Today I’m starting off on a new leaf.  I’m going to share more about what is going on.  This blog was suppose to be about my life and kids.  I had a meme in the beginning about the magical moment in my life.  I stopped doing it somewhere along the way.  That meme was what this blog was suppose to be about.  I will be resurrecting it.  Where is my blog running?  I’m not totally sure anymore.  But I will say this things are changing as of today.

I won’t be surprised if I lose followers after this post.  Believe me, I don’t want to but I’m sure I will.   I’ve been a bad bloggy friend.  I’ve lost contact with so many of you that it hurts inside.  You see, I got overwhelmed.  I have this nasty habit of jumping into something so fast and not totally being prepared for the outcome.  Haven’t we all done that at some point?

The problem is as I got overwhelmed, I slowly lost my focus on what was important to me.  In turn, I joined more things thinking that would fix it when it really comes down to me.  I need to step back and get back in touch with the real things that I love.  I need to get my focus back where it belongs which also includes my family.  I’ll still be writing but it will be with more passion.  You see, my posts have been coming out later and later in the day because I lost that passion.  I considered quite truthfully walking away.  Is it a slump for me?  Perhaps.  I have been writing for over 6 months now. 

I will still have reviews and giveaways that I find pertinent.  I won’t just endorse any product.  I have receive emails from pr people wanting me to just issue a review that they have written.  I am telling you right now that I will never put out a review that I myself have not personally done.   I still have reviews/giveaways out there to get finished.  I still have reviews coming in the door as well.  I’m excited to be writing a review right now that involves my son’s birthday party.  I’m going to simply start writing again because I love it.

I’m going to start visiting a lot more.  You know blogging does take a lot of time.  My focus is back.  Are you still here with me?

I’ve learned that blogging needs to be for you and not someone else.  As much as I like that everyone is reading my blog, I like that I can let go and just talk on my blog.  This weekend I’ve realized that I have been changing my blog.  My blog has become something that isn’t what I was focusing on earlier.  I have reviews and giveaways coming up but I haven’t stayed true to myself.  I haven’t been writing the stuff that really matters to me lately.  I haven’t been writing about my family..my life.  That changes now. 

How can I expect you all to be engaged if I’m not?  I have several blogs.  I am going to incorporate them all into this one blog.  I’ve learned that I can’t do that many.  Its confusing and something always falls to the wayside.  So my jokes blog is coming over.  Expect the new one column..Jokes to make you laugh on Hump Day.  I’m also bringing over my 101 tasks in 1001 Days blog.  Lots of changing coming up.

Help your fellow readers- #2

Occasionally, I do tips to help everyone such as the ones about plumbing, how to make post-its, or word verification (yuk).  I find that people respond to those.  Providing assistance to help your fellow blogger is a huge thing.  It helps so much.

Blog Regularly – #3

Sit down and write every day no matter what.  I’ve realized that when I write faithfully that I have more followers reading.  If you write every day and keep it current, people will read. 

Be interactive – #4

Over time, you will have gotten a comment or an email saying thank you for this comment or I agree with this.  If you are interactive with people, they are more likely to come back. 

I’ve been really slack on that lately.  I’ve noticed that it definitely shows in my numbers.  I don’t look at them often because it bugs me.  I had a huge drop off when I switched over to WordPress.  One of the reasons was that I was not able to publish any content.  People could not interactive with me and I lost a lot of readers.

Your readers are here to contribute.  They want to share as much as to read what is going on in your life.

Be personal – #5

While blogging, I’ve made some of the best friends in the world.  I do mean world we don’t live next to each other.  I can’t walk out the door and shake their hand or hug them but we are friends none the less.  Making these friends was because I was willing to be personal with them.  I was willing to share things about my life with them as well as to listen and be an active participant in conversations together.

People want to not only read your blog but understand who the person is that is writing it.  They want to see the inside you.

Interactive in other places – #6

When I’m not writing, I’m on Twitter and Facebook.  I’m in other networks talking to them.  I go and read other blogs.  I don’t spend as much time as I should though.  But interacting with your readers make you seem more like a person that they want to talk to.  When you are out there talking to others, you make more friends and you put your blog out into the web.  So don’t just sit around your blog, get out there and socialize.

Always look for ways to improve – #7

This is huge for me.  One of my biggest pet peeves is a stale monkey.  You need to keep improving your blog.  Whether it is content or layout or etc.  You need to keep your blog fresh for your viewers to keep coming back.

Talk about the mistakes you make along the way.  Help another reader not to make that same mistake.  When you share, you grow.

Don’t take things to personal – #8

Over time, I’ve had comments that I didn’t like for one reason or another.  It’s my blog how dare someone not like something!!  Come on we live in the real world.  Things are going to happen that someone is not going to like.  Just roll with the punches and don’t take it personal.

Pictures are golden – #9

Readers love to see pictures that you personally took. 

Giving credit – #10

This is a huge topic for me.  Don’t steal someone’s work.  It hurts them.  It hurts you as well.  Always!! Always give credit for someone else’s work. 

Now, I had this happen but I did not do it deliberately.  I literally copied and pasted some information onto my blog.  This happened when I was just starting out.  I meant to say it as a draft so that I could adjust it later.  I was planning on giving credit but things happen.  It got published.  I can’t begin to say how bad I felt about it.  I felt awful.  I apologized and the person accepted my apology.  I can not tell you how badly it felt to know that I did it.  It was an accident on my part but it happened nonetheless be careful before you hit that publish button.

A few housekeeping things:  Welcome to all my new followers.  I am so excited to have you here.  I hope that all my old followers are here.  I’m ready to get back up to speed. 

Now I got a few questions while I was in limbo so I’m going to answer them.

Do I think this is a good way to get your words out?  You know I don’t honestly know if it is.  I know that I love blogging.  I know that I want to share with people my experiences so that they know that they are not alone in the world.  I put my life history out there to help someone else.  I’ve been told that I should write it as a book.  I don’t know about that.  It is a possibility.  I just simply have fun sharing.  Hopefully you all enjoy reading it. 

How often do I post?  Well until I transferred to WordPress, I had been posting every day religiously.  You can ask most of my old readers.  Also, you can look through my history and see that.

Why should I follow you?  Good question.  The only thing I can really say is that I love sharing.  I tell jokes.  I tell what is going on.  I’m quirky but yet I’m not.  Maybe something will touch you that I write.  I can only share what comes naturally.  I can’t really just sit down and write a topic about something I have no clue about.  I hope you all do like what I write about.

Do you do giveaways and reviews often?  Actually I have to say no.  I am starting to get requests to do so.  I will if I think its a good product.  I will always give you my honest opinion.  But I will typically post something else on the same day as well.

Why do you blog?  There are various reasons to why I blog.  Originally I started this blog so that my children would have a chronological journey of my life with them as they grow.  Then it became an outlet as I met so many different wonderful bloggers.  I have made some friends in this blogosphere.  Now I think I’m addicted.

I’ve been blogging since July 2009 now.  I have over 300 posts out there.  WOW that is so amazing to me.  I have over 400 followers.  I don’t know why you all are still here.  I love writing.  I never knew how much until I started this blog.  I love reading as well.  Though I don’t have as much time as I would like to do so.  I’ve been through so much since I started this blog.  I’ve tried to share with you as much as possible.

You were all there when I was depressed after visiting my sister in October.  We still haven’t spoken to each other since.  I’ve tried.  She hasn’t responded.  It hurts but when I say I’m back I am.  I’ve been very scattered every since the visit.  I haven’t been around to all my favorite blogs.  Although I have been reading.  I simply haven’t been me.  Well I am now.  I’m back.  I have a new reborned energy that I’m so happy about.  I will be coming to your blog soon if I haven’t made it there this week.  I’m coming. 

I was literally amazed at how well the Follow Friday blog hop went over last week.  I’m still trying to catch up.  Although I have made it to each person’s blog that jumped last week.  That took me 3 days.  I loved finding all the new blogs and catching up on the old ones.  Can you believe that 136 blogs joined?  To me that is simply amazing.  And the blog hop is coming once again.

Ok so some housekeeping that I need to get out of the way:

1.  I think I’ve been double taxing myself.  I try to respond to every post by email unless of course you have the no-reply blogger dot com that drives me nuts. 

NO REPLY AT BLOGGER DOT COM

I mean I hate it.. I despise it. I want to respond to you all by email. I love responding by emails. I love talking to you all. I want to know about my readers. So I respond to every email I get. Until I see the hated “no reply at blogger dot com.”   To make it easy for you to remove it, I am going to post it here for you. The directions are as follows:

Now, for those of you who do not want a regular email address to show, go to Gmail, Yahoo or any other number of places and get a FREE, yes FREE, email account and set it up.

I’m going to start just jumping over to your blog instead of responding by email if I would have just answered it with just “thanks” or something like that.  I do like to respond but unless it’s an answer or something.  I’ll just hop to your blog.  How do you handle this?

2.  Word verification people.. I hate it.  And as I noticed from my comments so do most of my bloggy friends.  So I’m giving you the heads up here how to fix it.

WORD VERIFICATION

Ok I hate hate this as well. I don’t know why but my eyes do not do this well at all. Or I hit save and then close. Guess what happens? You don’t get my comment and sometimes I don’t realize. So I might have been commenting all along.  Now to turn off this awful thing and to help all of your commenters’ eyes, do the following:

Go to your Dashboard at blogger dot com.  Click on Settings, which is under the name of your blog.  Click on Comments, which is on the top of the page.  Scroll down until you see this: Show word verification for comments?  Click the box that says NO.  Click Save settings at the bottom of the page. Please do not leave this page until you have saved settings.

I am begging you to fix these things to help me get to know each of you even better in the future.

3.  Big ANNOUNCEMENT:  I’m moving to WordPress.  I just set up my Daddy hosting.  So bear with me while I do.
 Hoping you all have a great Saturday.

As typical, I want to know what you want as a reader too.  I want to improve this blog.  So please leave comments on what you want.. such as:

• Do you like the jokes I post?
• Do you want the quotes I find?
• Is posting once a day enough?  Or did you like it when I posted 3 or 4 or 5 times a day?
• Do you like hearing my husband’s tips?  I’ve thought about expanding that portion to include more trades.  You know, my husband can literally build a house from ground up.
• Do you like all the stories I tell?
• Do you like the poems that I’ve written?  That I share?

Sorry I can’t get away from writing the stories about the kids and the family.  That’s what the blog is about.  So tough toe nails.  Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

Stay tuned as well.. Post Its coming up tonight.