21 Days and Counting on Habit Forming: The Post in Which I Explain Why I Have Paused Blogging

Wow!  I realized today that it has been 21 days since I last posted here.  In case anyone has been wondering where I am or if I am still alive, let me explain:

Since the New Year began, I have been extra busy with contract work to help finance our family necessities.  In order to make time for this work without completely throwing my life-balance out of whack or reducing my already lacking sleep further than it already is, some things had to give.   Blogging was one of those things.

I decided I would continue to post at least once a week, but no more than that unless life-balance allowed me extra online time for writing.  Obviously that did not happen often!

Work demanded more attention.  So did a growing realization that multi-tasking is not working in our home.  The kids, my marriage, our house, my prayer life -- just about everything -- suffers when I fail to decide what my priorities are at any given moment and, then, to give those priorities the fullest attention and energy that I can give to them.  

Online time just has not rated as high on my priority list lately -- not because I don't crave it and don't love sharing and learning online, but because I need to honor my call as mom, wife, homemaker, homeschooler and partial provider before blogging.  Slowly, since the new year, I became convicted about the fact that blogging is important to me (and, hopefully, my blog is valued by some readers!), but that it cannot be as important as other things that sometimes get less-than-full attention when I am swept up in blogsophere.  Thus, my step back to once-a-week blogging over the past several months.

And what about my more recent complete 21-day stall? 

Well, the third week in April, my husband and I decided to take the kids on a road trip to visit my husband's family.  That meant shuffling work contracts about before, during and after the trip, particularly after, since I got far less work-from-(my in-law's)-home done than I had thought I would.

In fact, it took me the entire last week to catch up on what I had committed to doing for work while we were away, yet did not manage to complete until we got home.  Okay to catch up on that, and the inevitable laundry, mail, bills, homeschool swing of things... The list goes on.

Finally, this past weekend, I sat for a moment and smiled.  It seemed that things were back to normal here -- or whatever "normal" had become before we left to visit my in-law's.  So, I almost got online to break my blogging haitus.  However, a child called.  A need arose.  A priority asked for me to choose it over blogging.

A pause.  A prayer.  A realization:  It is not time for me to begin blogging regularly again yet. 

Some say it takes 21 days to build a habit.  For me, it appears to take longer.  I know that if I begin my blogging habit again right now, I will impede the necessary habit-forming that other areas of my life demand.  There are simply not enough hours in the day for me to accomplish all that I have committed to doing for others -- as well as that which I have committed to doing (and being!) for myself and for our Lord.  At any given moment, many things call, but only ONE thing at a time can get my full (or nearly full) time and energy.  That thing must be one that is fully ensconced in my call to motherhood.   And, frankly, as much as I love blogging and interacting with other bloggers, blogging cannot be a top priority for me right now.

So, please know that I am alive.  I am well.  I am here.  I am missing writing more frequently, as well as reading others' blogs more regularly.  I hope to get back to doing so before too much longer.

However, for now, I have to maintain discipline.  I need to allow a habit of discerning priorities and attending to them to form before I indulge in the delights fo blogging again.

Wish me luck.  Lift my commitment in prayer.  And, until I am able to write again here, feel free to browse old pieces, to leave comments with your personal wisdom and advice, to make requests for topics you'd like to see me write on when I am able to return to blogging more regularly, etc.

Thank you!