Special Day, Completely Overlooked. Oops.

It seems that in all the excitement of 11-11-11, I overlooked the reason that the day was special for me.  And really, special for all of us.  Because yesterday, AEISY turned 1!!

Woohoo!!  Happy Birthday An Exercise in Spinning Yarn!!!  My my how you've grown.

In celebration, I went back and read my first post.  I initially created this puppy to give me some accountability.  I wanted to start living more on purpose, to get more accomplished, to change my life and myself for the better.  I was happy to have that year's worth of perspective, I gotta say I think things are moving in a positive direction.

And I'm going to keep the blog going.  If for no other reason, in 6 months I'll need to start up weight losing again, and talking about it makes me feel good.  I'm certainly not going to put it off so much this time.  I don't know if you noticed, but I'm generally averse to dieting over the holidays, and I'd rather not have to calorie count too severely over Christmas 2012.

So as an update, here are my 1 year old blog stats:

Posts: This one makes number 124

Comments on Posts: 77.  Although technically, most people just comment on my facebook page instead, so this number isn't entirely accurate.

Pageviews: 5,320

Official "willing to admit to it" Followers: 20

So not bad, I guess.  Maybe not great, I'm really not sure.  I don't know anyone else gets in terms of blog stats, except that I know a few special people get an income from doing this and I most certainly haven't found a way to make that happen.  Nuts.

So cheers, my dear, faithful readers.  And here's to another year, and to better content, and to becoming internet famous and finding weird ways to make lots of lots of money and quitting your day job.  And I, for one, will be happy with at least one or two of those.

HAPPY AEISY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!

Goedemorgen!

I like Dutch words that sound exactly like English words if you tried to say them with a Faux-Dutch accent.

This summer, at least in theory, I have had a lot more time to do stuff like, keep posting to my blog on a relatively frequent basis.  However, (un)fortunately for my readers, and fortunately for my family, I have chosen to spend my time doing other things. But not this morning.  This morning I look like this:

Morning me, sans shower, wearing husband's oversized sweatshirt because it is amazingly, miraculously cool outside!  Oh, and of course, that's my cup of coffee, in my super-awesome Baby Mug!  Yep, that adorable little shy-faced baby is mine, back when she was only 6 months old.  Oooooh ooooooh, couldn't you just kiss that face??  I know I could!

Aww loves.  Also, it should be noted here that this picture kind of hurt to take.  That coffee was really hot, thus, that cup was really hot.  My lips still feel a little bit burned.  I will officially no longer be making kissy-faces at my hot beverages.

Any-whosit, one reason I have been neglecting my blogging is that I have decided to take more steps toward being an awesomer Mom and Wife.  So more time hanging out with my kid, days with the TV off, more home-cooked family dinners around the kitchen table (which no longer serves solely as the place where we keep the mail).  And even though my daughter would rather go watch Toy Story for the bazillionth time than play puzzle with me, and my husband would rather eat his dinner in front of the O'Reilly Factor, well, I'm still going to assume I'm doing a good thing.  Suck it, family.

Another reason that I've been writing HERE less, is that I'm writing somewhere ELSE more.  I shouldn't be telling you this (it's really top secret private information that is likely to make me feel embarrassed later), but I'm spitballing the idea of writing a book.  I'm about 4 pages in so far (impressed?  I thought so) and it's very much just in the zygote phase of book development, so we'll see if I'm able to carry it to term.  I'll give you more information if it survives its first trimester (as that's the phase in which most book ideas are miscarried).  I'm sorry, I've probably taken that too far somewhere, but I'm really loving this whole, book-writing/pregnancy analogy.  I think it's spectacular.  Maybe I'll write a book on that instead.

Not sure what else I'd write about though... do you have writing contractions?  Does that have to do with the editing process? ... I'll have to work this idea out some more.

TTFN, time to go read my daughter Hop on Pop for the Bazillionth time, (sufficient movie substitute), hope you don't find yourself sitting on cat, hat, or cactus plant!

Who am I?!?

In blogging land, there are a number of ways to get yourself more notoriety, in order to trap more readers.  For all of those Mommy-Bloggers out there, there are actual Mommy forums, and Mommy networks,  and . . . I don't know, lots of stuff.  The same is true for Weight Loss blogging.  It seems strange, right, that blogging about being over weight, or losing weighting, or trying and failing to lose weight is it's own internet niche market, but it's true.  There are hundreds upon hundreds of people out there writing about the size of their waists and hoping you will be interested to read about it.

Every now and again I get bit by this same bug, and do something to try to bring a little more attention here.  So I decided to join a WL blog network.  I joined a site, submitted my URL and banner for approval and. . . and I received this email the following day:


Thanks much for your interest in Writing Healthy. However, I'm only looking to add personal blogs that share individual weight loss stories.

R.E.
Owner, Writing Healthy


Huh??  So. . . I haven't been sharing my individual weight loss story with you all over the past 6 months.  My mistake.  Instead I've been, I've been,  gosh.  I just don't know what the heck I've been doing.  
This probably sounds ridiculous, but it did get me thinking.  What is this blog about?  What's my 'point' here?  And then, well, why the heck do I keep on writing?


Cuz if it's not a weight loss blog, it's probably mostly not an anything blog, which is okay, a few people seem interested, but I probably WON'T be getting hundreds of readers and enough ad-clicks that I can quit my job at age 28.  SUPER bummed about that.


Here is where I stopped writing and remembered that, in fact, this is not my first nothing-blogsperience.  I wrote on Xanga from August of 2005 to December of 2008, apparently. http://ashtothed.xanga.com/  The wonderful thing about the internet is that things don't ever seem to disappear. My first job out of college (wretched experience), my first year of marriage, Allie going into heat for her first (and last) time, it's all still out there. Fascinating.


So there's an update on my introspection (blog-trospection?).  And this is appropriate, since this is NOT a weight loss blog, but I have NOT lost any weight this week.  I'm okay with that, mostly because I'm distracted by the fact that Shane and I are going away today on a a crazy romantic 5 year anniversary get away, and not showing our faces around here again until Friday.  Oh, and to top it off, we've got a 3 1/2 hour drive today, and I'm really in the mood to play Encore.  


Have a wonderful week, my dear and faithful readers, as I will be enjoying the beach.  And eating too much.  And trying out my new swimsuit in the hot tub that sits in our private patio.  That's right.  That feeling you're having right now?  It's called jealousy.

Metablog. It's gross, but it's here.

I've been thinking about blogging lately, mostly because, in a 1am fit of sleeplessness the other night, I started a second blog, as an aspect of my new company.  The reason I'm doing this is to add more features to that website ( www.agapeconsultation.com if you'd like to check it out) and to maybe give people a better idea of the kind of services I offer, as I probably can't legally advertise as "something like Supernanny".

But there's gotta be something else behind that, I know.  I've already been posting to this thing on a basically daily basis, and now I've given myself a SECOND venue?  WHY???

The answer's pretty simple.  Apparently I really really love to write.  I started weight-blogging as accountability for myself, but kept on doing it because to me, it's a lot of fun.

Not every post has felt worth my time.  I've written many more entries than any of you have read, because I found myself bored with them half way through, and chose not to finish them.  I'm assuming that if I can't find enjoyment in writing it, no one's going to be interested in reading it.  So you're welcome.  If you think THIS stuff is dull, just remember, it could be a LOT worse.

I love that there are people who read every stupid word I have to say on this thing.  I joke about my narcissism here, but truly, having readers is truly humbling thing for me.  It's kind of crazy to think that this activity which I find entertaining is for some way worth a few minutes of every day to some people out there.  Seriously.  Crazy-go-nuts.

My entire life, especially during those ridiculously emotional teenage years, I searched for a method of artistic expression.  I tried to draw, paint, write poetry, I'm not even sure what else.  To be honest, I felt cheated out of an emotional outlet.  What am I supposed to do when I'm sad if I can't write a beautiful song about it?  CRY???? Right.  So outside of my recreations of various scenes in Footloose (because every now and again, we could all use a good angry-dance), I guess I've finally found my outlet.  It's dirty, it's not artistic, and it contains periods of intense self-deprecation, but here it is.

Well, that's it for my metablogging.  I hope you all find your arenas for self-expression, and I hope even more that it in no way involves Kevin Bacon.  Buena suerte, and happy Tuesday!