We Dropped The Ball

Jorjia and I knew that beginning a blog would take a lot of work, but we also knew that there would be many great things about starting it.

⁃ One of the benefits of doing this blog as a mother daughter team is that neither of us would be doing it alone.

⁃ Another was the chance we got to be able to connect with our readers.

⁃ I was excited about the chance to read what Jorjia would write, and she was about mine.

⁃ We were both nervous about if we had what it took to do this. Yet we were excited to start.

⁃ Both of us felt led to write, and write together.

⁃ We knew that somehow healing would come in sharing our intimate feelings and thoughts.

⁃ Anticipation about growth in our writing was something we both looked forward to.

I can honestly say that I am proud of our blog. Jorjia and I both have learned so much from doing this.

It’s been challenging, and exciting and even at times a bit overwhelming.

Sometimes our consistency has not been fabulous, but as a work in progress we continually adapt and grow.

We both felt that posting a blog about once a week was feasible. Neither of us felt that daily blogging would fit in our current lifestyle, of which I am so thankful that we didn’t try that.

I give kudos to those with such dedication and passion that are able to bless all of us daily with their gift.

Jorjia and I both knew that it would take intentionality to get this blog off the ground. We worked together establishing a pattern of posting. We discussed covering for each other. We prepped and prepared to be able to make sure the posts were posted.

We even had poster board hung up and made charts to create patterns of posting. We began keeping track of when the most popular posting times were and which blogs got the most attention and comments.

We learned to take advantage of moments to write. For example waiting in line for something, or sitting in the waiting room for an appointment, or having a spare 20 minutes open between meetings – all became opportunities to grab out our phones and quickly jot down thoughts. As you may have read – one of my posts was actually done while waiting for my groceries in the WalMart grocery pick up parking lot.

So one would think with almost 2 years under our belt, that we would have this thing conquered.

Then came the summer of 2019.

Suddenly we are well over a month without a post! How could this happen?

It’s crazy how easily things can change when you stop taking intentional steps forward.

The mountain that begins to develop a little at a time suddenly becomes like that avalanche – it picks up speed as gravity assists.

It began so innocently with something keeping us from posting a blog one week.

Then the following week there was another distraction.

Somehow the gap continued to grow as various obstacles kept us out of focus and blogs didn’t get written.

Somehow accompanying the lack of blogs comes the feeing of failure, which makes it even harder to pick up the pen as it were.

Every blog I would start would leave me feeling as if I had unfinished business that I was sweeping under the rug.

I then realized that we needed to apologize. To you. Our faithful supportive followers.

So, that’s what this is. It is an acknowledgment that we totally dropped the ball.

We want to tell you that we are sorry that we disappeared over this summer, and we hope that we continue to keep your support.

I want to share that as I began to feel more and more suffocated from the guilt of not pursuing my passion of writing – you – our loyal reader – became the conduit that God used to gently nudge me to write again. To guide me to pick up my phone and type in stolen moments of time again. I thank you so much!

I received an email of encouragement, asking if I was going to write again. I had someone come up to me and tell me that they had read the blog and that we were talented and they liked it. I had others ask me about the blog. There have even been people reading older posts, liking, and following.

Instead of feeling embarrassed or upset – honestly I felt a gentle push – reminding me that Jorjia and I were doing this for a purpose.

With that came the realization that there were lessons to be learned here.

⁃ It’s important to periodically check myself to make sure I am on track for my goals.

⁃ Know that just because I fail, doesn’t mean that I should stop.

⁃ Never be so confident in my plan that I fail to hold myself accountable.

⁃ Know that even something that I enjoy can get skipped over if I am not intentionally setting aside time for it.

⁃ Give myself grace.

⁃ Continually PDCA (plan, do, check and adjust) even when it isn’t something new.

So, again I want to say thank you for all of your support. I hope that you continue to laugh, cry, learn, and grow alongside us on this journey.

Stay tuned cuz summer is almost over and we are back!

We are who we are because of loyal followers Iike you. Don’t forget to like, follow, comment and share! We appreciate you!

Photo credit:

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Climbing hill ….Mitchell Orr

Dock …. Frank Albrecht

Gap …. Lubo Minar