So Why Do I Blog?

I really let the blog go last week. I'm not sure why. And then I asked myself Why do I blog? I rarely take blogging breaks but, this past week, I only posted twice and it was because I was feeling the stress and anxiety of situations, and blogging (i.e. publicly writing about things) is really difficult for me when I feel unsettled.

An example: I hate going to the airport. I just don't like it. Since I've been following a high-protein, low-carb, no junk diet lately, I haven't had candy. On the day I went to the airport last week, I stress-ate some Twizzlers (they were good, by the way, so no regrets there). On days I feel that way, days I'm just trying to get through the day, I don't really need to be blogging,  you know? (It's worth mentioning that these days really only happen when Scott's away...being responsible for everything is hard.)

I'm very careful about what I post online and it's a craft, really, to create profiles and writings in a public forum.

Another example: I've sent Scott many pictures lately of things I've been doing. He posted some of them to his own Facebook page and I had a momentary internal freak-out.

Look. This is me, taking the dogs to school, so I can work on my classroom. My sign needs to be touched up, there's a GARBAGE can in the picture, and a random thing of Clorox wipes (those desks don't clean themselves; I clean them). Plus, the dogs aren't even engaged in the picture-taking. This was just Hey, this is what I'm doing today and here's a picture. I wouldn't have posted it online. But he did, with a nice little caption. And I do appreciate that he cares enough to do so.

But whatever, right? It's real life. 

I probably would've shown you this instead, if I were going to document the experience.

Jett on a pile of trimmer. 

And example #3:

I went hiking with some friends the other day. They took all the pictures with their phones and posted them to social media on the spot. I didn't even see what the pictures looked like until I got home, 4 hours later. That's pretty stressful in its own right, correct?

A rare photo of other people on this blog. 

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So, anyway, those are just a few examples of why I feel the need to lay low if I feel stress. Some people take to social media with all of their thoughts and feelings, I keep them to myself and pop back in when I've somewhat resolved things.

Back to Why do I blog?....

This blog has seen 3 different blog names and 2 URLs. It's seen 3 states, 4 "hometowns", 4 houses, 4 jobs, 3 deployments, multiple highs, many frustrations and struggles, and so on. It's a literal record of my adult life.

But, again, truthfully, I do know why I blog. It's my record of my adult life. It chronicles everything.
I started it about one year into being married and that was one year into being an army wife. I remember the months we dated and the months we were engaged and the months of that first deployment and the months after very well. Shockingly well, even. However, once I started this blog, I started recording things. It's more than just pictures...it's stories, happenings, likes, dislikes...it's literally my life. It's recorded things that I never would've written down or made note of otherwise.

So that's why I blog. That's why I'll continue to blog. Even if no one reads it, I will keep going because not everyone has a record of their life online in this way. Not everyone can go back to mid-deployment 2012 and read about what was happening.

In short, I think I've been busy thinking and that's why I haven't been blogging.

Oh, and can we just say Praise the Lord that it's August? Also, Happy Monday, per usual.

Why do YOU blog?

Literary Ladies Summer Reading Challenge {The Results}

 

I read an insane amount of books this summer.  And I actually did read most of them (versus listening to them) because I was home with not a lot to do.  You can read my summer book reviews for June, July, and August if you'd like.  These are the ones I chose for the Literary Ladies Book Club Challenge.

I should really insert some links, but we all have equal access to Google, am I right?  If you follow me on Goodreads, you can see these reads of mine. 

YA book: Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng (Very good.)

Non-US Author: Three Wishes by Liane Moriarity (Pretty good.)  and One Plus One by Jojo Moyes (Very, very good.)

Book Recommended by a Blogger: The Sea of Tranquility by Katja Millay (Like, the best ever.)

Book on TBR list for a year: Deadlocked by Charlaine Harris (Meh.) and Dead Ever After by Charlaine Harris (Surprisingly okay.)

Book with a kick-ass female character: All These Things I've Done by Gabrielle Zevin I couldn't find this book by Zevin anywhere and I didn't feel like buying it. It's still on my to-read list, but for the purposes of this challenge, I switched to The Good Girl by Mary Kubica (Pretty good.)

Book to movie: The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky I couldn't find this book either.  One day I asked Alexa if she played podcasts and she said, "Accessing your Audible library" and all of a sudden Unbroken by Lauren Hillenbrand (Eh. Parts were okay.) started playing and I just started listening.  I'm not sure how/why this occurred. Or why Alexa doesn't respond to the words she's supposed to. However, Alexa is hooked up to Scott's Amazon account (oh yes, we have joint checking, but separate Amazon accounts) and that was on his Audible so that's what she played.  I listened over a period of a few weeks by asking "Alexa? Do you play podcasts?".  Technology.

Edited to add: I did end up reading Perks last week.  Look for it in my September Books post.

Memoir: Stories I Only Tell My Friends by Rob Lowe (Really good.)

Book with One-Word Title: Wonder by R.J. Palacio (Superb.)

Book about Summer: We Were Liars by E. Lockhart (We-Were-Over-Privileged.)

Suspenseful Book: My Friend the Enemy by Dan Smith (Pretty good.)

What was the best book you read this summer?