Happy 2013! New year, new blog plans.

Happy new year to all of you! We had a wonderful holiday season and we so enjoyed our Jesse tree and advent wreath.

 We did move the week before Christmas, so it was a little hectic. Last time we moved, Izzy was only eight months old and Korban wasn't born yet. It is definitely more challenging to move with two little ones underfoot! We are loving our new home, and we just might have all of our boxes unpacked by July. :)

Our new home is a little smaller than our previous one, and it has much less storage space. I am thankful that I got on a minimalist kick right before we moved, so we have less to store and I am in a better mindset to downsize. It's easier to keep organized when there is less to keep up with anyway.

Speaking of simplifying, I spent some time over the month of December thinking about this blog. Well, I regularly spend time thinking about this blog and I would love to spend more time writing for it. I normally start projects and grow tired of them quickly, but I still very much enjoy sharing our strange little life with you readers. Many of you I know from "real life", and some of you I've met through here.

I have been thinking about what my purpose is in blogging. It started out as a place for me to send people who wanted to learn more about our family's "crunchy" lifestyle. As I wrote more, I became interested in growing my blog, especially when we started the adoption process. I had high hopes of bringing in some extra income to help fund the adoption.

I had a conversation with one of my favorite bloggers to see how I could make that happen, she shared with me that she spends upwards of 20 hours a week on her blog to earn a modest amount of income. I realized that, in this stage of life, there is no way that I can feasibly do that without neglecting our home and family in other ways, so I set that idea aside for a while.

I recognize that I have been pretty sporadic in posting for the past several months. (Eight months, to be exact. I'm pretty sure it has something to do with little K-man joining the family...) I would post a few times a week for a couple of weeks, then not at all for another month.

Soo...what I'm getting at is this - I've been thinking about what I want for this blog. What are my goals? What are reasonable expectations? Why the heck do I even bother?

So, for your reading enjoyment, here is what I have come up with.

Why the heck do I even bother?
Well, to reword it a little better -
What are my reasons for having this blog?

It feels silly sometimes to write and publish a little blog and act like anyone cares what crazy thing I'm attempting next (soaked, whole wheat sourdough biscuits, anyone? Anyone? Bueller? ) But, for some reason, you wonderful people keep coming back and reading my blogs and I love you for it. I love sharing my life with you. I love running into an old friend or maybe meeting a friend of a friend and getting asked how my kombucha is doing. I have a nice little community here, and you must like me at least a little to have hung around this long. Thanks, I like you, too! :)

I know I'm weird, and if I can inspire others to embrace their own weirdness, I'm all about that. Especially if that weirdness involves improving the health of their family or our planet.

So, I write this blog to share my life, to explain myself, and to hopefully inspire others. Also, it is a really great outlet for me to have something I can call "my thing". I've always loved writing, and this is a good way for me to practice. (Thanks for not hating me for my typos and messed up grammar!)

What are my expectations for this blog?
Well, until the kids get a little bigger or I find a way to stop sleeping altogether and make some more time in my day, I will not be investing the twenty-plus hours a week it takes to make any income to speak of. Same goes for advertising and growing the reader base of my blog.

As for right now, I can carve out an hour or so a week to share what my family is doing right now. I can share what I'm already researching or experimenting with so that we can all discuss and benefit from my sharing.

In addition to my time constraints, I find that any more than once a week is too much for a reader to keep up with. I have 2 or three bloggers that I like to follow, and they all post daily. It's really too much for me to keep up with, but I don't like missing a post because I feel like I'm missing out on something. So, in the name of minimalism, I'm going to keep it to 1 post per week. Look for a new post each Friday evening around dinnertime (That's supper for those of you who call "dinner" your mid-day meal. This is a never ending source of confusion in our home.)

What are my goals?

Well, for one, I aim to write one post a week. I also want to continue the "Life changing book club". For January, I'm reading Half the Sky, and I'll write more about it sometime this month. Click on the picture to learn what this book's all about.



I have one more goal - one that I fear is too lofty. I am hesitant to share it with you, but I am hoping that in sharing with you I will hold myself more accountable to actually achieving this goal. I want to publish an e-book by the end of the year. It's going to be kind of a "practice" book because I really want to learn how to publish books online for future purposes. You know, when Dennis and I become rich and famous world travelers and the world wants to hear every thought that enters our heads. :) The book is going to be about "Everyday Activism: saving the world with or without a cape". Something like that. Anyone got any ideas for a title for me?

Ok, a list because I like lists:
1) 1 post a week
2) Book club
3) Publish an e-book
4) Save the world maybe next year

My brain is starting to work faster...the coffee is kicking in. I'd better go clean something while the kids are both still napping!

Do you have any goals for the new year? Do tell!