Dear Blog

Dear Blog,

It has been a while since I popped in to see you.  I hope that you are okay and not feeling too neglected.  This summer I haven’t really paid you as much attention as usual and then I decided to take a break; a whole week off, eight days in fact.  You haven’t done anything wrong, don’t worry, I still love you.  It’s not you, it’s me.  I needed some time, space and distance.  A time to enjoy real life and my family.

This was a significant summer for me with the children leaving, starting, changing school and way back in July when I went to the Britmums blogging conference, I came away feeling a little lacklustre.  I wasn’t sure where we were going, whether I still liked the direction we had followed over recent months.  I did even begin to wonder if I wanted to carry on.  I realised that I needed to step away and give it all some time and thought.

There were a flurry of summer bucket list posts flying around and I decided to do something similar to try and inspire an exciting summer of blog fodder.  We made a list.  A very long list of things.  Exciting things that would ensure a summer of fun.  I started to write my bucket list post, but I didn’t finish it.  The list was great and although we didn’t do everything, it did inspire us.

Things happened in real life that made me rethink everything and that made me want to enjoy my summer holiday even more.  To enjoy being with my family and not worrying about reviews that needed writing or the fact that I hadn’t published a post every day. Life needed to be lived and not lived through the blog.

So that is what I did.  I have had a wonderful and productive summer.  There have been fun days out in the sun, trips to new places, new experiences, lots of play and fun, endless cuddles and smiles.  I have even done some decorating; something that I have been meaning to do for months but the computer always seem to get in the way.  I have started to enjoy taking photos again; natural unposed photos that aren’t perfect or blogworthy but that make me smile and will remind me of this summer.  It has been lovely not having to stage photos for blog posts or taking photos simply to update my Instagram stream.

There have been a few blog posts, but our summer activities have been recorded in a summer journal for a change with photos and pictures, comments and mementos.  Something that we can all look back on and smile.

I haven’t been checking my stats, I haven’t been wasting hours on Twitter, I have simply popped on in the morning when I have a few minutes or in the evening to respond to any tweets or mentions received.  Emails have been read when I have time and I have said no to lots of requests for a variety of things.

Do I want to stop blogging?  The answer is a resounding no.  I still love my blog and it is still an important part of my life.  Once every one is back at school, normal service will resume and I will be back on a regular basis sharing the outpourings of whatever goes on in my head at that moment in time. The break has given me time to rethink and I have some new projects and ideas which I am excited about.  Things will be different though. Life is for living, not for blogging and my new motto is that I blog to live and I don’t live to blog.

I want to create a better balance and to ensure that my online life doesn’t get in the way of the real one as my children will all be grown up in a flash and I don’t ever want to look back in years to come and regret missing out on things because I was too busy on a screen somewhere.

So dear blog, I do still love you but as we enter our third year together, if this is going to work out, the way forward is balance and moderation.

Love me x