Crabbycakes

When I first read what Jodifur wrote about needing a break or maybe not a break but something, and feeling that the blog was just one more unreachable chore on the to-do list, I gasped gah because I could have written it myself. 

Sometimes I wonder what I'm really getting out of this blaaawging thing.  I like the writing and the documenting. I like to entertain and make people laugh.  Negatively speaking, because, come on, we all know I do that very well, it takes time.  Time that I do not really have.  I give up sleep, television, relaxing time, exercise time, time with my husband and time with my son.  This would all be different if I made a little money from it, but, alas, I make nothing.

I have trouble with the notion of taking a break because my readership is low, dangerously low.  While no one would miss me, it would break my heart to watch my stats drop into the single digits, like they were in those first days.

I have drastically cut back on my use of Twitter.

If I didn't have this blog my evenings would not consist of surfing through free stock images trying to find the exact right image for my DC Metro Moms postings or tapping out something so that my sites don't go unupdated for too long (Ahem! Review Site).  

Then I remember that without this blog I would have TWO FRIENDS.  Two friends, also mothers, with kids Noah's age-ish.  They are not bloggers. They don't read blogs.  I don't think they know about this site.  Because of this blog I can easily, without hesitation name FIVE MORE amazing, great, talented, humorous women who have befriended me, trusted me, given me advice, support, love and friendship.  

So, I think I need to reorganize.  CLOSE THE LAPTOP for a few hours each night.  Not check my stats hourly.  Withdrawal from Twitter.  Maybe even stop watching designer jeans on Ebay.  I need to carve out some time for writing so I'm not working in bits and pieces but rather I need HOURS, dude, like, a chunk of time you know, what's that? 

Sorry for the excessive whining here ... perhaps I've just been listening to Noah for too long. 

(Sorry Noah, I love you, but some days are WHINE fests and I often just give you cheese because, ya know, WINE. Heh.)

I'm not fishing for comments about how it's okay to take a break, but I'd be curious to know how YOU manage to work in time for blogging.  Is your house filthy?  Do you wear clean underwear?  Seriously, how many hours a night do you sleep?  THOSE ARE THE ANSWERS I NEED IN MY COMMENTS.

Comments

[Danielle-lee]

I definitely understand. I did sooo well last summer, before I applied to grad school. I posted every day (even 2 times in one day,sometimes!), and now I'm lucky if I post once or twice a week. I hate that! I really want to do it more, but with my busy life....sigh...
My almost-4 year old is a totally whiner lately. I just want to cry AND whine. :)

[workout mommy]

you took the words right out of my mouth! I was sacrificing all of that and more to keep up with my blogs, twitter, facebook, etc. It was overwhelming!

and then, a family crisis caused me to be offline a lot and you know what---I liked it. The break was freeing. There is life outside of the internet! I wish I had more time to do more, but with two small kids I just cannot keep up. And that's okay.

As for sleep, i was only sleeping 4 hours a night. My house was a disaster and I was telling my kids "mommy has work to do" way too much.
All for essentially a non paying gig!

So, I've stepped back a bit and starting to sleep again. I hope this helps. You are not alone. :)

[FishyGirl]

I just go with the flow. Sometimes I'm raring to go, sometimes I'm not. I try to get at least one post per week up, and I try to do those on one of the days that all 3 bigger ones are in school and Nemo is still waking up, when he likes to watch Oswald. But he's in a stage now when he's getting into more and more stuff, so I don't have much time anymore. I try to arrange to have one day on the weekend where BDF will do something with the kids and I get an hour or so for blog time.

[JessicaAPISS]

I've only been blogging for a year and a half, so I'm still in the honeymoon stage where I want to do it almost everyday, if you know what I mean.

I don't get personally introspective very often on my posts at various places. When you go personal and meaningful, I think the posts take so much more time and energy. I totally admire you.

I also don't really watch TV anymore, don't read as many novels.

And my kids are 3 and 5 - this makes a WORLD of difference in that they can play independently often, keep each other company all day as best buds and I don't have to micromanage every moment or worry that someone's going to choke on a marble or stick a fork in a light socket.

I just do the tasks that make me happy at that moment. If a non-sticky floor will make me feel more centered, I skip the blog updates.

xoxo

[Emily]

I don't know how to do it either. And I could have written this post, word for word.

[jodifur]

When I wrote that I was drowning at work, so much so I couldn't breath. I'm better now, but still. One thing I learned in my laughable two day blogging break is it is fine, the internet will survive. Do what you need. We will be here.

I have know idea how I work in time for blogging, Michael plays very well by himself and when I don't have a bazaillion trials sometimes I blog at work (shh). My house is not filthy but we have a cleaning service. I wear clean underwear. I sleep about 6-8 hours a night. I multitask very well.