Blog Evaluation & Check-Up

Time is too valuable to not regularly evaluate the activities it is used on, particularly activities that take up a lot of it.

So it’s time for a blogging check-up.

It’s been four months since I dove head (or is it feet?) first into this venture.
And I’ve really enjoyed it.

I did not realize how much I had been missing a creative outlet in my life. I had pretty much scaled back daily activities to only what was needed of me by my family or asked of me outside of home. Even facebook fell off my radar for a season. I needed to laser focus on just a few aspects of life for a while.

The need for focus hasn’t changed really, but blogging seems to have actually helped enhance my focus.  

I used to journal, but had stopped. That time thing ya know & choosing what to do with it.

Writing again seems to have awakened parts of my mind out of a slumber. I once heard someone (Elisabeth Elliot I think) say something to the effect of 
“You don’t really know what you are thinking until you write it down.”

Well, I’m remembering what it is to think again. It’s a relief.

Should I continue to blog? I could just keep a journal. 
I read on blogging with Amy that 
“Your blog should undoubtedly be an extension of you, but if you're not writing for the benefit of others at the same time, you might as well just keep a diary.”

Does my blog benefit anyone? What does it even have to offer?
I’m not an expert in any one area.
I asked my husband if he thought there was any one area of my life that I could be even close to being “expert” in. He said the same area I was thinking. Then, by the end of the evening (literally just hours after that conversation), I was shown that, even though I have learned and grown a lot in that area, I have not by any means “arrived”. I’m still learning and I hope to never stop learning in any areas of my life, even the ones I’ve already grown so much in.

So, since I can’t offer any benefit as an expert and it’s not a “how-to” blog, 
what then is my blog?

Well, my heart's desire is to one day be a mentor. I’d love to mentor and disciple a younger woman who desires to learn & grow in some of the same areas that I have, areas such as Christ follower, wife, mother, etc.
I’d love to share with her what I’ve learned along the way, things that can help her as she learns along her way. We all have to do our own learning, but God gave us the mentorship model, a classroom to do that learning in. I have been blessed to learn so much from my own upbringing and from different mentors in my life. Much learning was just sort of handed to me. Some things I’ve learned through trial, error & struggle. And I’m not done learning.

I’m seeing this blog as a way to record what I’ve learned, am learning and plan to continue learning for that young woman I hope to one day mentor. 

So why not just put it in a notebook or diary? Why put it on the world wide web?

Well, there is a sort of accountability in putting it out there. It’s not that there is anyone sitting on the edge of their seat waiting for my next post or asking me what I’m working on and when it’s going live. No, it’s just me knowing that to keep a blog current you have to post with regularity. I’m not disciplined enough to just keep a journal or notebook. If I was, I’d have been doing that for the past 10 years that I’ve been a mom, 13 years I've been a wife & the more than 20 years I've professed to follow Christ. Oh, I’ve recorded some of our history, but not with the consistent regularity that a blog demands. I need that bit of pressure to override other urgent things in my life demanding me and my time.

Then there’s that bit of family scrapbook stuff thrown in on the blog- should I keep that up? My husband sent me this text the other day:

“I enjoy reading your blog. That’s going to be awesome when we are 80 and can’t remember. 
There will be many tears as we recall memories otherwise lost. Thank you for being our family historian. That surely would cost me about 100k a year to pay someone for that. So your value continues to grow!”

How cool is that?!?

I do some stuff for just us to see, like digital scrap booking, so why put any family scrapbook stuff on the blog?  Again, the accountability. There are holes in our little (“little” as in young) family’s history that I plan to go back and fill in. Going forward though, the accountability I put on myself through the blog so far is getting things done as we go along. So much easier than trying to remember things from 10 years ago. (It’s hard enough to remember what we did just a few days ago.) Oh, and I think my family in another state likes to see these bits of our life too:)

And finally, it’s been humbling to get feedback, comments and encouragements from friends, family, acquaintances and some I don’t even know. It’s an honor when someone takes some of their most precious asset-their time- to read something I’ve written and even comment on it! It’s humbling when someone says- “I’m right there with you” or “Thanks for the reminder!” or “Thank you for sharing your heart”.

So, for now, I’ll keep up the blogging as best I can to keep me accountable to record what I’ve learned/am learning for my future mentee (which is apparently the correct term), to record just for us and to share my/our story for those who may enjoy reading it:)

I’m honored if you are reading.

p.s. A great way to keep up with new posts on this and other blogs you follow is bloglovin’. They send you one e-mail a day with all the new posts from that day. Check out this little tutorial one of my blogging friends wrote to learn more:)