You might have noticed the lack of action on the blog lately. The lack of posts (promised posts) is not cool and I won’t try to come up with excuses (well not really). I am certainly NOT following the rules of being a ‘professional’ blogger. However, from this ‘angst’ comes some lessons.
There are a LOT of people selling books, seminars and webinars about making money from blogging or getting free stuff from blogging. Certainly us bloggers are popular with brands and PR/Marketing, but I find it sad that something that people started for fun has turned so much into work, even with lure of the mighty dollar.
I swither between deciding if I either don’t have the focus for it or am distracted too easily. I totally get why people go work on their blogs in coffee shops as I find my house is the biggest distraction. I look at what needs cleaning, rearranged, etc. The clutter gets to me. Then there are the kids. I feel sometimes that my mom-ness is my all. That my families need for me eclipses everything else in that there is no room for writing or working because someone needs something from me at some point.
I worry if I thrive on being needed too much and enable all the ‘helplessness.’
As the kids say, I am mom to everyone, including the pets. I haven’t been sleeping well lately. Almost every night the kids halfheartedly quibble over who gets to sleep in the ‘big bed’ with mom. Dad doesn’t seem to count in this discussion apart from being in the big bed already.
However, there are too many bodies in our bed already. The 16 year old cat that lives in our bedroom, zooms to the first warm body that lays down, so when I climb in bed I immediately have a warm body attached to my neck. Then the dogs show up. We have a dog bed in our room, and one of the dogs likes to use it some time. However Lily is a restless beast and prowls the house through the night and if cold or lonely likes to squeeze up on the bed with us. This would okay if the OTHER dog wasn’t there already and not moving for anything. Zia is very particular about her sleeping arrangements. She comes to the side of the bed and noses at the covers until I lift em up so she can crawl in and jam herself under my butt, under the covers.
On cold nights this is great, but otherwise, not so much. I sometimes like to straighten my legs. The mattress has seen better days so the bed ain’t that comfy to begin with. All these extra legs don’t help in the slightest. I end up on the couch a lot, hoping the dogs don’t following me. This is not a good way to live life…..I need to take a stand.
I like to think I would be a better blogger/business person if I had more sleep. I think that is probably just one more excuse.
To be honest, this time last year I had doubts about the blog lasting much longer. I was happy that I managed to rally for 2014 and keep things going. I do enjoy the blogging world and would be sad to see it go.
However, apart from kids and lack of sleep, other distractions keep me unfocused. I have been working at my other self..the social media manager/consultant side for a bit now and am finding the whole freelance/client thing to be a bit exhausting. I find my knowledge to be undervalued and unappreciated and the fight to prove my worth gets a bit exhausting. I have been looking for more steady part time work (to fit around the family) and even that is becoming a bit of a depressing struggle.
Mr. Crunch does fine supporting our family, but I have always liked the independence of earning my own money and also being able to financially contribute to our families resources, so the lack of luck in this area tends to wear me down and again take away from the blog, which ironically could probably be a better source of income if I just worked harder and better at it.
Suffice it to say, I apologize to the brands that I owe posts and are very very behind in producing. Blogging with brands take focus, and professionalism. It is no longer a hobby when you are working with people who have expectations of your site and the promised value of said site. However, Crunchy Carpets started out as a personal blog about my life as a mom and so posts like this I feel are just as important. This is real life people. This is my life….on a blog.
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