Gathering of Autumn Days: Social Black Holes

I was never going to start up on Facebook. I knew my tendency to get sucked into the abyss, and I said no. Of course, I went ahead and shot that cannon off and fired myself straight into Facebook anyway. And I was right. It is an abyss, and it sucked me right in. I hardly blog at all anymore. I've let it all go...the homestead blog here, the homeschool blog, and the poor abandoned kitchen blog.  Maybe it's the lure of sometimes instant feedback, maybe it's just laziness. Myself, I'd say it's both, but I'm sure I actually lean a bit more toward the lazy side. It's just too easy to get sucked in. It's right there, easily accessed from wherever I am...computer, iPad, smartphone, even my Kindle. Blogging...not always so easily accessed outside the computer venue.

Despite all I accomplish, and/or attempt to accomplish in my every day plan here, I am primarily a lazy creature.

Talking with a dear friend of many years, I mentioned the same thing. Despite physical issues that would lay out the best of us, she accomplishes more in her first hours of daylight than I even consider in my entire day. She has a heart for creating, providing, making-do where others might only see scraps. Today she was dipping candles for her emergency stash. I have never dipped a candle in my life. Well, maybe I have...back when I did the whole Girl Scout thing with my now-21 year old daughter. My friend is blessed with motivation. She does much of what she does because of her heart for providing for her family, and being the best steward of the gifts The Lord places in her path. She cans every bit of food available to her to ensure the lasting feast table as the seasons change. She crafts and creates from items most of us would overlook as useful or practical. I look at projects and start thinking about what I need to buy to craft them myself. I lack vision follow-thru.  I have ideas galore, but I lack the motivation...the heart...to always see them through.

Pinterest is a great tool. It is also another vortex I've been sucked into. I have yarn boards, crafting pins, baking and cooking pins, holiday decorating pins. I have homestead pins, herbs and medicines pins, cute sayings, even homeschool pins. If I worked everyday at putting to use what I've pinned, I'd be crafting/baking/schooling for a good long while...yet I pin more. I'm not there every day, but I'm there enough. I collect these things for what exactly? I'll never make all of the yarn projects I've pinned. I've got food ideas galore, and I have made a great many of them, but the are just so many.

If I'm there pinning, when do I create?

I miss the simplicity of blogging. I miss those early days on Homestead Blogger. Things were active, but we all had priorities it seemed. There weren't nearly as many 'blogs for hire' as you see now. I rarely come across a blog that isn't hosting a give-away from here or there, writing reviews for pay or product goodies, touting affiliate links and more. Are these bad things? Of course not. If there's a dollar made from blogging, and you'll be blogging anyway, why not cash in?  Who doesn't appreciate a solid, honest review about a book, a curriculum product, or a store-bought item from a person they know online, and trust. Just because I never understood the appeal of selling my blog space doesn't mean there isn't a merit in it.  And obviously, given my lazy blogging process, I'd never make half a cent at it. The force of planning a blog topic schedule, or organizing my posts to highlight this or that would suck every bit of enjoyment out of blogging for me. But some folks thrive on it, and I'm quite content, and most often blessed, to run across their review.

Given these days of the organized blogger, how does one who simply blogs for the sake of babbling into empty space survive? I can't crank out the well-timed piece of informational sharing the way so many do. I don't even live that kind of life, remember...lazy person here. I just get up in the morning, do a bit of devotional reading, we start barn and house chores, have breakfast, and do some school work. There may be nature hikes involved, or craft projects in the works, but by and large the day starts, and ends somewhere near that list.

Guess I need to get my motivation kicked I to gear again.