Friday, July 1, 2016

Guess Who's Back, Back Again

First of all, if you aren't channeling early 2000's and singing Eminem right now, please stop and look it up on YouTube.

Okay, so I've taken a bit of a blogging hiatus for a myriad of reasons. Here are some of the reasons I took a break, along with reasons why I plan to resume regular blogging.

Why Take a Break:
My biggest blog supporter was probably my friend Karen, who recently lost her battle with cancer. She was a regular blogger herself, and many of our conversations were initiated from something we blogged about. If I didn't hear from her for a few days I'd text her to ask if I could do anything for her. She'd normally say something like, "Keep writing. Make me laugh. Send me pictures of the kids." Of course there are other readers of the blog and people who care, but most of my audience is quiet, so it was very easy to slip away for a while when Karen stopped reading.

Why Resume Blogging:
Karen didn't have the typical funeral service. Actually she didn't have any service it all. It was more of a reception of family and friends in an outdoor setting where she loved.  There were many of Karen's scrapbooks and photographs on display. She did a fantastic job documenting the mundane and extraordinary moments of her life. Her words and pictures will paint a larger picture of what kind of woman and mother she was for her four year old son that she leaves behind. When memories fail me, photographs and narratives are all that remains from my own childhood after my parents died. I hope to live a long life, but regardless if I live only five years or 50 years, I want all the memories and stories preserved for my family.

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Why Take a Break: My photo storage and organization has been a disaster the past six months.  For years, I would move all my digital photos for the month into a monthly file folder and save it on my external hard drive. Ever since our hard drive crashed, I've been keeping photos on my phone until I run out of space. Then I randomly upload several hundred onto Jesse's computer or my laptop.

Why Resume Blogging: I finally purchased another external hard drive. After many hours, I have over 8,000 photos sorted in monthly file folders. I'm working to cull the photos and back them up online through Carbonite as well as the external hard drive. Getting my photos in order makes things much less overwhelming.

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Why Take a Break:
For so many weeks, I spent every night browsing school websites and district openings. My evening blogging time was replaced with evening job search time. I've been on so many interviews and follow up interviews. I've turned down multiple job offers and been rejected from multiple principals.

Why Resume Blogging:
Things are falling into place on the job front. I've accepted a job offer, though nothing is official through HR yet. I have so many reservations and anxieties about returning to work, but I'll save the details for another post. In another six weeks my free nights will be consumed with lesson plans and work emails, so I'd better start blogging while I have the chance.

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We're nearly halfway through our list of summer trips so I have plenty of stories and photos to share. My goal is to publish 30 posts this month. Given my recent track record, that goal is rather ambitious, but I'll at least have some motivation to blog. I'm hopeful that I can preserve our family memories and share our summer adventures.

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