Blogging and Life in General

I've spent the past week thinking about my blog and where it fits in the scheme of my life at present. I've tried to come up with some times I can blog, and some guidelines for myself so that it remains enjoyable and fulfilling without taking up too much of my time.

Here's why. I realised that while I love blogging, it can end up being something that distracts me from the other priorities in my life. Here are some priorities I have identified (not in exact order of importance, but close-ish):

Me – I came up with 'me' first because I don’t tend to look after me otherwise. There always seems to be something more urgent or important that needs to be attended to. By me, I mean, making sure I get sleep when I need it, and exercise daily, and eat properly – all things that I struggle with around Munchkin’s ongoing needs and the constant pressures of study.

Boyo – because he can end up feeling rather neglected between study and baby! We are together quite a bit, but often not personally connected, so trying to spend more quality time together to build our relationship and enjoy one another's company.

God – because my relationship with him is the backbone and inner strength of my life. He’s also been rather neglected. It’s not that I don’t still talk to him, I do. Every day. Lots. But the listening has not been working so well. Doesn’t help that the Bible sits unopened. So I came up with an idea just now. I’m going to read the Word for Today each morning while Munchkin and I eat breakfast. Out loud. I figure there’s no time like now to encourage my son’s relationship with his Creator. As for other actual Bible reading time (the Word for Today is a small daily devotional), I am trying to do that in the evenings Boyo is at work. Mixed success.

Study – because I need to graduate in 4 years time for all this to be worth it! I’ve been finding it incredibly hard to get back into the study mindset after the summer break. I am enjoying my 2 papers (50% studyload) immensely now that I am 2 weeks in and starting to feel like I am beginning to connect to my study-brain again (it went on complete holiday when it wasn’t needed!). The hardest part of studying is finding the concentrated time to do it in. I can’t read while Munchkin plays. Either I read a paragraph only to realise at the end that I have absolutely no idea what I just read, or I read a paragraph and look up to discover my son has crawled halfway across the room and has something suspicious in his mouth! Crawling baby and absent minded mother are not a good combination. Munchkin’s been sleeping oddly too – sometimes long sleeps in the morning, sometimes short, and resisting the afternoon sleep no end. He desperately still needs two sleeps a day, but you try telling a 9month old that they need more sleep! So I keep thinking he will wake up, and don’t start on the heavy study, only to discover I ended up with an hour of quiet after all. I got up at 5am two mornings this week to fit the study in. And have been wondering why I feel so totally wiped out. Yeah. Combine that with one 11:30pm bedtime (lifegroup – long story), and another 11pm one (did go to bed earlier but was wired for some weird reason and didn’t sleep), and suddenly things are much clearer.

Gardening – because this helps keep our food budget lower and our quality of eating higher. And I like it. It helps keep me DE-stressed. Obviously haven’t been getting enough of that in lately then, have I?!?

Blogging – so finally we come to my blog. And discover that it is somewhere at the bottom of the priority-pile. Sadly. Necessarily. This is a hobby. I would love to have an in-depth blog with gorgeous design and pictures. But blogging takes up valuable time that I need for other things at the moment. When I started this blog, I had few hobbies, no baby, and no study. I was free. I am now fettered. Which makes it sound so depressing, which it isn’t. I have chosen to combine baby and study. I want to be qualified as a teacher. I want to be here with my son. It just means that I have less time for other things, blogging included. Maybe one day I will have more time for it. Maybe. In the meantime, I will still be here, blogging a little bit of me each week.

So here are my blogging goals:
Blog once a week.
Don’t worry whether it is deep and meaningful or not, just share something from my week. Don’t worry too much about linking or other technical stuff…unless someone helps me learn in study breaks or something.
Don’t blog when I should be doing other things.
But do keep blogging, because I enjoy it.

So there you go. I think those should be manageable goals.

Amy

Sunday, 20th February, 2011