". . . little shall I grace my cause

In speaking for myself. Yet, by your gracious patience,

I will a round unvarnish'd tale deliver . . ."

(William Shakespeare's Othello, I.iii.88-90)

Sunday, December 31, 2017

Happy New Year!

Have you made any New Year's resolutions?

I wasn't planning to, but something my husband said today has changed my mind. He was reading an old post here and noted that one of the things that he appreciates about my blog is the ability to look back and remember what we were doing in years past. The thing is, that is getting harder to do, as the frequency of my blogging has steadily declined over the last five years. I started this blog in mid-2007. In 2008, my first full year of blogging, I posted 431 times. That was by far my most prolific year. The years 2009, 2010, and 2011 each went down. 2012 went back up a little, but since then my posting has gone down every year. So far this year I have only posted 20 times.

I think there are probably several reasons I am posting less. One, when I first started blogging, I had many friends who were also blogging. I read their blogs, they read mine, and there was motivation in that. When fewer people are reading, there is less incentive to write.

Two, I started this blog as an outlet for my writing. Now that I have found some other ways to channel that passion, I feel less driven to do it here.

Three, some of the things I have historically blogged the most about, such as homeschooling and child-rearing, are becoming less of a factor in my life.

But I don't want this blog to die. I have no idea who is still out there reading, but I hope that some day when I am gone (a long time from now!) this will at least be a place my children and grandchildren can go to revisit stories of their parents and grandparents and great-grandparents. Maybe when I'm an old lady in the rest home it will be a place I can do the same.

And hey, I may not have as much to say about homeschooling and child-rearing as I used to, but I do still have thoughts, and maybe even a bit of wisdom to share.

So I'm going to try to blog more in 2018. How much is "more"? If you want to know the answer to that, you're going to have to keep reading. :-)



4 comments:

Ewe said...

I'm still reading. Keep it up, please!

Susan said...

I hear ya.
For several years, I was doing 600 or more posts per year. This past year was 10. Ten.

Mom died. That's part of it. I would post pictures and tidbits, mostly for her to stay in touch a bit. Then our chats would be more than just a recitation of what had happened recently.

Other people don't blog as much, so the conversation seems one-sided when I blog now.

I seem to have offended SO many people (and been blind-sided by the fact that they were offended by something that I never dreamed could've been upsetting) that it's made me trigger-shy.

I'd like to say I'll join your resolution and plan to blog more. But at the rate I blogged this year, a concerted effort for a month would trounce last year's rate. In other words, I have nowhere to go but up. (Maybe ???....)

Cheryl said...

Thank you both for continuing to read!

And Susan, I'll be watching for more posts. :-)

Anonymous said...

Hope you keep blogging - always interesting.
Suzanne Iowa Looper