Category: Blogging Page 2 of 3

I have blogged now for over eleven years. The picture at the left is from a trip to the beach shortly before we restarted our homeschool adventure within a month after I started writing. I wrote because I wanted a record of the things we did and it helped me order my thoughts.

We had very specific goals and it was easy to find blog topics because we were very interested in doing things well, so we studied, shopped, traveled, worked and thought about very specific things that had to do with those goals. Frankly, though, I have struggled some since the kids went off to graduate school with finding topics about which to write.

The funny deal is that the blog following continues to grow. I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that I have moved up to the top of the Google search results for certain categories of questions like Why Not Skip High School, which math program to use, CLEP testing and several other topics. We are starting to get more and more hits on the series I am doing on Our Homeschool Story, too.

I am more encouraged than ever about continuing to blog. When we finished homeschool I got a little discouraged because I was so used to writing about homeschool and I struggled finding topics about which to write. We succeed beyond anything we might have imagined after making a ten year plan. Our specific goals were abruptly over. So abruptly that we were caught unaware. We have struggled to know what to do next. That has diminished somewhat now for a several of reasons. My parents’ entry into memory care and our need to return to Oregon to help gave us some sense of mission, but we know (or at least hope) that will be short term for everyones’ sakes.

While this was all going on, it dawned on me that I had learned, over these years, what kinds of blog posts and content works best to drive up page hits and unique visitors. That would be very important if I had not decided I wanted to write for other reasons than to have a large readership. I know how to link to the right news articles and blog posts, use the right words and do a few other things to gives myself spikes in readership. I do that some times just to see if it still works, but have decided that is not my reason for writing.

I am sure I will have the urge to write something every now and then to drive traffic to the site. It is fun, but not the motivation behind the bulk of my efforts. The biggest thing that helps me continue to write is that I like it now and it is part of my daily routine. We DO have a few specific goals. Lorena has been accepted at the local community college and plans to start classes as early as this summer. We have a few fun trips planned. Our kids continue to advance their careers. We plan to move someplace closer to Mexico to retire when your current responsibilities here in Oregon end. It is all good.

Life has currently put us into circumstances where it is very difficult to plan to achieve longer term stuff. That is not a bad thing, but it is not my comfort zone. I like to have something specific to do. Now we have an indeterminate period of time in front of us where we need to be available to help care for my parents (Grandpa Milo and Grandma Sarah) who are in memory care. I think it is very good for me. Lorena is much better at living in the moment than I. Maybe this will help me. I think, going forward, that will be more and more important in our lives. I surely do not plan to bore anyone with that, but I do plan to learn to enjoy the indeterminate. 

Betty Blonde #334 – 10/27/2009

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You might have noticed by now that I have changed the blog theme. I really did not want to do it, but someone was able to replace some of our blog links with some pretty unsavory stuff. I do not have a new header image yet, but it was about time for something new anyway. I hope to get to that soon. I have wondered whether I should keep blogging now that the kids have graduated and left home. Sometimes I struggle to find something meaningful about which to write, but sometimes I feel pretty inspired. I am playing it by ear right now, but it is just part of my daily routine now, so my sense is that I will just keep going.

On another note, a blogging buddy has asked me to submit something on our homeschool for an upcoming e-book they will publish. I have decided that would be pretty fun, so I am going to do it. I will keep you posted on that as it moves forward.

Betty Blonde #321 – 10/08/2009

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Day 709 of 1000

Without notification, our web host went out of business and shut down our website.  We lost 70-80 of the latest blog posts.  I have a diminishing hope of getting any of that back, but the good news is that everything from June 4, 2013 back was preserved and we have a more frequent back-up plan in place.  The other good part is that this haitus has made me think about what I am writing and what I want to do with the blog.  I definitely figured out I want to keep going.  I will continue to write about the culmination of the homeschool process as the kids finish college and go on to graduate school, but I have decided to try to write some more substantive posts in addition to that.  The content is still little up in the air, but I have some ideas.

I have a friend who has two kids, a toddler and a three year old.  He and his wife derive great joy and exert great effort in raising their children.  They write a blog that is mostly for friends and family with pictures and stories of what their kids do several days per week.  It is great because they are able to keep an ongoing record of their children.  As each year passes, they turn the blog postings for that year into a book.  Family and friends in distant places can stay in touch with the family’s goings on and feel a connection that would not be available if the blog did not exist.  We think that is great.  That is a reason onto itself to maintain a family blog.

There are some other good reasons to create a different kind of blog about one’s kids.  There are lots of ways to raise kids, some better than others.  Parents really want to know what works and what does not.  My friend and I went to lunch and for a cup of coffee today.  We talked about a lot of stuff, but we mostly talked about kids, parenting, and blogging.  My friend and his wife work hard to find good ways to raise their children.  They do it differently than us, they are a bilingual family that comes from different places than us, they took different career paths than us, but we have a lot in common with respect to the desire and level of effort to raise children well.

Fewer people try to explain the thought they give to doing things in a certain way along with what worked, what failed, and what was a mixed success.  That kind of blog is educational.  Especially if the focus is on the mechanics and the descriptions of the success and failures are real and honest.  Every family has a different set of issues with different worldviews and cultures.  Each family has different levels of success with each child based on circumstance, abilities, personalities, and a plethora of other influences.  It is great to read about the mechanics and analysis of such things, especially from thinking people.  I hope my friends decide to do a second blog with that separate focus.