NaBloPoMo is Here!

It is that time of year again, and I won't lie, I've been looking forward to this for quite some time.  Last year, I revived my blog with NaBloPoMo in October.  It was the first time since I started it that I posted regularly. I loved feeling like I was finally contributing to the blogging world, instead of just reading everyone else's blogs. While I maintained the posting momentum for a few months, things petered out and then died altogether by the end of April.  I went a full five months before I picked it back up, and I have to admit that part of the reason I started posting in October was to gain momentum for NaBloPoMo in November.

While I enjoyed writing alongside my friend Kristen in October last year, come November, I realized that  many of the blogs I followed were taking the challenge during that month.  I felt a little left out and determined that this year, should my blog need reviving, I would take the challenge in November, right alongside Bridget and a few others.

So here I am.  Ready for 30 posts in 30 days! I've got all kinds of good stuff I've been saving just for this occasion.  Now, I realize that it is late on this, the first day of November, and that the few of you who read this blog will likely not read this until at least the 2nd of November, but I urge you to join me anyway!  Who cares if you're a day late?  Write an extra post one day if it makes you feel better!  All right now, who's with me?

Yep! We're alive...

So. I've decided that going too long without blogging becomes a little like going too long without talking to an old friend. The longer I go, the more guilty I feel, which makes it that much harder to pick up the phone (sit down at the computer) and say hi. Plus, the longer I go, the more there is to talk about and I start to put off the conversation because I know how long it will take us to catch up. Eventually, though, my desire to talk to my old friend outweighs the guilt and overcomes the procrastination. So here we are.

Our little family has been through quite a few changes in the past five months (five!) since I last blogged. A lot of these events deserve at least one, if not more, posts of their own...but if I try to write a post for everything that has happened, I'll get so overwhelmed that I'll never blog ever again! So, instead, here is the reader's digest version of the past few months:

At the end of April, Jason lost his job. It was a contracted position that we hoped would be made permanent, but it wasn't. Along with losing income, we also lost our amazing government insurance plan. We joined the ranks of the uninsured and the unemployed.

Despite applying to well over 100 positions, Jason did not get one single interview - a testament to the dire state of employment in the state of Oregon. So he started applying outside of the state.

In May, we flew to Phoenix, AZ for a job interview with a national pool supply company. They offered him a position as a manager in training. The starting salary is painfully low, but the growth potential is fantastic. So, despite my strong hate of the heat and my love for rainy, gray, fall Portland days, we made the decision to pack up and leave our beloved Portland for Arizona.

Kind of...

It's a New Year

Sigh.  Things in the blogging world just kind of petered out at the end of 2009 for me - not quite the big finish I was hoping for.  Oh well.  Here's to a new month and a new year, hopefully full of more consistent blogging.  I can proudly say that I averaged 48 posts in 2009 - just shy of one post a week.  Not bad considering that I went five full months without a single post.

So this post isn't really a real post.  It's more just my way of kickstarting my sluggish blogging brain.  One of the unfortunate side effects of not blogging for a few weeks is that I get a bunch of ideas rolling around in my head, which, rather than make it easier for me to blog, just makes it harder.  I'm hoping that by seeing something posted in January it will take the pressure off and make the next post roll out more smoothly.  We shall see.

As cliche as it is, I am going to post a few...well, I hate to call them resolutions, so let's call them, um, goals? That's not much better. But you get the idea.  Some things I'd like to try to accomplish for this upcoming year.

1.  Read more books.  This is kind of a vague goal, and really isn't setting the standard very high since I only read 3 books in 2009 (shameful, I know, especially for a former book worm).  So, instead, I'm going to make the rather lofty goal of reading 25 books this year.  That's a little fewer than one book every two weeks.  I better get on that...

2.  Related to goal #1 - make full use of the library.  I am a book-buyer from way back. I like to own my books, what can I say?  However, if I'm to read 25 books this year, I can't really afford to buy them all, not to mention how difficult it will be to find storage for them in my storage-challenged house.  So, the library it is. Plus, I want to encourage the habit in my wee one.

3.  Blog more.  Ha! Another vague goal.  But really, I kind of already started this back in October.  At the very least I'd like to stay close to current on Cy's blog.  It's been a good six weeks since my last post on that one, and his grandparents are getting antsy.  Maybe a post a week is a good goal for that blog, and perhaps two posts a week for this one?  Maybe if I just try to average 2 posts a week, that will give me a little more flexibility.

4.  Make more of an effort to stay in touch.  I kind of suck at this.  The more I move the more people with whom I develop friendships, and the more overwhelmed I get at staying connected.  I think it's just a matter of putting in more effort, even just in little bursts.  Perhaps I should make this one more specific too.  Ok, here it is - call or e-mail one friend a day.  This might seem a bit over the top, but I think if I keep this in mind it will get me off my butt and help me connect with people who I do actually care about.

I'm quite sure there is more I would like to do, or at least more that I should do.  But for now, we'll leave it here.  Thanks for indulging in this somewhat stream-of-consciousness style post.  I promise to be more articulate in future posts...well, maybe I can't promise that, but at least I'll try.

Self-esteem rising...only to fall again

I'm going to go out on a limb here and generalize that those who blog do so with the anticipation and hope that others will read their writing. I will go even further to say that those of us who leave our blogs open hope that strangers may also read and find interesting the things that we write. Even if this isn't true for other bloggers, it is for me, even if I wasn't willing to admit it right away. Blogger has two easy ways for me to know if others are reading my blog: the follower gadget and comments at the end of posts. So far I have three followers (one of which is my mom) and I appreciate them all. And, I think around 8 or 9 people have commented on my blog overall. Not bad, considering that this blog has really only been active for a month.

Now, I will admit that I've decided that I will feel somewhat successful as a blogger when I have a stranger either comment on my blog or become a follower. So, imagine my delight when I opened my e-mail a few days ago and saw a comment from a person I did not know! My confidence sky-rocketed and I felt ever so slightly proud of myself. It was on my post about jogging strollers, which I did think was a pretty interesting post, if I do say so myself. And then I opened the e-mail to read the comment and saw this:

"Thanks for sharing that! Nice post. I just glanced through it. "

It was followed by a link to buy strollers.

So. Not only did my one stranger commenter only "glance" through my post, but he then used the comment section to advertise! Not exactly what I had in mind...

Oh well, I guess I haven't quite reached stranger-commenting-worthy status yet, after all. It's a good thing that I don't really base my self-esteem on the comments on my blog or that could have been a real doozy!

Reflections on NaBloPoMo

Here it is, November 1, and I no longer "have" to write a daily blog post - and yet, here I am, still writing a post. Even as I plopped down on my couch this evening and proudly asked Jason "Guess what I don't have to do tonight?" I had three blog post ideas running around in my head. So, I guess NaBloPoMo served it's purpose. Here are some other things that occurred as a result of writing 31 posts in 31 days:

1. I now think about things from a blogging perspective. At the beginning of the month, I really had to push myself to come up with something to write about every single day. As I've already mentioned, small occurrences in my daily life now practically write themselves into posts!

2. I've realized that I really enjoy the idea of a blogging community. I've learned new things or gotten new perspectives from the comments people have left on my posts, and that is an unexpected positive side-effect.

3. Things I thought might not be interesting sparked thoughts in other people. Some of the posts that I did simply as a way to make sure that I wrote a post every day garnered the most comments, or at least prompted people to ask questions that will lead to other posts.

4. I've gotten over some of my perfectionism and am OK to post something even if I can't weave my words into the work of art that I'd like to.

5. I've enjoyed blogging so much so that I started a second blog for Cyrus.

6. I had a really good excuse to finally write Cyrus' birth story - something I'd been wanting to do for three months!

7. Perhaps one of the greatest things is that I now have almost 40 posts for the year of 2009! That averages out to nearly 4 posts a month for January through October. Of course, 31 of those happened in October...

It helped having Kristen plugging away right beside me. And, now I get to sit back and relax for the month of November and read Bridget's blog as she completes NaBloPoMo this month. I will say that this was a tougher challenge than I thought it would be and yet one that I'm proud to have accomplished. Now we'll just have to see how long I can maintain this momentum!

Can't Stop Now!

I'm officially more than halfway through with NaBloPoMo and while that is encouraging, it also adds the pressure.  Today is a day when I would not probably write a post if I weren't participating in NaBloPoMo.  It was Cyrus's first airplane ride and I tackled that adventure all on my own.  It went surprisingly well, but it was still an early morning and an exhausting day.  Plus, I don't know if it was the airplane air, the high altitude and dry climate of Denver, or some kind of virus but I have a very sore throat and feel extremely tired.  I just don't have the brainpower to attempt an entertaining, thought-provoking, or otherwise intersting post.

I'm sure that some of you are saying "Well, Amber, then just don't write a post today. There is no reward for completing NaBloPoMo, there will be no strikes of lightnening if you miss a day - give yourself a break." Oh, if only I could.  But see, I started this and I don't want to be a quitter.  And, I beg to differ that there is no reward for completing this little challenge - I will have the reward of sweet satisfaction that I tackled and concurred something outside of my comfort zone and somewhat challening.  Also, I have been known to be a little competative, even if it's with myself or some unknown entity.  So I can't just not post today.  I had to write something, even if this is a bit on the pathetic side.  At least I haven't broken my momentum.

I promise to post something much more interesting and intriguing tomorrow!

Blog Fever and Being Shown Up

Apparently all of this posting has boosted my blogging confidence, and I now think that I'm capable of maintaining not one, but two blogs! Yep, that's right, tease me if you will, but I've started a blog for my child - well, about him really. I decided that I like this blog being about my experiences and perspectives, but realized that some of my family and friends really just want to hear about Cy (honestly, probably just his grandparents, but still). Plus, I'm pretty crappy at scrapbooking, so this is my compromise. At the moment the blog is open, but will soon be made private. If all two of you who read this blog want to read that one too, post a comment and I'll invite you. You can check it out here but know that I've essentially posted the first post here as well.

So about a month ago at Cy's 2 month check-up, we told his doctor that Cy absolutely despises tummy time. Every time we put him on his tummy he immediately dropped his head to the ground and began the closest thing to a temper tantrum that a 2 month old is capable of - screaming, crying and flailing of limbs. We told her that he pretty much just gives up. So she decides to see how he does on his tummy. She grabbed him by the arms and put him on his tummy. Here comes the being shown up part. His arms were straight back against his sides and the first thing he does is lift his chest up, mermaid style. then, he promptly rolls off of the exam table! Fortunately, the doctor was quick and she caught him. Making liers out of us already!

Of course, we get home, and he's having none of it. He flat out refuses to roll over, and though he gives it a minute or two before the wailing begins, he's still pretty unhappy on his tummy. Fast forward to this past Saturday and we have a friend over. After explaining just how much he hates tummy time, we put Cy on his tummy, and what does he do? Rolls over! Shown up again! We tried to get him to do it again later that day and the following day, but yet again, he was having none of it.

Finally yesterday, the day he turned three months old, I put him on his tummy and - voila! He rolled over. Still not convinced it wasn't a fluke, I put him back on his tummy and again! He rolled over! Four times in total and once this morning tells me we've reached another milestone! And, just for a little shameless bragging, here's a video clip:

Taking the Plunge

Looking at the sidebar of my blog the other day, I realized that I have only posted once a month for the past two months, and that there are several months without any posts. This is pathetic. I frequently want to blog but there are so many things that keep me from doing so. I could enumerate those for you, but then the other day, I read a post by my friend Kristen that pretty much summed up how I feel about blogging. Rather than risk plagerizing her thoughts, I'll let you read that post for yourself!

Kristen's solution to lack of blogging motivation is to participate in National Blog Post Month (also known as NaBloPoMo) for the month of October. She issued an invitation for others to join her, and I've decided that this is the perfect opportunity to hone my blogging skills and get in the habit of posting regularly.

All day today, I've contemplated whether or not to take on this challenge. As I went back and forth, I came up with several obstacles that I will have to overcome if I am to successfully write 31 posts in 31 days. I figure by laying those out ahead of time, perhaps I will have more luck getting past them. So, here they are, in no particular order:

1. As of right now, we are a one car family, and Jason needs the car to go to work. Therefore, I am homebound for most of the day, giving me limited outside material from which to draw inspiration for a post.

2. Many people are able to blog artfully about funny or interesting things that their children do, which might be a good option in leiu of getting out of the house; however, my child is not even three months old, and although I find him riveting, he just doesn't do very many interesting things that could be parlayed into an engaging blog post.

3. I am an insufferable perfectionist, and so I continually second guess my blogging ideas (part of why I blog so infrequently). Because of the two reasons listed above, I know that I will feel like I have nothing interesting to say.

4. I am going to be out of town for a week. There will be a computer where I am going, but I will still have to motivate to write while on "vacation". (I use this term loosely as I don't really get to take a break from what I do every day...)

5. Which brings me to my next obstacle: I have a two month old who is my boss. Though his schedule is becoming slightly more regular, he still decides when I have free time, and just how long that free time lasts. I may think I have a good 1.5 hours while he's napping, only to find that 10 minutes into writing a post he will wake up and demand that I feed him/change him/hold him/see to his every whim.

So, all of this notwithstanding, I am taking the plunge. I am committing to 31 posts in 31 days, starting today. Encouragement in the form of joining the challenge and/or leaving comments is much appreciated!