I haven’t posted in nine days, which in blogging terms is closer to seventy-four years. Didn’t plan it, didn’t resurrect posts from my archive (most of which make internet bulimia look good). I don’t really know what happened, beyond your common-or-Dr. Seuss-variety slump.
A few years ago, Angela from New York sent us the children’s book Hurry, Hurry, Mary Dear by N. M. Bodecker and Eric Blegvad. It’s a poem about a woman in New England who has chores galore before winter comes. “Stack the stove wood, string the beans, up the storms and down the screens.” Round and round and in and out she whirls, while Hubs lolls in bed and then waits for his tea in his rocking chair.
Dick isn’t that bad, we live in an apartment, and if ignoring your children were an Olympic sport I’d be the Shawn Johnson of mothering. (Finally a gold in something!). So other than the adequately-helpful husband, easy access to mass-manufactured canned goods, and kids happy to watch movie after movie, my life is exactly the same as the under-appreciated, over-worked Mary Dear.
That’s my excuse for not blogging, anyway. Of course, probably you managed to find other means of entertainment in my absence (Just kidding! — of course you sat and moped while I slumped and Michael Phelps won yet another gold medal. I mean, after awhile, doesn’t all that winning and breaking world records and million dollar bonuses from Visa get just a bit . . . old?).
Have you noticed how many sports have four events or four strokes, or how much better baseball would be if there were only four innings? So I tried to think up four categories for my blogging break, but there’s a reason I’m not an Olympic athlete, despite doing my best to eat as close to 12,000 calories a day as possible. So I fell back on pros and cons:
Seven Pros and Cons of the Blogging Break
(1) Pro: Fun Outings with the kids (pools, dinosaur museums, parks)
Con: Since Susan (turning 4 in October) will not start kindergarten for 734 days, there are more pools, dinosaur museums, parks and McDonald play places in my immediate future than June Cleaver ever imagined.
(2) Pro: All this swimming = best tan of my life.
Con: All this no-routine-in-general, not-going-to-the gym-in-specific = flabbiest stomach since Spot vacated the premises.
(3) Pro: Gorgeous Utah weather — it’s getting chilly after dark now, and we’ve been stopping at parks on our way home.
Con: That’s on our way home from seeing every single (cheap) house, townhome, and condo in a thirty-mile radius. Apparently we are poor, picky, poor, and soon-to-be homeless.
(4) Pro: Quality reading time.
Con: Spending the better part of two days reading Breaking Dawn = “quality” might be a stretch. (That’s nothing time-wasting-wise though — I read Scarlett, arguably the worst book ever, in 18 hours straight).
(5) Pro: More time for “real life.”
Con: The house is still a mess anyway. “Real life” should not include “clean house.”
(6) Pro: Time with good friends from high school and my sister.
Con: Real-life problems like complicated pregnancies and lousy husbands are much harder to cope with that quirky servers and mean Stumblers and feelings of raging blogging-inadequacy.
(7) Pro: If you don’t post, turning on the computer is much less “what-if-no-one-commented-on-my-last-post” angst-ridden.
Con: If you don’t post, getting fewer comments is almost for sure. (Although I can’t tell you how much I appreciate the emails, tweets, and IRL comments; my acknowledgments page is all ready in case I ever write anything real).
If you wrote a great post while I’ve been gone, let me know. I hate it when people say that. Duh, all my posts are great, and if you weren’t such a loser, you’d know that and whenever you come back from a break you’d be camped out at my blog catching up. Right? Well, let me know if I missed your epic/ramble/etc. I’ll stumble it for you! Seriously. Unless you’d rather I didn’t, in which case tell me why, ’cause I’m planning a post on Adventures in Stumbling.
We’re going to my dad’s family’s reunion tonight; back late Thursday. Had to promise Dick I’d do all the laundry this week in exchange for him getting to go on the funnest camping trip ever with the coolest people ever. ! So if you send me a post url after 3 pm today, I’ll stumble it early Friday. I’d really like to read your post, stumble it, and then get some feedback from you as to what sort of response/traffic you get from the experience. Like a focus group, only better.
Tags: blogging, blogging break, childhood, house-hunting, kids, motherhood, summer
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Hey I feel you on the lame posting thing. I just can’t come up with anything worth littering the internet more than once a week at very best. But I did add a nice little pollyanna about preschool if you’re looking to stumble.
I would love you to drop by and Stumble something on my blog – no-one ever has
(Now I am worried you might not find anything worth stumbling!)
Great post – I try not to apologise when I take a bloggy break, but I usually do (apologise).
BTW you did ask if I knew any other NI/UK twitterers (sp?) – sorry – I seem to follow americans!
Don’t ever take a break again. (hahaha) The blogosphere was miserably lonely without you. I’m totally interested in your stumble post – I find the stumble to be a double-edged sword. When somebody stumbles me I get an enormous amount of hits (over 1,000 in one day) but I’m not sure how many new readers I really get. And then when I stumble along all I seem to find is a bunch of really bad sites which just makes me realize how much junk really does exist on the internet.
As for anything interesting while you were gone…well, I did a good post about play areas in fast food restaurants being complete mayhem. I did a couple of birthday posts. I posted about why we don’t use the word housewife any longer – hmmm. But really, are any of those interesting to anybody else but me? I have no idea.
Glad to have you back Jane -
Beths last blog post..Harmonica & Hibachi
Hey MereCat, JanMary, and Beth — I’ve stumbled a post each of yours (is that good grammar? I doubt it). Anyway, you can see them here: http://whataboutmom.stumbleupon.com/
Let me know if you get famous or rich, okay? (or if you gain any insights on stumbling!)
I was wondering where you’d gone off too. I had a great TTMG too, but now I can’t remember what it was.
Memarie Lanes last blog post..For That Deep Wet Look
I was doing a bit of stumbling myself and found your sight. I have finally found another mother that says what most won’t. Love it! I feel I owe it my children and future generations to not sugar coat things and to tell it like it is so that they do go not go into trauma induced shock when they are hit with the real world. No deer in the headlights at this house. If you feel like some innocent blog-stalking, feel free to stop by. I can not guarantee quite the wittiness you are so adept at, but I try to keep it real.
Erins last blog post..Last one back to school
I feel a slump coming on myself — find myself having those moments where I wonder why I’m bothering with blogging at all.
Nuff about me – glad you’re back. I suppose the little community of blogging moms is the reason why I’m sticking around.
You should win a gold medal for the stunning point that baseball should only have 4 innings.
the mama bird diariess last blog post..the olympics… what are you wearing?
No apologies for taking a break. I didn’t even notice. See, when I found you several days ago, I bookmarked your page. The problem is I bookmarked *that specific post* and then each day when I check back in, I was only going to that post but didn’t realize it. I kept seeing the same post, and just thought you were taking a little end of summer vacation! Now that I’ve corrected my link and you’re back from vacay, I’ll be looking forward to your updates!
I think it is the august slump or something, as I’ve been out of the game for awhile. Glad to see you back though and have to agree that I wouldn’t put “quality” next to any of the Twilight series books (and yes, I’ll be torn limb from limb by the crazy 30-somethings that just HEART Edward…eww)
Julias last blog post..Fancy Footwork
I really enjoy reading your blog. Just thought I’d let you know. From you, I found seriously so blessed and let me tell you that sure has been fun. I originally found your blog through The Natural Mommy’s recipe swap, and I still make your recipe from the post “Better than Brownies.” Just thought I’d let ya know. I love your writing!
Western Warmths last blog post..I Love Being a Mom
I found your blog recently and found it quite entertaining. But everytime I checked, it hadn’t been updated. I am glad to see that you are back!
Charlottes last blog post..The Skunk Who Came for Dinner
You have nada to worry about – I blogged today for the first time in 24 days! Now, that’s a slump! Like your new look, btw.
And the post about ‘perfect kids’ – great!
toni
tonis last blog post..Miatas, Wine & Touring