I know, I know, I’ve sorta disappeared lately. I’m sorry for that. I didn’t mean for it to happen. I was committed to blogging a lot more regularly in 2018, and I really wanted to make it a priority to reconnect with all of you, to share what’s been going on, and all that good stuff. And it hasn’t happened nearly as much as planned. There are reasons for that, but no excuses.
So I want to give you all a bit of a peek behind the curtain, a look behind the scenes. You see, I know what I want to do with this blog going forward. I know the kind of content that I want to make and what I want to share with you all. I think I had a bit of a crisis of blog recently, and I’ve found my way through it. Maybe.
Crisis of blog and where I’ve been
So I had a bit of a “what am I even doing” moment not so long ago. I think everything in our lives was in such a state of turmoil, I sort of felt directionless in general. I was worried about where I should spend my time to make sure I’d earn enough cash for us to afford this awesome new life of ours, but I was also feeling a bit adrift within our daily lives here. When and how to spend time with the husband and the kid, how to stay in touch with friends and family, when I’d make time for myself. It was all in such a state of flux, so of course, that carried over into my ideas about this blog.
I think a big part of it was also this (largely self-imposed) pressure that I would have to change. With moving to the states, I’m no longer a South African mommy blogger. I’m playing in a much bigger league here in the States, and I figured that I would have to change what I do and become one of those Instagram perfect or super-Pinterest moms. And while I am making more of an effort on Instagram (you’re following me there, right?) and I’ve put a ton more time into organizing my Pinterest account (please go see how awesome my different boards are there), that’s not who I intrinsically am, and I’m pretty sure that’s not why you all enjoy what I do here.
Another reason I haven’t written much is because Dean’s parents have been visiting us. We’ve been going on all sorts of adventures, taking them to the Grand Canyon and stuff. But even when we are home and chilled, I just haven’t felt able to write much – I still only have so many hours when Harley is at school and there aren’t any plans, so I have been focused more on the writing that pays the bills instead of the writing that feeds my soul.
What you can look forward to on Born Geek
So, what’s going to be here going forward? Well, first of all, Born Geek is going to be going through some changes. I will be doing a rebrand in the coming weeks, and shifting my domain over to a .com instead of a .co.za. It’s been something I’ve been planning to do for a while, and it’s finally time to make it official. I’m an Arizona blogger now, and I need an American standard domain.
But don’t worry! All my content will still be here, and I’ll continue writing with my typically global perspective on things. Random South African slang still slips into my speech patterns, so I’m sure it will still weave into my writing from time to time. I hope those of you who discovered me while we were living in Joburg continue to find a reason to read my words now that we’ve moved.
That’s why I’m going to try my best to take two different approaches when writing my content on here. There is a bunch of stuff that I want to write about that I hope will be useful for people. If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll know that I have a couple new pieces of tech in my house, and I really want to share my thoughts on both of them in the coming weeks. And if you check out my Pinterest profile, you’ll know that I’ve dedicated a lot of time and energy to all that content I did on child development, and it’s something I want to continue sharing with all of you going forward.
So, a big part of this blog will be sharing the useful stuff – ideas for teaching your kid to read, books that we’re enjoying, the technology that’s making my life easier, games that I think you might like to play and all that good stuff. The other part of this blog, though, will be sharing what life is like for us now. It’s been a bit hard, to be honest, because I didn’t want to share the darker side of emigration. You know, the part where you question if it really was the best idea, the part where you panic that life might have been better elsewhere, the part where you stress about the impact of all that stress on your kid and your marriage. But I want to try and share some of that with all of you, and also the good stuff, like finding new neighborhoods to explore, and discovering the joy of all kinds of delicious foods at the farmer’s market or whatever else. I want to brag about how smart and funny my kid is, and I want to tell you how my gym routine is going. I feel like I haven’t been able to take a lot of you on the journey with me lately, and I’m sorry for that. I will try to do better.
Finally, I want to talk a bit about all of you. You see, I was feeling bad, like I had lost my audience of readers. I figured that most of you had lost patience waiting for me. But the reality is that we’ve connected in the past, and we can connect again. I believe that if you’re reading this, you’re probably someone who is fairly smart and/or educated, someone who wants to raise a genius child, or at least figure out how to survive the daily madness of raising a person. Maybe we’ve met in the past, maybe you’re an old friend or maybe you’ve only just discovered my words. Either way, you’re probably drawn to my empowered woman parenting technique, or my fascination with gaming, or my geeky approach to raising a kid, or you just want to know what happens next in our journey.
However you found me, and whatever your reason for sticking with me, THANK YOU. I can’t explain how much I appreciate having you read my words, knowing that I’m not alone on this adventure. I am so grateful for everyone who reads, every comment, every share. You are all a part of my tribe, and you help to make me feel connected, even when I’m all alone with a wild two-year-old. I hope I help you also know there is someone like you out there, going through similar stuff, thinking through similar issues. Let’s continue to find our way through it all, together.
Please let me know what you think of my ideas for this blog going forward. I do plan on making videos again soon, once I sort out some tech issues, but what kinds of things do you want to read about? Comment below and tell me – do you want to know more about what Harley is up to, or the crazy swirls of madness in my own head? Let me know why you take the time to read my words, and I’ll try to live up to the value of your time, too.
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