First of all, I’m starting this off as private- you need
email access to view.
Now, before we get too far into this, I do want to
differentiate myself as someone with a blog from a “blogger”, an influencer, a
social media personality, a lifestyle role model, and so on. I could never, nor
would anyone ever want me to, create something such as that. To each her own!
Quite frankly, I’m in a season in my life where I’m feeling
like I need an outlet...and I'm doing this for ME. I have found it to be so much fun to create the graphics, come up with blogpost ideas, plan out the blogposts monthly and weekly, and to actually write the posts.
To further that point, I found myself as the placeholder organic head of growth of a virtual educational start-up company. Through meeting with a marketing consultant and working with another teacher who is also applying her teacher skills in so many tech savvy, business, and marketing ways, I spend the majority of my work day doing graphic design for social media, scheduling social media posts, working with my marketing interns, writing blogposts, curating blog content, and simply discussing strategy for organic growth and enrollment. Since so much of my energy is spent on that, I have none of that left for trying to grow this blog or gain my own followers. That being said, I absolutely am surprisingly LOVING doing certain aspects of that organic sharing, and I would love to do more of it! Just for me. Personally.
I’ve always had a heart for sharing (God didn’t really bless
me with much shame), I have a desire to write, and I've found myself pulling away
from Facebook and Instagram to some extent. My life throughout the past decade
has put me in some pretty precarious situations that I would love to connect
with others about, and my passion is in doing that in words AND pictures- going beyond just picture content.
When thinking about writing, I wrote a blogpost years ago for a Master’s assignment, about being gluten free, and my professor contacted
me about being published. (That being said, this isn’t going to be some
well-edited, full-efforts, academic writing like that; it’s just a casual conversation!) However, that planted an idea in my mind. When Shane and I sat down years ago and discussed where we saw myself
professionally alongside his military career, he immediately said he always saw
me as working from home and a writer. Huh!
So, let met first start by saying what this blog is NOT.
- I’m NOT an influencer, or a wannabe influencer at that
- I’m NOT here to promote myself on social media
- I’m NOT trying to get followers (A lot of strangers reading this honestly makes me feel… uncomfortable. I would prefer to be known deeply by those I know than widely by those I don’t! Also, as I said, I try to promote our company for work and increase “followers” and that. Can. Be. Exhausting. and isn't what I'm truly motivated to do.)
- This will NOT have professional, curated pictures- especially ones of me trying to model
- I am not an expert on, well, probably anything besides my dogs. My husband? Elementary literacy? I do enough of that for work, so probably will rarely cover that here
Instead, I see this blog as being a space where
- I can keep up with those close to me (or those in similar situations) without the seemingly constant in-your-faceness of social media. Does that make sense? I somewhat get embarrassed when I post on socials now since I know they reach such a large number of people. You have to be more intentional about seeking this out and it'll reach those who care. After being what I've been through in my life that has knocked me down time and time again, I truly only care about those that make the effort and I have no desire to try to impress my widespan of Facebook followers.
- A focus on the light, fun, and frivolous- with sometimes deeper topics (More on how this ties into the blog name later!)
- Similar to the “old-school” way of blogging that my favorite bloggers still do. I find this way of connecting almost to be more mature, albeit somewhat outdated for many. It’s authentic and personal. I've found such a community through them. As a military wife, I'll take all the community I can get!
- Natural, everyday, non-perfect pictures that I happen to already have on my camera roll- no added stress
- A blog lines up with my social media mentality lately of living in the moment and returning back to those good memories much later to share them
- I love reading blogs because I get up and read them all at once in the early AM, and then I go out and live my own day without checking back in on social media constantly
- Cover military, moving, wife life, reading, God, recipes, workouts, homemaking, my irresistible dogs, my favorite products, just all the things you would share with your favorite girlfriends!
I would be amiss if I didn’t mention the hope, positivity, and strength some of my blogger community has brought me. Throughout the past 7 years or so, reading their blogs and communicating with them has probably kept me going more than I care to admit. There is something so calming and soothing about it.
They give me hope, they give me a life to look forward to,
they give me people that are very similar to me in so many ways, they act as
role models. There are two in particular that I look forward to reading every
single morning, and the sense of community they’ve created for us has been surprisingly
extremely fulfilling. I am interested in the details of their everyday life-
beyond just the “high highs” and “low lows” that you see of many on social
media, and I've always wanted to do this for myself!
My favorite blogger said she started hers over 10 years ago
when she was isolated, felt lonely, was going through big life changes, and she
wanted community. There’s many a day when that resonates with me in this season
of life all too well.
Lastly (my posts won’t always be this long!), do you know
what the best part of a blog, or any online platform is? NO ONE forces you to
read it! There are some I adore to read, and many, many, others that I can’t
get myself interested enough to skim more than a few words…and THAT’S OKAY. I’m
not for everyone, this website certainly isn’t for everyone. If this causes you
to feel negativity, I kindly ask that you don’t come here to read. If you do,
pick and choose the posts you want to read, ignore others, ignore them all- the
choice is yours!
All that to say, if you feel so inclined to follow along with a non-blogger, just a girl sharing her life in a different online format to build community and participate in a community she’s already part of, come along and join me in my LITTLE corner of the internet. I’m happy you’re here as a reader alongside my husband, mom, aunt, and best friend…hah!
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