When Writing is Bigger on the Inside.

One of my promises to myself when I created this blog was to not fall into the trap of starting each post by apologizing for the infrequency of my words. It is the blogging equivalent of pointing out the flaws in your cooking to a table full of dinner guests.

What I’m finding to be a more difficult struggle than posting regularly, is managing all of the pieces I have moving at one time. My blog is having a bit of an identity crisis, it just isn’t sure what it wants to be now, or when it grows up. Is it a glorified baby book, carried into preschool and beyond? Would that be interesting to people, outside of major calamities?

Since I also have a full time job, two children who overwhelm me, and the desire to sleep, I tend to save my best writing for outside websites. Even when I haven’t posted here in some time, I have likely been writing for other pages. Some of those could be added to my blog later, depending on the terms and conditions, but that feels a bit like cheap recycling.

If you ever want to see what else I’m up to, go check out my Facebook page, or my portfolio.

I’ve had a few exciting developments. McSweeney’s published me, which is a pretty big deal. National Geographic Kids accepted me as an Insider / Brand Ambassador for 2016 – 2017. I will be doing some product reviews in the coming months. If you know me, you know I’ll give you my honest opinion, because OCD makes me sure Karma would kick my ass otherwise. I’ve applied for a few cool things recently, but no way am I going to jinx them by giving details.

I’ve been really loving to write satire recently, and have been writing a lot for MockMom. I call it journalism for introverts and lazy people. On the real-life front, I’ve been writing regularly for Reality Moms, which is a fairly new site. I’ve also written a few things for Pregnant Chicken.

Because I’m me, I always want something new and exciting and affirming to be happening. And I assume I’ve failed if it isn’t. When I put together my portfolio a few weeks ago it really hit me how much I have been writing in the last year. I started writing for Moxxly in October, though none of that is published as of yet. I didn’t have my first published essay until December 31, 2015. So, I started writing for a wider audience eight months ago.

All of this makes me wonder — am I a blogger or a writer? I suppose most bloggers are writers, but not all writers are bloggers. But which am I, primarily? I always want to wrap things up into neat little boxes, arms and legs inside the ride at all times.Who am I as someone who strings words together in ways that seem to make other people want to follow along with their eyes? I have the feeling I’ll never know.