My daughter, Cindra (formerly chikkentales.wordpress), shut down her two blogs. Without any warning. And this is the girl that got me into this!
When my sister, Charlene, got Cindra into blogging, I wondered how Cindra would have time for it. She said, “Oh, Mom, it doesn’t take long. I’m on the computer all day for work, and I just do it for a few minutes here and there”. Yeah. Sure. Time takes time – as T always likes to say. (and it drives me crazy when he does!)
Cindra and Tom have a 15 year old daughter, 12 year old son, are adopting their 3 year old foster child, have two goats, one dog, and one cat, and run a home business. Tom teaches at the college, as well, and Cindra does the books for their business. AND – she thought she had time to blog. No, wait. Not only did she think she had time to blog — she also began emailing and talking on the phone to some of her blogger buddies! MORE time invested.
When Nessa got ahold of me to see why Cindra had disappeared from cyberspace, I called my Babydoll to see what was up. She said she just couldn’t do it anymore – that it was too addictive. She’d tried stopping, then scaling back, then only doing it with a few people – and she would keep getting sucked further and further into it. She said she’s taking her life back! (We tend to be an all or nothing family, anyway, I think.)
I have stopped blogging twice. There is no getting around the fact that it takes A LOT of time. And I’d go through all these head trips – asking myself what the hell I was doing talking to strangers? and what did I care what someone I didn’t know was doing? and didn’t I have anything better to do? And I’d stop. And then I’d start wondering. What were you people up to? What was going on in your lives? Did you resolve that problem you were having last time I read you? And pretty soon – here I was again. Talking to strangers. Caring about what they were doing. Commenting here and there with my pointless drivel.
But, you know, it is fun. And yes, it takes time. Time I could spend reading. (I have plenty of time to read). Time I could spend cleaning. (Please!) Time I could spend on the phone. (Wait, I do alot of that anyway!) Seriously, it’s all about priorities, and where you want to spend your time. I’m pretty sure though, that I wouldn’t be doing this if I had to take care of a business, a hubby, and three kids! I just have T and Miss Kitty, and I don’t work. (Well, except in the garden.)
And you know what else? It ISN’T just reading about what you are doing – I’m being entertained in so many ways by your blogs. You all have a different style; some use humor, some use themes, some give some edification, some pass on important news articles, some are political, some are wannabe curmudgeons (my favorites). Besides the content style – I’m exposed to many different writing styles. That is all entertaining to me.
I don’t think that I’ve quite figured out what I’m doing here in the blogsphere. When we went South for the winter there was some (sort-of-anyway) interesting things to write about. Now I’m home, and I’m here to tell you, I’m basically a boring woman. I stay close to home and do my own thing. When I write in here, a part of me is sharing, a part of me is trying to be half-way entertaining, and a part of me doesn’t know what the hell I’m doing or why!
I’ll run out of garden pictures before long, and I’m not much of a story teller – so I’ll have to figure out what I’m doing. Sometimes I think that I want to use this for a diary. Instead of worrying about coming up with something to write – I could just write one or two paragraphs every day, about what I did that day. Then I’d have a record of everything that goes on – I could look back at the garden, doctor’s appointments, etc. etc. etc. OH, MY GOD! That sounds as boring as can be. Oh well, I’ll figure it out as I go along.
Meanwhile, goodbye for now, Chikken. I’ll miss your writing style a lot! (She’s good!) (And I’m NOT saying that because I’m prejudiced!)
P.S. The left border is pictures of little treasures growing out of the granite bank which is beside the shop.
Jackie's Garden 