I love this photo…. this is how I feel right now wondering what I am going to say each day. LOL I committed to 31 days of blogging and I am showing up. I thought I would take a few minutes to do a bit of an evaluation of what I have learned over the past 27 days of showing up. Let’s do this in bullet points…

• I have only read two books this month…. TWO! That is seriously the lowest month I have had all year. I find that I read less when I write more. I do this for a few reasons. My brain and eyes fatigue when I try to be prolific with both writing and reading. I need some balance with this. I am committing to two days a week on the blog starting in November. That will be 8-10 posts a month. I think I can do that with consistency. I need to get back to reading, folks. I cannot do book reviews if I don’t have time and brain power to read books. You get the point. 😉
• If you follow me I have overwhelmed your inbox! I am sorry if you are done with me. I will be cutting back come November. Until then maybe you can just set it to once a week updates?
• I need a plan. I don’t write “off the cuff” as well as some people. I tend to write, edit, scrap, write again, edit, edit, edit, proofread one more time for good measure and then hit publish. It is the perfectionist tendency. I want the grammar to be correct. I want the spelling to be correct. I want everything to make sense and flow well. That means I really need a few days between each post to get it to a place I feel comfortable hitting the publish button.
• Food and Recipe Posts take time and lots of photos. I love sharing recipes with you guys. I am not a consistent recipe inventor. I use cookbooks a lot but when I do come up with or share a recipe of my own making I like to get it right. The last thing I want is for someone to come back here and tell me that it didn’t work or that it was awful tasting. I bake with exact measurements but I don’t cook with exact measurements. For instance, this last week I made Jambalaya. It is a pretty traditional recipe that many people in Louisiana and Texas follow but there are personal tweaks I make to such a recipe to make it my own. I add stuff until I like how it tastes. When I do that with the intention of sharing it with you I have to intentionally note measurements, specific ingredients, take loads of photos of each step and so forth. I try to be aware that there are lots of people that like to follow a recipe and are not comfortable “winging it.” So, it may be a week between the process of making, notating and photographing a recipe before I have it ready to share here.
• I seem to struggle a bit with a niche/platform for this blog. I know all the gurus that teach us how to “build your platform” say you should have a niche, build your email list, and so forth. One of the struggles I have is that I like my little community. I don’t want the pressure of following the analytics, watching my stats, posting on all the social media to come and see what I did, or following formulas to be “successful.” That is not me! I am not a FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) girl…. I am more of a JOMO (Joy of Missing Out) girl. I like a quiet life. I like to stop and smell the flowers and then take a photo of them. I like slow mornings with my coffee and Bible in my lap. I like a routine for the day that doesn’t include rushing out the door to do all the things. I like to putter rather than work really hard for hours at a time. So, I guess my niche is more about living a quiet life. I want to offer you a place to slow down and a place for thoughtful conversation. I want to encourage people to make time in your schedule to bake that pie or crochet that gift for someone. I don’t intend to “get a book deal” or “build my business” I did the business thing and it wore me out with 14 hour days in the catering kitchen. This is just not going to be a high energy fast paced place and I am ok with that.
• I am a big chicken. Not literally, but… I have some important things to say. I really do… but I find myself reverting to lighter content. I am not sure why but it feels a little scary to put myself out there. I have been a Christian since I was 8 years old (that would be 46 years now) and I have read the Bible several dozen times through at this point in my life. I know what I believe without much wavering. I have strong opinions and summations on all that is going on in the world but, right now, saying any of it feels dangerous. If you are sticking around for the long haul and want some thoughtful posts on such things you can feel free to let me know that. I am not afraid of running people off because people have walked away from me before for various reasons. I am probably more leery of being attacked by the ugliness that is the internet and social media these days. Somehow the social media outlets have made people jerks. I got off of all my social media accounts except one for that reason. Anyway, I need to be more brave with my words because that is really why I am here.
• I want to Glorify God in what I share instead of just posting for posting’s sake. I have, for quite some time, been considering offering some free downloads to encourage you all or help you with focusing on God in your daily walk. I don’t want to reinvent the wheel, so to speak, because lots of people offer printable downloads. I do, however, want to offer some thoughtful reflections during seasons of the year, like Advent, Reformation, Holy Week, and so forth. I also want to be able to share things we do with our church. My husband does a printable every year between Mother’s Day and Pentecost that we use to read together as a church every day for 40 days. He offers a daily video with each day’s reading. Maybe I could offer printable bookmarks or scripture cards. These are just all things I have been thinking about… all free, btw. With more time between posts I would have more time to develop such things.

These are all just things I have been pondering as I have been blogging each day. With a slower blogging schedule I hope to be able to encourage more here and share some things you guys can use. I am glad to be back on the blog. I have missed it in recent years and with more and more being purged from social media I find that this is a safe place to share with you. I am glad you are here! Let’s be friends! You can always share with me in comments or in my email available here. I love hearing from you!

We’ll end with one of my current focus verses…

First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time. 1 Timothy 2:1-6 (NASB)

Until next time…

Blessings,

~Leann