Evolution of a Blog

I started my original blog titled "A Beautiful World" in September of 2005. And for several years it was an online journal of sorts for me. I still love to go back and read all of my old posts because some of the stories I have actually forgotten over time and they are now on there as a reminder. One of my favorite memories is the trip to Ireland Mike and I made in July of 2009. I actually told the story in several blog posts because I had so many photos I wanted to share. And reading through my thoughts at the time of the trip makes me realize how important it is to get my stories and memories written down in some form. I guarantee you that I would not have remembered half the stuff I had written if I had not kept a journal on the trip and then transferred it to my blog.

In December of 2009 though, I decided to make that blog private. I was wanting my personal life and family to not be so public. I was more into the scrapbook design team scene and had more of an audience. So I started this blog, "The Scrapbook Treehouse" to showcase my scrapbook pages and assignments, because most design teams required members to have a blog.

For a little over five years, I wrote several posts a week taking blog breaks here and there. But in February of 2015, I decided to take a pretty permanent break. I was burned out on all of it - design teams, blogging, being on line. It didn't bring me the same joy and happiness that it used to. And if truth be told, I was focusing more on my health. Suffering from depression and anxiety pretty badly in 2013 had really brought me down to an all time low and 2014 became a year of healing, fixing broken parts of my life and recovering. By 2015 I was in a much better place, but I had changed. My priorities had changed and my focus was my family and my health. I wasn't scrapbooking as much and so I didn't really have any projects to share. At that point, blogging just seemed like a chore and I didn't need more of those.

I have written a few blog posts here and there to check in, but never could get the enthusiasm to start blogging regularly again.
But as my son finished out his freshman year in high school last week, (yes, high school!) I realized how much I've missed keeping a journal of our lives. I've tried keeping a handwritten one and it never sticks. What I love about blogs is the ability to add photos and typing is so much easier and faster for me than writing.

So as a result of that and being inspired by Stephanie Howell, the writer of one of my favorite blogs, I am thinking about taking up blogging again. Even if it's just once a week to start.
I have started scrapbooking again so I may even have projects to share. I will still probably put more personal posts on my private blog, but hopefully I will have more to share here as well.


I guess we shall see if it sticks this time :)