Thursday Thoughts (Balance & Blogging)

Balance.

If you're a parent, I think it's safe to assume that you've spent some time working on balance.

It's a very common topic on my mind.

I'm always working to balance being a mother, a wife, a homemaker, a photographer, a blogger, and the list goes on.

I've been thinking a lot about this blog and about how it fits into my life. Raising Memories has evolved a lot since I first started it and so has my approach to blogging. Lately I've taken on a lot of opportunities for sharing fun products & organizations with you in this space. This year I've also become a writer for a great blog called HowDoesShe. My blog is taking sponsors for ad space on the sidebar, and it's starting to get busy over here in "Raising Memories Land".

Because some of the other things that I'm working to balance (mother, wife, etc.) are priorities, when I get busy, I find myself questioning what needs to go, to make more room/time in those areas.



Consequently, my mind has continued to return to that loaded question:
To Blog or Not to Blog?

I've been thinking about this for a long time, and I think I've finally come to a conclusion. For me right now, the answer is "to blog". Blogging is an outlet for me, it's a hobby, and it's something I really enjoy doing. I start to lose that joy when Internet time starts to take over. But I have some changes in mind for the new year that I'll be working to implement gradually as 2012 approaches. One of those is a schedule. I'm taking measures to be a little more organized with my blogging and Internet time management.

I've set some daily computer time limits for myself as well as found new ways to organize my plans for this blog. I'm hoping this will make for some better blogging in 2012- I don't want this blog to be too heavily weighted by sponsored content, but I think it's fun for me & for you, when I can share those things & offer giveaways, etc. So I'm making a point of spreading those things out and fitting them in among my posts that share fun activities and ideas of things to do with your kids. I'll also throw photography in there when I have something to share- but photography is one of the areas that I have cut back in, so you won't see regular sessions (and haven't seen them for some time).

I think a schedule will be nice for me & for you. If you're a regular reader, you'll know what to expect every day here.


So, here's my schedule for 2012:

Sunday: Housekeeping & Sharing Time
(Updates on what's going on at the blog like giveaways that are going on, and a chance to link up your own ideas & see some of the clever ideas that are being posted around blogland)

Monday: Monday Moments
(Pictures & kid quotes from life at our house)

Tuesday: Tutorial Tuesday
(A project we've tried with step-by-step instructions & photos)

Wednesday: Reviews/Giveaways/Sponsored Posts
(If we've got a fun sponsored post for the week, it'll go here, if not, I may not post on Wednesday)

Thursday: Thursday Thoughts
(I'm giving myself a place to share my thoughts- I always intend to do that here, but rarely do. I'm interested to see what I'll write about ;)

Friday: Feature Friday
(A post featuring a blogger and some of their best posts. If you're interested in being featured in the new year, send me an email to raisingmemories at gmail dot com.)

Saturday: Fun Idea/Activity
(A fun project idea that we've tried out & think you'd like.)

(I'm slowly getting into this habit for now- not everything will start right away, but expect to see a more predictable pattern in the new year)