That is, if you are a fan of my blog.
I've decided to keep going. Many thanks to those of you who left encouraging comments after last week's deletion episode. I spend the remainder of that week with Robyn. It's nice to have a friend who knows you better than you know yourself. We had many good talks and I returned home feeling refreshed and ready to tackle my life again--mouse droppings and all.
My husband and I try to have a virtue-based approach to life. That is, we eliminate rules whenever possible. Rules are needed where virtue has failed.
In the case of blogging, I have determined that writing and reading blogs can be a beneficial activity for me and my family. The virtue I need to cultivate in relation to blogging is temperance, or moderation. I need to discern, each time I go to my computer, whether or not the time is right for me to publish a new post or log into Google Reader. Deleting my blog because I've failed to be temperate is no way to cultivate virtue. Rules are tricky too. I don't want to say, "I will only blog at 2:00 each day," only to find that at 1:00 both kids are peacefully napping. I have made one rule: No writing or reading of blogs on the weekend, except for the kids' blog (sadly neglected of late) which I will make a priority of each weekend because my family really does appreciate it.
With that, I set off anew on my blogging adventure. I think I hear the kids waking up . . .
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
An offering : For my family as I learn better how to care for them. For myself when I need encouragement. For the Lord who gave this vocation to me.
About Me
- Susan
- An aspiring homemaker for Eric (theology professor), Joseph (4.5),Margaret (2.5)and William (6 months). We're a homeschooling family committed to urban living and our Catholic faith. I blog to celebrate the joys of my vocation and press on through the challenges.
The Rest of the Family
Labels
- City Life (3)
4 comments:
I'm very glad you reconsidered. All your reasons are good ones, and ones with which I strongly agree.
It can be tough to feel bi-vocational. Of course motherhood is a vocation, and some people have it in spades, as in seeming not to need anything outside that vocation. And of course even those of us who maybe don't have it in spades every single minute of every day still, um, have these children. So we have to ACT motherhood-vocational, regardless.
I love being a wife and mother. I love my husband and children. I want to honor this call from God in every way that I can and never, ever denigrate it, because it's a gift which the culture too often spurns. Buuuuut . . . I love writing, too. And I often struggle with what that means in terms of balance, day by day. Putting potatoes on to boil and then forgetting them until a child says, "Mom, should there be flames coming out of that saucepan?": okay or not okay? Well, it happened, and the house didn't burn down and the children don't seem to need therapy, so I say: okay (but try to pay attention just a little?). But sitting up late blogging or surfing around while my husband's in bed waiting for me to join him: not so okay. What could happen as a consequence of too much of that would be a lot worse than the house burning down.
Of course, I make rules for myself and then don't keep them. My rule right now is to stay off the computer until the kids go to bed. Right now it's three in the afternoon, and while one child is having a siesta of sort in her room, the rest are not in bed. BUT: one kid is napping, one kid is building a Brio traintrack, and two others are reading. If I weren't sitting here writing this comment -- which is turning into an essay, sorry -- I'd still be sitting outside reading The Inferno, which sounds a lot more impressive than, "From three to three-oh-five I left a comment on a blog because that person had left a comment on mine, and so I checked hers out . . . " But I was maxed out on The Inferno, and the kids are occupied and happy and don't need me hovering every second -- so why not?
Incidentally, both my older kids have blogs, and my oldest daughter writes a LOT, both on her blogs and just on the word processor -- we've begun having to schedule computer time to avoid three-way fights. It's not necessarily a bad thing for kids to see you doing this, any more than it would be a bad thing for them to see you sliding your novel draft under the blotter every time they came into the room. And seeing you writing at the computer isn't the same thing as seeing you watching soap operas all day. You are practicing a craft, albeit in a kind of high-tech context, which is positive, and a gift, and a ministry. As long as you're not married to it, and it's not always your favorite child, I think it's okay.
(and I didn't see the old blog, being a 4real newbie, but I'm looking forward to reading this one).
Sally -- who really does have too much to say sometimes.
Thanks, Sally. I'm hoping to retrieve the old blog in a few months from an archive website. We'll see. I might have to rewrite some of those posts because they provide background for a lot of what I write about.
I think I would like to request a permanent link on your blog. Because of you, I had 90 visitors yesterday to read about my plumbing disaster (so glad it wasn't a cute Andrew story day! phew.). How did you get this following? I am a bit jealous. I don't think there is a crafting center-control like this 4 real life or real 4life or I forget. If only crafters bonded like Catholics.
Anyway, thanks Q. You are so nice.
blog on, my friend.
Robyn-- I only got 22 hits yesterday, so it couldn't all have been from me! Maybe you have more friends than you think . . .
Post a Comment