And Then There Was One

I'm down to just one blog again. I started this blog nine years ago this November 25. (Happy Belated Anniversary to me) Seth was seven months old. Then a few years later, February 13, 2008 to be exact, I started blogging for skirt! magazine. I was thrilled to have another outlet for my voice and for my writing. My handle there was Shoegirl1970 and I blogged approximately 346 times over 5 years and 44 weeks.

 

A couple of weeks ago I received an email that was also sent to all the skirt! bloggers telling us that the magazine had decided to take a different direction and that they will no longer host the skirtsetter blogs. I was so sad. I quickly went to look at my blogs and tried to start saving them but that seemed like it was going to take forever. I quickly gave up. 345 blogs are a lot of blogs. Lesson learned? I should have backed up my blogs every year. Five years and 44 weeks fly by!

 

I also tried blogging on Hips 'n Salsa for a while but it was very hard to keep 3 blogs going, a full time job and 2 kids and that only lasted a year and a half or so.

 

Now I'm back to one blog. The funny thing is that I was recently talking about starting a sales blog for my new business, Casares Communications. I want to blog about the importance of having a sales team, even if it's just one person. I'm just worried if I can think up enough topics to keep the blog going on a regular basis. I still need to put some thought into that. Maybe I can start weekly and move to monthly, depending on the need for information.

 

I have to think about it. For now I will enjoy having only one blog.

Failing Miserably at Blogging Daily

So here we are November 7 and I haven't been blogging daily. In fact I've been failing miserably. So today I'm going to use the writing prompt on BlogHer. "How do I balance my family, work and blogging??"

Magnet design by annetaintor.com

Hmm... I don't. That's the most honest answer I can give. I am terrible at balancing anything. That's why I either don't eat or I exercise. Can't do both. That's why I can't blog, write, clean my house and do all the things I have to do on a daily basis all at the same time. I can either blog, take care of kid stuff, work on my book, exercise after work, or clean my house. Pick one.

That would be too ambitious of me if I did it all. Then everyone would be totally jealous of me and you wouldn't want to be my friend. So instead I just write totally honest blogs like this one. I think people think I'm just joking but I'm not.

Half the time I'm too exhausted to do anything. Some days are pretty calm at work but then I have out of the ordinary stuff happen and it's all kinds of crazy. Here is a good example. Last Friday I so needed a drink by the end of the day.

Before that, on Thursday my daughter told me that she had made enough points to try out for the all city band. Surprise! The only problem was that all the parents had to find their own transportation to the tryouts. I forgot to call a mom to ask her that night and the next day, Friday, I was emailing the group of stay at home moms who I knew would know someone. I received a reply from a mom in the early afternoon that she would take her to the band competition. In the meanwhile I was having a crisis with a customer at work.

So my Friday went like this: Found a ride for M to the band tryouts, worked, handled a problem with a customer, went to a meeting, signed divorce papers in front of notary, delivered papers to attorney, went to see upset customer from earlier call, found someone to pick up son, went to meet daughter at band tryouts (thank goodness it was close to the unhappy customer), got son from my sister, took the kids to ice cream, and went home. I was exhausted by the time it was all done but I still managed to meet my niece out for drinks that night. Priorities!

The thing is that the Tuesday prior to that was equally exhausting and I was at UH recruiting until 8 p.m. The next day, Wednesday, I had to make a presentation at work to a group of customers. I was tired. Thank goodness my daughter didn't have Odyssey of the Mind after school that day because I just wanted to rest.  That is what my life has been like lately.

So now you know why when I get home the last thing I want to do is clean or exercise. So the question remains, "How do I balance my family, work and blogging??"  I don't. I just take one day at a time.

Latest News on Other Blogs & In General

Magnet from annetaintor.com

I had a very productive weekend of writing. I started on Saturday with a blog on skirt! about my favorite all girl band, Girl in a Coma playing at the Tejano Music Awards on Sunday. 

Then on Sunday I blogged on Hips 'n Salsa about logging my food on livestrong.com. Pretty uneventful, but maybe helpful advice to some who don't know about livestrong.com.  

Sunday I also wrote a literary prompt response to this month's Literary Mama essay. I'm not sure if it will be accepted, but I've been wanting to do that for a while. I also need to finish a short story that I want to submit to Glimmertrain. I think I'll work on that next.

In other areas of my life as usual, when it rains it pours! Both my SUVs broke down at the very same time. So we spent today carless and stuck at home. I had to take an emergency vacation day tomorrow so we can take one of the SUVs to the shop and then I'll rent a car for work.

So yes, I'm not really medicated and motivated like my Anne Taintor magnet above says, but I feel like I need to be. I feel like it's always something and like my life is a constant challenge. And then I stop and I remind myself that despite these hiccups in life I have a lot more than many people and I have a healthy family. So I pick up and move on.