indiana adams · @adoredaustin
19th Apr 2012 from Twitlonger
I've been getting a fair amount of inquiries lately asking me if everything is okay, and I suppose that's because things have been really quiet on AdoredAustin.com. I do appreciate the sweet concern.
I've been mulling things over for a long time (since Texas Style Council 2011, actually) about why I do Adored Austin and when/ if I'll ever stop. For more than a year, I've been in a weird spot about how I feel about what Adored Austin has become and this whole world of blogging, in general. I've avoiding writing about my feelings on all this because, traditionally, Adored Austin isn't really the platform I use to navel gaze. It is, after all, just a blog about what I'm wearing and where I'm going in Austin.
Let me be clear: Adored Austin is not my full-time job. Was there a time when I put full-time hours into it? Yes. Have I cultivated a very gracious group of readers and advertisers who would like to see more regular content? Yes.
I'm not one of those people who's blogging mantra is, "If it ever feels like work, I'll stop." I believe that things worth doing, things that fuel our creativity and life missions, are rarely easy most of the time. Writing is work. Blogging is work, and for me this work has been very rewarding.
However, it hit me a month or so ago that in a few months, my alone time with Jude is going to be quite scant due to the new addition to our family. To that end, I've become extremely protective of the alone time I get with him.
My full-time job is being a wife and mother. It is incredibly important to me that I raise a child who remembers me as a mother who cultivated happiness, and I'm working nearly every day to create special moments for us both to go out and enjoy this city together. We go to the children's museum, we play outside, we visit friends, we go to story time at the library, we have lunch together, we shop, and we practice signing "Hey, Jude" to each other.
And I nap when Jude naps because I'm quite tired! (I forgot how exhausting pregnancy can be!).
So, is everything okay? Yes. Baby Two is growing and we find out if it's a boy or girl in a few weeks. Chris and I are mapping out our summer plans, and it looks like we'll be spending some quality beach time in Florida in June and visiting my grandmother in Indiana in July.
I'm working on a screenplay for the Austin Film Festival competition (it's a horror/ suspense script), and I'm really excited about the plot (the protagonist is a pregnant lifestyle blogger who tends to overshare online).
Because I am a stay-at-home mom, I'll admit that compared to the average working blogger, I do get a lot more free time. But for the life of me, I can't figure out how I can rest, write a screenplay, spend time with friends and Chris, enjoy Austin with Jude, and do a good quality blog post every single day, and answer the 100+ emails I get daily. I seriously have no idea how bloggers like Melissa at DearBabyBlog.com raise their kiddos, work, and blog and balance it all gracefully.
So what's going to happen with Adored Austin? You know, I don't know. I get sad when I really stop and think about it becoming fallow, but perhaps this is just a season. When I look at my archives, I see that when pregnant with Jude I took quite a bit of time off, too.
I just ask that I'm given grace as I try to figure out how to balance everything. For today, though, I've already spent too much time on this. The sun is shining and my sweet boy is smiling up at me, ready to enjoy this beautiful day.