Monday, July 08, 2013

Spinning plates.

I feel like I have fallen off the radar. I have said before that life gets so busy that it is hard to do everything that I want to do. I often think of the role of a mum being similar to a circus entertainer spinning plates. Every plate is important, some more than others. The essential ones you have to keep spinning no matter what else happens, kids, husband, friendships, work. A few smaller plates will always be spinning too but if you don't watch out and try to do too much those plates will start falling.

Blogging has been one of my plates for almost 9 years now. I don't think that I have ever had wanted to put it down but over the last few months I've blogged less and less. I'm finding that it's not so easy to write about what our family is up to as the girls get older. When they were little there seemed to be an unlimited amount of blogging opportunities in our day to day lives. Baking, crafts, playing at the park, trips to the beach. Now that the girls are in their teens they understandably don't want every moment of their lives journaled in a public place. What started out as a way of communicating the adventure of our new life in Australia to immediate friends and family has grown into a platform reaching many more people.

So what to blog about? I still have my own interests, reading, baking, photography, and recently I have been on a health kick which has drawn in new readers but I'm struggling to find what topics to blog regularly about.

Another annoyance has been the "Anonymous" comments that have flooded my inbox recently. Over 100 in the last month alone. Nothing offensive or personal. Just bland, poorly written attempts to sound like a real person but quickly linking to their website for fake designer goods, pills, dating web-sites and swedish wood burning fires?! Today I have installed "word verification" which is a pain for normal commenters but will hopefully weed out the unwanted spam.

There have been a few nice things happening over the last few weeks that I should be blogging about. We are just home from a holiday and the camera is calling me to peek at the photos that we took. What better  excuse than some fresh photos to stir up the blogging mojo?!

If you are still reading this thanks for being patient! Hopefully there will be a bit more fresh writing here over the coming weeks. What do you like hearing about? Why not tell me in the comments section (if you don't mind the word verification step)

As for you spammers, although a Swedish wood fire sounds quite appealing on this crisp Winter's morning I really don't need a fake handbag, a new husband or some pills to improve my current one... I 'm spinning enough plates at the moment, Thanks anyway!

7 comments - click here to leave your comment:

  1. I can totally relate to not knowing what to write about sometimes because either the issues/events would be about some of my older children who might not appreciate being the topic of my post or sometimes the fact that I think that a couple other friends or family members might be reading it and I don't want others to know about sensitive trials going on.

    I enjoy reading your blog, even if it isn't filled with newsy tidbits.

    I love to see pictures of scenery where you live and I always think that pictures of your family and also pictures of yummy food creations, etc. are fun too.

    I have a fairly new (a few years old) love of reading and I enjoy hearing about good books that others are reading.

    Blessings to you and your family,
    Cheryl

     
  2. Blogging keeps falling by the wayside for me too. It's sad, really, when I consider how much I enjoy it. I love reading your blog and getting to know you. I feel like you are a close friend even though we have never met (although I have told my husband that I will meet you if we ever go to Australia). Good luck with those plates.

     
  3. Ha! Like Tonya, I look forward to meeting you and your family once I make to Australia! Gina, you posts are so witty and fresh... Even when you think you don't have much- Spinning Plates?, so clever a thought, nothing could be more true in everyone's lives! My plates spin and fall, but I try to be quick as I would never want to let anyone down! I do know I fall short, but I hope my friends know I love them dearly! I'll take whatever you have to give my friend, and I'll enjoy every bit!

     
  4. Yes, the spamming. I'll tell you what, I just kept deleting, kept filing the "awaiting confirmation" as spam (I set it to automatically request confirmation for any comment on a post older than a month), and I've ridden out the wave. Where I was getting about 40 per day, I'm now getting only a couple. I think it was a combination of the filters getting better, and no comment ever making it on, which discourages the spammers. Knock on wood I'm not attracting them by saying this, but installing the word verification or prohibiting anonymous posters only punished me and the few readers I have... But if you want a burberry handbag you know where to go!

     
  5. Aww plz write more!!!

     
  6. You know, I think all of us "old" bloggers are now facing the same thing - but in asking the question "what do I blog now the kids are grown?" might exactly be the answer. Parenting older kids, we now face new challenges and maybe we need to start talking about those challenges, those we forsee, fear, actively promote or avoid. Let's face it, we are no longer interested in recreating kindy craft spaces, but I for one am very interested in how to keep the family "doing stuff" together now they are not bubbas. I think there is a new and fresh topic of blog in our midst and we are the bloggers to do it! Would love to hear what others feel

     
  7. Hi Gina,
    This is the post that I am writing! It seems that so many of us have let blogging take a bit of a back seat at the moment. I keep telling myself that this week I will get back to blogging and before I know it it's the weekend again. I too got quite cross at those nonsense comments and I think i changed my blog to not accept anonymous comments. It stopped for a while and now they have started again with made up names!
    Anyhow, I don't think you need to worry about what you should write about as your posts are always interesting and well written. They do not need a theme - just everyday life.
    x