Finding My Voice – AGAIN

This week, I got an email and blog post from a blogger that I haven’t heard from for three years. She told a story that resonated with me; she got sick of worrying about SEO and sponsors and monetizing her blog and just stopped writing. She went so far as to say that she didn’t really care if anyone read her blog, since she was mostly doing the writing as a way to collect recipes for herself.

Interesting. There are other ways to collect recipes, but I sure could empathize with her decision to stop worrying about making her blog make money and just use it as a sounding board. That’s mostly what I have been doing all along.

It’s been quite a while since I wrote anything meaningful, and today may not add to the gems I have written. Yet, I feel the urge to get it down on paper and out there…

As I do every year, I am prepping our house for a visit from our relatives. Almost every year for the last thirty-six years, Music Man’s family has flown in from the West Coast, stayed at our house for a couple of nights, and then we have driven 200 miles together to go to our family reunion. Every year I say I’m going to start the prepping and fluffing earlier, and every year things get in the way. I love having them visit, let’s be clear about that, but unfortunately due to my poor planning, now I have about 72 hours to get everything ready for house guests.

But what got in the way today, you are probably asking? Let me count the ways…

  1. Catching the award travel plane reservations on the first day I could buy tickets for our trip to France; that took a few hours, but is oh-so satisfying to use points to get to Europe and far more important than cleaning.
  2. Cleaning out my guest bathroom, which ended up including sorting medicines and pitching expired stuff. That led to cleaning out the back-storage closet where we keep medicines and supplies. You know, like the FOUR heating pads we have collected along the way. I’m trying to figure out how anyone could need four heating pads, but we are certainly prepared for any such emergency.
  3. Cleaning out my shoe rack, because of course I am a professional at buying (and returning) travel shoes from Amazon in the attempt to find the perfect shoe that can be worn with both trousers and dresses. I know there is such an animal, but I can’t get it in the size I need. Since I was already cleaning my shoe rack, then I had to go through the boxes full of orthotics and inserts that I have collected to keep my sad sore feet a little less sad and sore. Once again, I haven’t found the perfect match between my feet and my orthotics. But I have enough of them to outfit an army, it seems.

So now, I’m tired and ready to sit down with some juice derived from grapes and watch some British television. But I still have to put those orthotics away and clean off my bed before I can lay me down to sleep. And then I felt the need to write, so here you are. In the immortal words of Julie Powell, in Julie and Julia, is there anybody out there? I feel you…

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2 thoughts on “Finding My Voice – AGAIN

  1. Jennie – too funny!! People don’t care how clean your house is. They just want to see you, catch up on what’s been going on as have fun. Don’t stress about it – life is too short!

  2. Hey, girl! I’m out here, and like “Frazier” would say, “I’m listening.” Sometimes we have to make tough decisions. Trying to juggle real life with blog life…the struggle is real! In the aftermath of my latest surgery, I’ve had to step away from the computer to spend copious amounts of time exercising and strengthening my body…again!!! I’d much rather be fussing over flatware and stemware and floral arrangements, but real life dictates that I indefinitely put all that on hold. Painful as it is, I know it’s what’s most beneficial. Still, I miss everything about blogging that has been a part of my life the past 9 years. I especially miss the people like you who have shared bits and pieces of their lives, whether it be recipes or travel or tablescapes or personal tragedy. I hope you and your friend both find a way to bring your voices back on occasion and can strike that healthy balance we all seek to find. It’s out there.

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