the new year, and dreaming big about what I was going to do with this blog. Now, I'm just happy to have clean clothes and food on the table and money in the bank account to pay for things like taekwondo and the occasional ice cream outing. As for any deeper thoughts, I'll continue to share them on Facebook. I know that people read them there, and I know that, in my own little, non-book-deal sort of way, I am making a difference in my corner of the online world. And I'll continue to do that, until something else changes. 

Highlights of 2019...

⇨ I met and exceeded my Goodreads goal for the year - reading 58 books (so far), 6 more than my original goal of 52. 

• Favorite Book: World War I: A Very Peculiar History by Jim Pipe
• Favorite Children's Book: Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library by Chris Grabenstein
• Least Favorite Book: The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

⇨ I did a pretty good job sticking to my walking and calorie-counting habits, and was able to shed around 15 lbs. over the last year (though I'm pretty sure I've put a few of those back on since Thanksgiving, with very little walking occurring and a whole lot of yummy goodness going in...back at BOTH in January!). If you do follow my Busy Nothings page, you might have seen my posts about my one year anniversary of walking and the way it improves my mental outlook when I prioritize that time. 

⇨ Although I was pretty quiet around here, I have blogged a number of times over on the Weaving Influence website (one of my freelance gigs) about book launches and personal values, among other things. One of my favorite posts was probably the one I did earlier this month, about the Icelandic tradition of Jolabokaflod.

⇨ Professionally, I was able to land two freelance writing gigs that helped pay for part of the kid's school fees. After 8 years of freelancing as a writer, editor, and book launch consultant, it's been nice to see some of that experience begin to pay off, and it's always a boost to know that the work I do helps in tangible ways.

I may not have been around here much in the last 10 months, but I've still been very much involved in the world - both online and off. Whether you see me around here or over on Facebook, I wish each of you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! May 2020 be a year of growth and learning for each and every one of us, as we learn more about who God created us to be.