My Way of Living:
Blogging

Image this for a moment.
You're travelling to a strange country. It's eerily similar to yours, except that they speak a different language.
Some of your friends didn't like their journey, others encouraged you, and there were some who said they were happy there.

You've researched, and know what would be needed for the trip.
Life's a adventure to be lived, isn't that right? Arriving there, it's hot, and dusty, and everyone else seems to know what they are doing except for you. Even the directions don't make sense. There's a lot of wandering around in circles, and you're feeling a bit lost. Just as you start to wonder if this is all been a mistake, you remembered a guide book someone had given you. Cracking it open, you skim the pages and begin to pick up a few phrases. Marveling that the street signs seem easier to read, and that things were beginning to make sense. That's how my journey to Word Press has been.

I've been on Blogger for almost 7 years. It's a great platform, and I encourage you to stay there if you're happy with it. This isn't a post about WP versus Blogger, that's a personal choice for each blogger to make. We need to stop telling each other what to do, go, stay, leave, look for something else. I've read that moving to Word Press is a learning curve. There's no doubt there.

I went in circles for much of the day, things looked familiar, and then they seemed to disappear, and pop up somewhere else. But I am figuring it out, bit by bit. And to be honest, I'm loving the process of learning something new to me. "It's not hard, it's just different." For this blogger different is good. I can hardly wait to show you what I am creating for The Light Laughed, it's still a little while off, but it's coming along nicely. Would you, do you, will you, consider moving? Never, maybe, hmmmm not sure, absolutely not? It's a journey, that's for sure.

It's late on Sunday night. I have been avoiding writing Monday's blog post for a little too long now. And it looks like I am still having difficulties downloading photos onto Adobe. Procrastination obviously is not a good thing.

My eyes are probably as pink as this flower. Time seems to be running out.

I'll let you know on Tuesday if I can download new photos.

The world is made up many different types of people. In my simplified version, there are Bloggers, and Non Bloggers. It's my blog, I can do that here. There's also a secondary group consisting of Background buddies… long suffering non blogging friends, and loved ones who get to know much more then they ever thought possible about the blogging world.

Gotta love anyone who can listen to a Blogger ramble on without their eyes glazing over after the first few minutes. I love mine, bless his non- blogging heart. While he doesn't quite understand the difference between Word Press, and Blogger, or why one over the other, he does try to be as supportive as possible. When I finally wander down to the TV where he is sitting in our matching recliners, sigh… bleary eyed, and half mind-edly still living in the blogging world, he always asks how it is going, sweetie that he is. Working behind the blog stuff doesn't interest him either, tweaking, sorting, and decisions about plugins, widgets, and themes are not something he finds interesting, but he's good at listening. For a little while at least…as soon as I see him nodding off, I change the subject.

As bloggers. It's ingrained in our lives. It's as much a part of how we see ourselves, as anything else in our makeup, we live and breathe blogging. It's our identity along with the myriad of other wonderful things that make us uniquely who we are. And we couldn't do it without the support of our background people. The ones who tell us it's all going to be fine, when no one else reads our posts. When something doesn't work right in our blog. The one's who offer to track down the person who left a mean comment on our blogs and give them a hey, that's not nice take that back kind of talking to.

Let's celebrate the background people, the ones who are"the situations we blog about, who make the funny comments we repeat on our blogs, and sometimes even become our slightly unwilling photography models." Where would we be as bloggers be without our background people? You rock our blogging worlds background people…you keep us
blogging on! PS: Dedicated to my background guy, the one who will listen to my blogging post when I read it out to him, give me his honest opinion, and then not be offended when I ignore it and hit publish anyways. And never say"I told you so." I have another post coming up at the end of this week about blog hero's. The techy, and knowledgeable people who so happily give us advice, show us how, and help us out when we need it. Thank goodness they are all part of our blogging worlds. The WP move…for those of you that are interested. Going along smoothly, almost done, it's down to widgets, plugin's, and final tweaks. I'm still trying to fix a few things, and then we will be taking this baby for a test drive. It's pretty, and bright, with lots of white space, you all know just how visual I am. I'd like something clean, uncluttered, and easy for you to read. I want my new home to be a fresh, beautiful place, sparkling with laughing light.

The first real warm days:
There is something almost sublime about those first “real” days of spring. Not the ones that are declared spring by the calendar, or the weather forecaster, but the first “real” ones. The ones that gently slip your coat from your shoulders, and ease out the tension caused by all the winter cold. The days when you can feel the sun on your skin. That forgotten sensation, and scent of warmth that cannot be duplicated. Those days when you start to recall with more then just far gone nostalgia, glimpses of summer picnics, leaves, green, and the texture of grass under your feet. Winter Coats: Days when you look at your winter coat hanging in the closet, and choose a lighter version, because you know for sure that you are not taking a chance when you do that. But because you know that today, the winter coat will be too warm to wear, and soon it will be packed away. Days when the very air is warmed by more then your breath, when the bird song carries further. When the promise of spring is not broken, but fulfilled. Those are the first real days of spring. Live them, and enjoy them. Because when they finally come to you, you fully deserve them.

The longer you blog, the more you learn.
The more you learn, the more you realize what you need to do in order to keep up.
The more you do, the more you realize that there is so much more you don’t know.
And this goes around in a vicious circle until you have blog burnout.

Follow any good blogging websites and the advice ranges from: do this, to do that, and never ever do that. Click on over to another site, and you will be told to do the exact opposite.
About the only consistent advice might be:
DO NOT USE WORD VERIFICATION.
That’s great advice.

I like blogging advice, and I like tutorials, hints, and ideas on how to do things, I like social media… but that’s just me. You might have other things that appeal to you. That’s OK, we all don’t have to be the same kind of bloggers, remember that village I wrote about a while back?
But there comes a time when we have to question if everything we are reading is important enough to us to follow through on, or should we just use our own judgement on certain things. How much free time do you have, and how much are you willing to spend blogging, and promoting your blog? And for what reason, monetary, growth, friendship? When did blogging become about learning SEO, key words, transparency and social media, and less then connecting with your community?

There are some experts out there that will tell you to make sure to hit all of the social media sites to promote your new post, Google+, twitter, Face Book, the works. I have also noticed that despite the thousands of followers they have, some of those sites have very few comments, it makes you wonder what’s up with that? Are they so busy building a empire of social media influence that they don’t have the time to interact with anyone?
They will tell you not to have two columns of sidebars, not to forget to put up your social media icons, not to use more then 3 colors in your design, and to make sure your posts are under 300 words, while others will say at least 1000 words. It can be exhausting to read, and process and I haven’t even written a blog post that day.

I personally can barely put out a project a month, much less one every day. But that’s me, there are amazingly some bloggers who can do it, and good on them. I used to blog every day, and while I agree it’s made me a better writer, and photographer, practice makes anyone better, all that blogging would improve anyone’s skills.
But I find that I need time to get out there with my camera, because as much as I love blogging, and I do love it, I love photography even more.

I will still continue to participate in my chosen areas of social media, I will still be posting on my Muddy Boot Dreams face book page, and I have a Google + page for MBD, but I will also be out there with my camera a lot more. It’s important to me to hone those skills, continue to develop my eye, and forge a new path for myself.
As I am mulling over tutorials, hints, and ideas that I come across on how to use social media, I am going to be reading about, and using only those ideas that I feel are really worth my time, and effort. Some are well worth it, but I am leaving it up to my inner blogger to decide which ones I believe in, isn’t blogging supposed to be about fun, and community, along with learning to do new things?

How many social media outlets do you regularly participate in? Does your blog have a FB page, a G+ page, are you on Pinterest. Do you follow fellow bloggers personal, and blogging social media sites?
Let’s continue the conversation in the comments, I’m curious about how many of you have expanded beyond the blog. This post was inspired by Brenda from a Cosy Little House, one of my favourite seasoned, and beloved bloggers who has written a great post at Brenda’s blog tips where she is sharing her opinion about blogging, virtual assistants, and linky parties…… click on over, it’s well worth reading.

Being able to sit down to eat a meal after so many months of pain is… Well, totally wonderful. Indescribable.
I hurt my back last summer, something went the wrong way, my back went the other, and I herniated a disk. L5, low down…it was pressing on the sciatic nerve that goes all the way to your toes. Yes it was a very big ouch.

Not nice at all.
I don't suggest it.
Apparently I was one of the unlucky 5% of people who require surgery.
And it affected my ability to blog, there were months when it was difficult to get near the computer. Because I couldn't sit, I would stand at my drafting desk, write a sentence on the laptop, pace out the pain, and go back.
There were times when I thought I might have to give up blogging.
To distract myself, I decided to research a move to Word Press, and go ahead with the name change that had been in the works for ages. What else can you do?

And then a cancellation call came from the hospital.
The surgery was last Tuesday, while I am glad it's over, I still can't believe it.
I'm very thankful.There were a lot of prayers said. And answered.
I'm also thankful that you've stuck with me through what has been a erratic 7 month adventure.
It's been a long road.
I'm looking towards the future, I've got some interesting things for you, and for the future of this blog as soon as I am healed.
Lets see where our blogging journey's takes us.
PS: Thinking spring, and sending warm up wishes to all.

I don’t know why you read blogs, but I read them like books, I read them for inspiration, for enjoyment, and for the sheer pleasure of drifting away into another persons world. For the joy of friendship, those whom I have connected with and are no longer considered just a fellow blogger, but a friend. Some make me laugh, some make me cry, and others make me think, wish, dream, hope, and create. There is nothing like the thrill of a new [to me] blogger that seems to speak to my heart. Be it a decorating/crafter blogger, a photographic blogger, a travelling blogger, or a gardening blogger, when I find one that is inspiring me it’s almost like having a little crush. Reading their first few posts gives me a thrill almost like drinking the first glass of lemonade on a hot summers day. Or maybe it’s like meeting a new friend, one that you just know is destined to become an important part of your life. It’s simply sublime when I open each new post, and feel a connection, a deep interest in their blog. That’s what I mean by a blogger crush’s. Reading the archives, getting a feel for who they are, it’s all good. If you are curious whom I read, take a look at my sidebar, I am sure that you will find some new fav’s yourself. There are blogs from all walks of life, some are new, some are old friends, all are cherished. And…if you are a reg, and you don’t see your name on the sidebar, let me know. For some reason some of the blogs are not showing up. Big whoops on my part. Jane

Winter has returned to the dark hole it hibernates in to avoid the other seasons, the snow is nearly gone.

It feels as if it was never here. Invigorated by the warm breeze, we, and I use the term we loosely, had just finished raking the entire yard. And surveyed the cleaned up brown patches flecked with emerging green with a sense of accomplishment. One item ticked off of the spring cleanup list. A hour later the wind rose up in a fury.

Gust swayed the tall Fir trees, cracking branches with a terrible bangs, blowing dust, gusting from every direction. The tidy landscape changed to a full on scattering of enormously long branches impaling the soft ground as they fell from 40 feet up. Too dangerous to stay outside we retreated inside. And watched with dismay as all of our hard work was undone.
We were out there too soon, and have to cleanup once again. We could view it as a chore, something that had to be done, reversed in a matter of hours. But in that sweet moment we were living life, the warmth of sunshine on our pale seasonal skin, air fresh in our lungs as we called out to neighbors walking by. The breeze mingling in the strands of our hair, jackets thrown to the ground, green blades of grass revealed with each raking, that moment can't be taken away from us. Laura at Simple Serene Living wrote a encouraging post about bookmarking life, living the moment as it comes. It made my heart sing, and it was a good reminder, despite our best intentions, we sometimes rush through life, missing moments when they come by. Being outside in the spring sun, that was a"bookmarked" moment that made the work worth while, despite the outcome. Do you find yourself rushing, ticking off items on your to do list, or do you tend to live each moment as it comes? I think it's truly hard to keep living in the moment, but oh, when you do…it's sublime.

PS:
My move to Word Press, and a new URL, is on the back burner for the next little while. That's OK, because thanks to Brenda at Cosy Little House, I just figured out how to resize my images properly, so I will have some time to practice. Like the spring storm, life can have a way of throwing things at you. You have to be able to move with it, stay flexible, and move forward, so that's what I'm doing here. The new URL will go live, just not this week, or maybe not the next week either. I'll make sure to let you know what to expect when we are once again, closer to that date. For now I am encouraging you to live those fleeting moments, things change rapidly in life. More PS's: Have you checked out our The Over 40 Blogging World facebook group? If you are over 40, it's a wonderful place to hang out with fellow bloggers who are supportive, and passionate about blogging. And…one last thing. My World Wednesday isn't on for this week, look for my next post on Friday, see you then.

For the last little while I've been talking about some changes that my blog is going to be going through in the future. And both Laura, and I have mentioned another project that is dear to our hearts, it'll be ready soon. You'll just have to be patient for a little while longer.

While you're waiting can we talk about upcoming changes to MBD. If you are anything like me, the thought of change can make our stomachs flip. Pancake's anyone, hot off the worry grill.
Change is hard, most of us don't like it, I know that I might can say that it doesn't bother me, but there are equal amounts of times that I worry about it. You might be wondering why do it then? Taking a step back to look at what needs to be improved can be invigorating and inspiring. I n the end it's worth doing, because I'm getting a clearer view of what my blogging journey looks like. And that's a pretty big mountain I've been hiking. Muddy Boot Dreams started out as a personal blog promoting my art cards, and photography. It evolved into documenting our dreams for a move up to the Okanagan, now done. Checked off. Along the way I've talked about how we're each on our own personal blogging journeys. My blogging route seems to have taken the long trail up that virtual mountain. That's why it's called a journey, and not a short trip, right?. Along the way, I've met fellow hikers [that's you] some of the most amazing people in blog land. Many bloggers know me as Jane@Muddy Boot Dreams. I've worked hard at building my reputation, and brand under that name. I've had those Muddy Boot Dreams for so long, that I didn't realize they no longer accurately described where I am in my journey now. So I've decided to change my blog name to more accurately describe where I am now. MBD will start to redirect automatically to my new domain in the coming week. The light up here is phenomenal.I've never seen anything like it, and that has influenced my choice of new domains. This isn't a decision that I've made lightly, but it's a change that I need to make. I'm pretty sure you don't have to do anything unless you subscribe to my RSS feed and get my posts emailed to you. Easy peasy, right?

Thanks so much for being part of this, and I sincerely hope that you will come along for the next path of my blogging journey, and allow me to follow along on yours. I've got some wonderful things to show you, and look forward to seeing you there.

Do you ever have those days, then weeks, then a month, where there just doesn’t seem to be enough hours in the day, I usually don’t buy into that train of thought, but. I have been working so many full shifts at my retail job, I can see how it would take over your life. The job that is, it may be good for the bank account, but it’s bad for blogging. Please don’t think that I am complaining, because I am rejoicing, just feeling a little guilty for not being able to visit everyone with any regularity. Google reader is practically flashing red alert at me when ever I dare to go near it. The amount of posts that are languishing unread creeps up like ivy on a wall. One minute you turn your back. I think that sometime in the future things will even out again, and I will be back to visiting everyone. Maybe I will have to bring some pruners, to cut away the ivy at your blogging doors, but I will be there knocking on them soon. Until then, Happy Spring. Jane

I've got a friend who exquisitely files and organizes everything. From her silverware, and dishes, to her paperwork. She is the Martha Stewart of my life, so super organized she can put her finger onto anything you ask her to produce, dishes, documents, and the warranty for any appliance, no matter how old.

I admire her organizational skills, and part of me is asking? How do you do it? Did you learn it, where you born with this skill? Is there a class that I missed, did I misfile the ability somewhere between lost socks, and the cat demanding lunch at 10 am? I struggle to organize my thoughts, to be able to put them on the screen in a manner that is readable and interesting. We know it takes time to write a interesting blog post, and that good content takes effort. You've heard the phrase,"time expands to fill the space available" it's called Parkinson's law. The more time I have available the longer it takes to write my post. It can take me all day if I were to let it, and it won't be any more organized. Am I the only person this happens to? For me writing a blog post is similar to making dinner from scratch. I might start with p lans for homemade pasta, Alfredo sauce, broccoli, consider those the outline of my blog post. As I try to write down my thoughts the butter burnt, the cream curdled, and we ended up eating store bought pasta, and jarred sauce, with over cooked broccoli. It tasted OK, but it's wasn't what I had in mind when I began. Learning how to transfer the jumble in my mind onto the computer screen is one of the hardest things for me. The seat of your pants style of blogging has been my default for much too long, and I'm trying to improve by being more organized. Writing posts ahead of time still feels awkward, I'm still writing the night before, but I know that if I make something a good habit, it becomes much easier for me.

I'd like to be able to write a blog post in 20 minutes like this but I am far away from it. Sometimes I need to trick my brain into using organizational tricks to get things done in time. I've been using these and they seem to be working.

• Writing standing up, sitting down encourages me to daydream, and we all know that it's wonderful.but not going to get that post written.

• Setting a timer, the more time I have the longer it takes me to write my post.

• Drafting out a post, writing a outline, going back and filling in the details afterwards.

• Retyping awkward sentences in CAPITAL LETTERS. If I'm struggling with a word, I will just type it in caps so I can find it later and fix it.

• Planning sheets from organized home they offer free printables, calendars, and to do lists that I've been using to organize my thoughts.

I'm in awe of bloggers who are able to write posts that flow effortlessly, the kind that make you wish you had written them. It's a journey, and each step we take to improve ourselves, brings us closer to being better bloggers. I need that on my wall…each step brings me further along my blogging journey… I'm always on the lookout for more organizational tips to help my blogging, so if you have any tips that help you organize your blog posts, please let me know in your comments.

The big move update: My move to Word Press is still a couple of weeks away, I've purchased my hosting, bought the Genesis framework, and picked a feminine theme I love. I'll let you know the exact date of the move when we get a little closer, things should stay almost the same on your end. I understand changes to our routines can be difficult, and I am hoping that you will hang out with me no matter what platform I'm on. I'm not changing who I am, or how I blog, what kind of shots I take, just where I do it.
Laura from I'm so Vintage is going through the process of changing her blog name, and URL, she wrote a post describing it here. In the end, although changes might not be easy to go through, they help us grow in our blogging journeys.
Thanks for reading!
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