I Have Decided to Quit Blogging

I’ve gotten a few notes and comments from regular readers asking if I’m okay and telling me that they miss my blog updates. Thank you. That is very sweet of all of you.

And while I don’t OWE you an explanation for my absence because after all this is my place on the web and I will do with it what I want, I will offer one out of friendship. Simply put, I burnt out. I was pressing everyday to find something to write about and stressing about whether my stats were climbing and if I was "good enough" to be a part of bloggy land at all. I was worried about whether you were enjoying my writing and was I funny enough? Why wouldn’t my meme take off and why didn’t I take more pictures this week for Wordless Wednesday? Who in the forums was reading my stuff and why wouldn’t more people comment? Why couldn’t my most controversial stances spark any kind of debate?

I was dreaming in blog people. I would wake up thinking blog and I would eat blog for lunch and I would blog while I was brushing my teeth. Not on the blog but in my head. I would wake up in the middle of the night to make notes about a dream because maybe when I was fully awake I could turn it into a roll em in the aisles post.

For some people that is a great thing. For some people that would be a rocking life. For me it was torture. I want to write. Just write. I don’t want to install meta tags and learn CSS code and HTML code and link all the right keywords. I don’t really care if Google finds me or not. I don’t necessarily want to make millions off of my blog. It would be nice if it happened but only if I can still be happy while I do it.

I just want to write. And that is what this started out as. A place for me to write. Then I got sidetracked with stats and comment counts and posting two or three times a day and making sure that I was friends with the right people in bloggy land and making sure that I didn’t offend or comment on the wrong blog because that would draw drama.

So I am going to quit blogging. I am just going to write. Here. When I feel like it and about what I want. The family stuff will still be found at The Zoo and the brain junk and social commentary will still be at The Bowl. But don’t expect me to update everyday. I don’t have THAT much to say.

I am no longer judging my success by stats, followers and page rank. I am purely judging my success by comments and my own happiness. If I can inspire you enough to cause you to comment then I have been successful. My biggest reward is forcing Buck to come out of his reader to comment. And that is what I want it to be all about. Just writing and sharing my writing with people who want to read.

Those of you who know me from some forums, give my regards. It’s not that I don’t like you or want to hang out with you. I just can’t get sucked back into all "stuff" that is blogging.
So farewell to blogging - welcome back writing.

**Note: For those of you who follow both, you will see this post cross posted today because the same audience is not in both places. Thanks for your tolerance.

How About a Third Helping?

Well, I'm adding to my bloggy family. No. This is not a preggers announcement. Could someone please pick my sister up off the floor? Baxter? Thanks bud.

No, I'm just adding to my writing projects so on top of my two blogs and the other book that keeps rolling around in my head, I am going to contribute to Kadi's project Making a Mommy. If you haven't been there yet you really should visit. It's a gathering place for mothers to share the wisdom that they have found in their own parenting journey. So if you are a mom to be, a mom who has been, or a mom in middle of the process there is something there for you. Kadi should know! She has seven.

She is also welcoming other writers so get your tookus over there and throw you hat in the ring. In the meantime, feel free to pop over and visit me there from time to time too. I always welcome the company.

Could a Mother Be Prouder?

Or more jealous?

Orangutan came home from school today with this.

My daughter has been published. In a hardback no less! I can't even get a stinkin' magazine or newspaper article. Maybe I should start writing the kind of page turner material that my beloved Orangutan has been writing. Reproduced with permission by the way.

"Once upon a time in a kingdom far away from New York, on the other side of the world, where Santa Claus lives, and there's lots of snow lived a King named "Old King Cole.

One day, he found a unicorn lost in the snow with a little pony. They were trying to find their way out of the snow.

So the King decided to help them to go to a place out of the snow, where there's lots of fun called Georgia.

The king made really nice friends with the pony and the unicorn. The King, the unicorn and the pony went to get a drink of water.

The King told them a joke. He told them 'Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall, but Humpty Dumpty didn't fall.'

They all laughed and laughed at the King's joke, and they all lived happily ever after.

The End."

I'm sorry. The book tour hasn't been finalized yet but I'll post it as soon as we finish up with the Caldecott interview.

Are you Tired of Being Tangled Yet?

Because I know you all did exactly what I asked and crossed everything this morning so that you looked a little like this...

Looks painful doesn't it? Like Gumby and Smurfette had a little one. Kinda freaky really. Those chicks on the bottom really got a bum rap. What am I supposed to be talking about? Because I'm pretty sure it's not Gumby.

Oh yeah! You want to know if Rhino got pulled in the lottery! I called the school and Ms. Debbie the secretary answered the phone. I gave her my name and told her that I wanted to check the PreK list. She asked me to hold and then immediately said, "Oh wait! You're Tucker's mom?"

Deep breath before I said yes. Holding for a split second before she answered with...

Tension's killing you isn't it? It's this little thing I'm working on called plot development. You're supposed to create tense situations that keep your readers craving the answer to the conflict. Is it working?

"Sure, he's in! I hope we made your weekend!"

Are you kidding me? It took me a full 20 minutes to stop dancing long enough to realize that I was supposed to be on my way to pick O up.

So YES! We are in! Thank the Lord because with this week's track record, if I had to make two school stops on the way in the morning we would be late every single day of the year.

At first he wasn't thrilled because he thought O would be mad that he was going to school with her. O assured him that she was really excited because she would be able to look out for him and maybe she would get to see him in the cafeteria at lunch and she would make sure he found me in the car rider line. You know, take care of all that really important stuff. Now he feels better and he is ready to start getting ready for school.

The question now is how am I going to feel in August when it all really happens?

No More Appropriate Place to Visit

For those of us who are Christian, there is no more appropriate place to visit for Christmas than Israel. And there is no more appropriate person to guide us on our tour than a child. Please welcome my beloved Melisa (aka Misa Bug!), a nine year old brilliant writer and joy of my heart!

Mo'adim Lesimkha!

That is Merry Christmas in Hebrew. In Israel at Christmas time Christians go to church at the exact place Jesus was born. The Church is called the Church of the Nativity. Flags and other decorations fill the church. If you go down the deep winding stairs, you'll find baby Jesus' manger site. There is a big silver star around it that has 14 points with 15 silver lamps. Around the star it says, "Here of the Virgin Mary Jesus Christ was born."

Every year they have a parade with galloping horsmen and policemen that ride Arabian horses. Then one horseman on a solid black steed carrying a cross rides by. All of the churchmen and goverment officials walk at the end.

(Note added from Melisa's Mom: This procession leads the people to the Church of the Nativity where they have the worship service. Only a few hundred people can fit into the church, so they now place large screens and do a video cast of the worship service for the thousands of people gathered outside to worship at the place of Jesus' birth. After this service, many people then head out to the fields where the shepherds saw the angels to continue the worship service).

In the cities a Christian home has a red cross on the door. Plus they decorate their homes with a homemade nativity set. In the middle of every village is a pole with a star on the top.

And so that's how they celebrate Christmas in Israel.

Melisa

Isn't she AWESOME!! And Nut, you're welcome for the easy writing and literature homework! Merry Christmas to my Bug and my Boo and to Nut and Clark too! I love you guys!!

Do You Know What This Is?

This is post #99. Do you know what that means? That means my first post for the MomDot Blog Party tomorrow will be my 100th post! Wow!! I am so incredibly excited! And I don't know what I'm more excited about.

Is it more exciting to have your 100th post and realize that you've been at this long enough to call it an addiction? To realize that you have rambled to 12 people about the nonsense that goes on in your head 100 times and they have faithfully hung around to hear it?

Or is it more exciting for Post #100 to be the launching post that you know (hope and pray) will be seen by a ton of people because they are participating in the same blog party you are? And it's a pretty good post (I've already scheduled it!) if I do say so myself.

Well anyway. It's a great big "Yay for me" so I thank you my faithful few for hanging around this long and I can't wait to see what comes up next! Thanks! And see you tomorrow!

**You are coming back, right?**

This is Me Warming up my Typing Fingers

You are probably going to start seeing more typed posts from me. I mean Motherhood Means will continue but I have to start working out. Yes, I just referred to typing as working out. But let me explain and then I bet you'll start training too.

So Trisha and Co. over at MomDot (I have mentioned them only about a million times before!) are about to launch a HUGE, GINORMOUS, MASSIVE, GARGANTUAN blog party leading up to Christmas. I don't think you really understand this is going to be BIG.

Here's how it's going to work. The really awesome bloggers that I hang out with everyday over at MomDot are going to be blogging about different holiday related themes. Over at MomDot, Trisha is going to have a "cheat sheet" of where you can go to see the different perspectives on said themes. When you join us and blog too guess what? You get entered into the party. As with any party there are presents - REALLY cool presents if the Dyson vacuum is any indication!

What? You want more information you say? Well, then ckeck this out (pirated with permission from Trisha)

"In November, we are going to have a BLOG PARTY leading up to our Christmas of Dreams pull on Nov 28th to get everyone ready for Christmas.

The blog party will run from Nov 12-27th and will include some fabulous sponsors and fabulous prizes. We want to bring you to new blogs, participate in a few around the blogosphere games and topics, and highlight some online boutiques. Just meet up here every day during the blog party time to sign our Mr. Linky and we will be giving you lots of blogs to go to, lots of people to party with, and lots of prizes to win! By making it around the blogosphere to participating partying members, you will be exposed to new blogs, let people ‘meet’ you, and earn entries into our giveaways during that time. Only participating members of the Blog Party will be eligible for Blog Party prizes and we will do a mass draw at the end for everything we have and annouce all the winners at once on Nov 27th.

But at the end of the Blog Party, ON Nov 28th, we will be celebrating a Christmas of Dreams, where one person will walk away with an entire gaggle of items from sponsors like DYSON, Mutsy, and More! If you are a mom or a business that would like to be a part of our Blog Party or Christmas of Dreams, there is still time. Please email me directly at MomDot@live.com to secure your spot.

If you are a blogger that wants your blog highlighted during our blog party as a VIP place to visit, please contact me for info on that.

Ill be announcing all of our sponsors around Nov 1st so you can get geared up!

We will be THE place to be in November!! Two great events, One Big Party. Come celebrate how thankful we are to be a part of the blogging community in November with our First Blog Party (and we know how to party)."

So you want a piece of this right? Hop over to MomDot and grab the bloggy buttons to post in your side bar. Then start training! I would hate to miss an awesome party like this because of carpral tunnel or finger cramps!