Have I Lost the Blogger/Twitter Love?

I really had to force myself to write this post today. I'm finding that this feeling is becoming much more prevalent with all of my social networking, including Twitter and Facebook. Well, I never really got into Facebook that much but Twitter and doing my blog posts I enjoyed. Just … not so much anymore.

I could just be feeling social networking exhaustion. I could, after almost 3 years of blogging have nothing more to say. More likely, with how busy my life has been lately, I just don't have the time and energy to create a blog every week. I used to blog three times a week, then I went down to two and now I'm down to once a week. That worked for a while but even that once a week posting seems an effort now. So, if I'm not seeing someone as much as I used to, doesn't that tell me something?

I'm also not finding anything new or fabulous out in the internet world these days. Even Twitter seems to be filled with people I haven't had a chance to get to know and, in my attempts to be a good, polite Twitter follower, I've perhaps followed too many people just because they followed me first. A lot of them seem to be using Twitter as an ongoing advertisement for their books. Which is fine. I just don't want to read about it every time I'm on line. Similarly, I used to love Google and would always have a pile of searches on various topics (mostly writing related) that would keep me happily entertained for hours. But it feels like I'm seeing the same old subjects being talked about by a few different people and nothing new is being discussed. Have I really read it all or am I just burnt out and need to step away from the computer for awhile?

I'm hoping it is the latter. Because I don't want to stop after all this time. But stopping cold turkey just makes it all the harder to step back into it when you do decide to come back. For example, I have (had?) an online friend who was very active for a time on blogger and Twitter and then she just dropped out. For over a year I didn't hear from her and then there was a brief little email to a few of her online friends that said 'Hey, how's everything? Hope to hear from you" but, honestly, I didn't feel the connection anymore because of that separation. That's what I feel will happen to me if I step away completely. But I may have to do that. Keeping up with it all is just way too much sometimes.

Am I the only one feeling this fatigue? If you're feeling it, did it hit you all of a sudden or has it been building slowly and what have you decided to do about it?

And 2011 Begins...

...with a slight case of exhaustion. Happy New Year everyone! I hope you had a restful and joyous holiday with friends and family. In our clan this year it was a holiday of driving. Driving to see my family in Windsor, driving back to Toronto before driving to Ottawa for a hockey tournament and driving back to Toronto to drive my daughter to London to university. I have to say welcoming in 2011 was a low key affair for us because The Boy had a 7 a.m. hockey game (they got to the Finals) on New Year's Day. Yup. That meant up at 4:30 to check out of the hotel and get to the arena by 6. Unfortunately, the boys lost but came in second overall in 20 teams. And they got to play on NHL ice (Ottawa Senators arena) and see themselves on the jumbo-tron. Very cool.

I hope the rest of 2011 isn't so frantic, to tell you the truth. I am so happy I have today as a holiday because I seriously need to recover. Who knew I'd ever look forward to a day of laundry and vacuuming?? But I am in one place and not the van. I am heartily sick of that van and hockey arenas, let me tell you. And as for writing? I am feeling distinctly guilty for not doing one word on the wip. I'm not one for New Year's resolutions but I am determined to finish that wip. It's a good story. I can feel it. I think I'm just scared of messing it up - funny because one of the themes in the story is our fears and having to face them. Beyond that one goal, the only other thing I want to accomplish in 2011 is trying to get a little less stress in my life. Not sure how I'll accomplish that with a house renovation the big ticket item this year. However, that's what the start of a New Year is for, right? The fresh, idealism of hope!

Do you make any New Year's resolutions? Or are they more like guidelines, really?

Busy Mom + YA Writer = Bad Blogger

I made a commitment to myself when I started this blog to write at least two blog entries a week. Preferably Tuesdays and Thursdays because weekends are a total write off in terms of time spent in front of a computer. Not only do my kids need the new boob tube for homework, research and connecting with friends so I don't have the slimmest chance of spending more than fifteen minutes in front of it, I'm also too busy catching up on housework - and now garden work - as well as running kids around to various sports and socializing events and working on my wip and, now, on revisions to Illegally Blonde, to think about the blog. I'm still fairly new to the blogging world so it's not like anybody is waiting with bated breath for my next blog entry or anything but I know if I start to slack off early in the game I'll develop the bad habit of letting it slide, feeling guilty about it and then avoiding it because I'm feeling guilty about it and the whole frickin' thing goes down in flames.

So, in the spirit of not wanting to feel guilty about yet another thing in my life, I'm blogging (a day late) about what a busy mom (namely me) has spent most of her last five days doing. Ready for this?

Helping my son build a medieval castle.

Yup. Epic stuff baby. And let me tell you I never want to see another cereal box, hot glue gun or silver spray paint can in my life again. Ever.

The Boy did a great job but I was the one who had to keep nagging him to work on it every day for a week. I had to drive to get more spray paint and glue when it ran out. I (and daughter 2) wielded the glue gun when the Boy burned himself on it and didn't want to touch the thing again. He cut out the cardboard, built the drawbridge and pulley system (which actually worked!) and painted the moat and buildings. He did a great job. But we were both pretty wiped by the end of it. Okay, so it's not like we were actually back in 1260 A.D. hauling stones up a hill or anything. But by the time I'd burnt my tenth finger I felt like I'd suffered just as much as any serf.

But the Boy was a trooper (or maybe a Knight?). Not only did he build an awesome castle he finished by competing in his first track and field event yesterday and coming in 2nd in the 800m. Whoo hoo! He advances to the next meet and if he places in the top four there he goes on to City finals. He's pumped and nervous and excited and worried all at once. But I told him, "Hon, if you can build an entire castle in a week, you can win a simple little race!"

Sigh. Being a busy mom is way more exhausting than writing sometimes.

The Family Has Split Up

Relax. It's not as bad as the title sounds! The boys (hubby and son) are in Montreal. They went to cheer on the Canadians in the third game of the playoffs against the Boston Bruins. Unfortunately, the Habs lost but it was close for a while. The boys, I'm sure had a good time. They'll be coming home tomorrow.

The girls and I stayed home. Unfortunately, between schoolwork and me filling out my author's questionnaire, we didn't have as much fun as the boys. We would have loved to have gone to see 17 Again with Zac Efron (yes, I admit it. He looks totally cute in this movie) but the combination of all the work we had to do - which is why I'm typing this blog post at 12:45 in the morning) and the suddenly crummy weather here (rainy, windy and COLD again! Is there no justice??) has kept us home bound.

Have to say, answering all those questions quite wiped me out. Maybe it was to prepare me for the revision letter. Which is still. to. come. GAh.