Longest. Blog. Hiatus. Ever.
Don't ask. You really don't want to know. Well maybe you do, but then I'd be here typing my little fingers off until the wee hours of the night. Oooops. Too late. It already is the wee hours of the night. Guess I can fill you in.
In the words of my very wise and witty Mister...well what happened was...
I started a teaching blog. I loved my teaching blog. No, I adored my teaching blog. I had so much fun posting, creating, sharing, collaborating, and learning. I would eat, breathe, and sleep my lovely little teaching blog. Every brain cell focused on teaching and blogging.
I started to forget that I had other responsibilities outside of my classroom and away from my computer screen. I started to forget that there were two little hearts and one quite bigger heart that needed me too...and needed me more! Like my pal Scooby would say, "ruh roh!"
So being the crazy "all-in or nothin'" girl that I am...I walked away from my little space on the web and threw in the towel. But that made me sad. I missed posting, creating, sharing, collaborating, and learning. I felt like a better teacher when I was doing those things.
And here's what I learned over those 10 (yah, that was painful to type) blogless months.
Boundaries. Gotta have them and actually respect them. I cannot spend a gazillion hours a week on the computer blogging which means I have to learn to say no. This means I can't join every linky party on earth or participate in every last giveaway. Ugh. That's a hard one.
Balance. I cannot be in teacher mode 100% of the time. After all, I'm not just a teacher. I'm a Christ follower, a wife, a mother, a friend, and yes I am a teacher, but it's all of those things together that contribute to who I am.
>>Side note: This lesson is where my new blog name comes from: Little In Betweens. It's actually the same as a personal blog I had briefly many years ago. I came up with the name from the idea that in the midst of doing all the BIG stuff in life, we have all these amazing little moments in between and it's usually in those small moments where we find the most joy.
I hope to continue posting about all the fun teaching stuff I'm doing, but I also hope to include a lot more about my journey finding joy in those little moments. Right now I'm totally finding buckets full of joy in watching nail, hair, and makeup tutorials on YouTube. It's currently a sick obsession and it's a pricy one too! I mean, come one, who can watch a beautiful 20 year old do this fab makeup and then not go buy all of it. I'm ridiculous, I know. Let's just set up a no judging zone and we'll all be fine...ha!
Be me. Whew, that took me a really long time to come up with something that started with a B. Did y'all catch that...boundaries, balance, be me. Oh yah, so clever.
Okay, so, be me. There are a lot of fancy blogs out there, a lot of amazing folks on TpT, and it piles on the pressure. Well, for me it does. Remember the crazy "all-in or nothin'" girl. I have a hard time keeping things reigned in. I can be a (excuse the expression) balls to the walls kind of person...I start something and it rapidly takes over my life, I jump in to the nth degree. Hence the whole purpose of this- I'm just now realizing- extremely long post.
If I can remember to just be me: no pressure, no ridiculous expectations, no beating myself up over the little things. If I can just have fun and find joy in the journey then I think I'll be just fine.
If you're still reading this...wow, you have some amazing endurance. Thanks for sticking in with me. Just one last quick thing then I'm outta here:
My URL for my blog will change tomorrow night...well technically tonight (Thursday) I guess. I think that means if you've been a follower of teachonalimb.blogspot.com you will need to RE-FOLLOW me once the URL changes (should be something along the lines of littleinbetweens.blogspot.com...crossing my fingers it will be available just like that). Pretty sure this is like blog suicide for most people, but I'm just looking at it as a fresh start.
I hope you'll continue to join me in the journey.
Jessica,
ReplyDeleteCan I just say I.... LOVE.... YOU. Girl, you speak to me. I get all caught up in that eat, sleep, breathe my blog and classroom problem too. With you every bit of the way. It can be so hard to find balance. I am making a pact with you to follow the 3 B's though. I think Be Yourself is my favorite one! Thanks for sharing this heartfelt post.
Hope
Teaching With Hope
Hi Hope, thank you so much for your sweet comment. That means more to me than you know!! I'm so glad to have you in the 3B's pact :) Maybe we can get some others to join us too!
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