Thank You: The Post in Which I Share My Gratitude to Readers and The Journey of this Blog

It’s June 21^st!

That means it’s summertime and the living is easy, right?

The kids experimenting with literal summer balance while Mommy rediscovers a more figurative time.

Well, maybe not that easy.  But, here, it is certainly easier than it was even a week ago.  Paid work contracts have slowed back down to a manageable pace.  Must-go-to commitments for the children and I have tapered off.  Health has returned to our family.  And, we are a two-vehicle household again.  (Yes – praises be – nearly two weeks ago, my husband’s old car died with perfect timing – after many seasonal work and homeschool commitments had wound down and just when the kids and I got sick with a summer bug that begged us to stay in virtual quarantine at home anyway.  If the old jalopy had to pick a time to finally break down beyond repair, a week ago Monday was the ideal time.  It’s the small things in life that make me grateful.)

Indeed, it seems that a life-balance of intention, not urgency, is in sight for me once more and, with it, comes a strong desire to begin blogging again.

Over the past week, the will to blog has been ever-present in my head and heart.  I have been trying to quiet it, but is simply won’t shush.

It prattles on:  I miss reflecting and writing.  I miss sharing.  I miss taking a more active part in the blogging community than “paused blogger” and “hit-and-run reader”.  In short, I miss it all – the learning, the sharing, the growth, the diversion, the discoveries.

So, I am back – at least for now – with great thanks to any of you who have stuck with me during my blogging break and are actually pausing your busy day to read these words. 

THANK YOU!

Truly, thank you to every reader who unknowingly lent me encouragement during the marathon of off-kilter life-balance that was my late winter and spring. 

It warmed me to note when you browsed old posts while the promise of current ones was on pause.  It made me smile when some of you actually took the time to comment on my prior sharings.  And, -wow – it truly lifted me when a few of you took the time to email, message me through Facebook or a blog comment just to see how I was doing and to encourage me both in my pause and in my one-day possible return.

A Quick Look Back at the Journey

When I began writing Training Happy Hearts in 2009, I wondered if anyone would even want to read it. 

In 2010, when book author Hartley became the first of several different folks who asked me to Guest Post on their blogs, I was excited, yet humbled.  It energized my will to blog and opened me up to getting to know so many more great people through virtual communities!

In 2011, I was delighted to build community with fellow “sensory kid” parents as well as Christian-Catholic ones through paying it forward with printables, sensory diet ideas and the Training Happy Hearts in Young Children Series, while also gleaning so much support and developing e-friendships with fellow bloggers and readers.  I also began to dabble more in affiliate links and item reviews in order to “justify" the time I spent on blogging and to help our family out a tiny, tiny – and I do mean minutely tiny – bit.

In 2012, it amazed me to note that the Alerting Activity ABC cards that I had created in 2011 remained such a huge hit with folks, while also seeing that faith-based ideas, like BLESSing cards, and education ones, like my Weather Tree How-To and Round Up,  became popular.  Unfortunately, though, I could not consistently continue to create and share printables and stories about SPD, faith and education.  Part way through 2012, a computer hard drive failure mandated that I take my first longish blogging break.  Granted, my desire to blog could not be quelled for long.  I was back at it within about a month.

By 2013, sharing here at Training Happy hearts was firmly established in my head and my heart as a joy for any “free time” I might find.  However, it also became increasingly apparent to me that I had been allocating too much not-really-free time to being online.  Blogging (and being on the computer in general) had moved from being a delight in balance with the rest of life to being a detriment to it.

Once I confessed that blogging had taken too large a role in my life, I made a conscious effort to wean my blogging pursuits back to whatever time that more important life needs would actually allow for them.  This meant that in the first half 2013, blogging ended up slowing, more or less, to just keeping my commitment to the THH Sunday Series before, eventually, pausing all together.

Now, after praying... and thinking... and praying and thinking some more – as well as noting that life is getting at least a little more balanced – I am back!  Back with great thanks to those who have spent a moment or more sharing both in my family’s journey and in my personal blogging journey.

I thank you, readers and fellow bloggers, for being just like in-real-life friends – not always actively present, but always there to pick up where we left off...

Truly, thank you!