blogging breaks and other bits

1. Wow...I'm so not alone, am I? I'm so sorry to hear that so many of the people I adore are feeling as overwhelmed and stressed out as I am. (There is that feeling that it's nice not to be alone, but I swear I would much rather be alone in this than to have others feeling it, too. If that made the slightest bit of sense.)

2. I've decided to take desperate measures. A blogging break. They seem to be quite popular these days. And I think there's good reason for that. Even something we love so much can become stressful when we can't achieve some sort of balance. And that's what I'm off to work on. I just want to focus on getting through this last 6-ish weeks of school and get this house de-cluttered to a state where I don't feel stressed by the mile long list of projects nagging at me. Then I will try tackle that seemingly always out of reach goal of "balance." Homeschool. Family. Housework. Reading. Creating. Socializing/blogging. Being still. There has to be a way to make them all fit.

3. And while I will be gone for the most part from this blog, I will try to visit you all when I can. I think I might perish from sadness if I couldn't touch base with my friends, after all. (And I will probably post my monthly wrap-up, as I just add to my draft as I finish something anyway. It's my personal way of keeping track of what I'm reading and how my challenges are going. The whole list thing, you know. What can I say, I'm an addict.)

4. Before I go AWOL, I thought I ought to get updated on the blame game. So, here's my loot from Mother's Day:



Well, most of my loot. I forgot to put the tin of my favorite cinnamon tea in the picture. And the most awesomely cool bookmark in the world. Gray made it for me, but I'm already using it so I forgot to stick it in the picture. And Annie made me that coyote figurine. Don't you just love it?!! Okay, maybe you don't. When she made it at her art class, all the other kids made fun of her. But I'm completely in love with it...I think it looks like a really cool piece of folk art and it will be forever proudly displayed in our home! And they also gave me Neko Case's Middle Cyclone and Great Lake Swimmers' Lost Channels CDs. And all the rest is books! Books, books, books. With lots of blame to be dished out.

*The Ballad of the Sad Cafe and Other Stories by Carson McCullers (Eva's fault!)
*Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism by Ha-Joon Chang (Eva's fault!)
*Nocturnes by John Connolly (Somer's fault!)
*The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien (Trish's fault!)
*Kockroach by Tyler Knox (Dewey's fault!)
*The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky (Nymeth's fault!)
*Songbook by Nick Hornby (Nymeth's fault!)
*Mirabilis by Susann Coral (Chris's fault!)
*Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist (Chris's fault!)
*Four and Twenty Blackbirds by Cherie Priest (Chris's fault!)
*The Upright Man by Michael Marshall (someone may be owed blame for this, but I have no clue who...I have no recollection whatsoever of adding this to my wishlist)
*Does Anything Eat Wasps? by NewScientist
*One Day the Soldiers Came: Voices of Children in War by Charles London
*Jerusalem 1913: The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict by Amy Dockser Marcus
*Eternally Bad: Goddesses with Attitude by Trina Robbins
*Fables: Homelands by Bill Willingham
*Fables: Arabian Nights (And Days) by Bill Willingham
*Fables: Wolves by Bill Willingham
*Troll's Eye View: A Book of Villainous Tales edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling
*The New Weird edited by Ann and Jeff Vandermeer

5. Okay, I'm sort of having a hard time signing off here, knowing that I won't really be back for so long. But there's no point in dragging it out, is there? See you next month. I'll miss you!

why I blog

I really needed a good night's sleep last night, after several nights in a row filled with sick little boys and little boy nightmares and obnoxious cats and.... Unfortunately, I was my own worst enemy last night, tossing and turning, unable to fall asleep. All because I was debating with myself the idea of giving up blogging.

In reality, it was no contest. Giving up blogging would be downright painful.

People blog for all sorts of reasons. When I first started just over three years ago, it was really just a place to record stuff about my family and save those memories until I had a chance to get them scrapbooked. But then I started meeting wonderful people and making friends. Then I joined my first reading challenges and began meeting even more wonderful people. People who shared a passion for books. And oh my goodness, I simply couldn't have guessed how much I would come to love some of these new friends I was making.

So, now, while I still blog to save stories about my family, I think I'm even more motivated by the friendships I've made. For me, blogging has become about keeping in touch with friends, and making new friends. I don't really even consider my blog a "book blog," for while I do talk a great deal about books, I also throw in a lot of personal family stuff, too. And yet still, I have to admit that I felt attacked yesterday by some of the chatter going on in the book blogging world. And that's what led to my tossing and turning...and what led to this post.

It seems that there are some people who are of the opinion that there are but a few "top-tier" book blogs, and the impression given was that they felt everyone else should just get out of "book blogging" altogether. The word "parasite" was even used in reference to smaller book blogs. This attitude makes me both sad and angry, but mostly I just find it baffling.

For if not for us little pissant book-lovers out here, who would be reading their blogs?!! I'd be willing to bet that a lot of "top-tier" (not my word) blogs get most of their audience from small book bloggers. Why would they want to insult the audience they so very badly seem to want?

And the fact is that there are plenty of very popular book blogs out there who don't hold such elitist views...Nymeth, Becky, Eva. And I definitely don't mean to imply that that is an exhaustive list. Just three very popular blogs, run by three very gracious and welcoming ladies.

Like I said, baffling. If some people want to turn book blogging into some sort of competition, so be it, I suppose. But I genuinely hope that those people new to blogging don't become discouraged by that kind of talk. Because there really are a lot of friendly people out here who just love books, love to talk about books, and love the chance to meet other people who love books.

failing miserably, and taking a break

My goals for this week's Weekly Geeks certainly didn't sound all that difficult to attain, and yet at this point I think I'm going to have concede defeat. I'm still nowhere near being caught up on my blog reading : (

And I still need to write a review for We Have Always Lived in the Castle.

And I just don't think I'm going to get either done today.

It's just been one of those especially busy weeks with Max's birthday and trying to finish up the first quarter of school and writing Annie's first quarter report. (The report that I spend waaaaay more time than necessary writing each quarter. Seriously, with the exception of dealing with kid issues, that is all I did yesterday. Why I stress myself so about the damn thing, I'll never know. Okay, that's not exactly true...I guess I do sort of know...it's just my obsessive personality.)

Okay Debi, stop babbling and get to the point already, would you?!!

Point? I'm supposed to have a point?

Sorry, I do think I'm nearing lunacy here.

Anyway, I just wanted to pop in and say that I'm going to be absent from the blogging world for the next week and a half. I just really, really, really need to focus on getting prepared for Annie's next school quarter. Just one of those times in life when I feel like I'm just drowning. I'm sure you all know what I mean. And as much of a stress reliever as blogging is, it's also a bit time suck. :D

Whew...but just think what old google reader will have in store for me on my return...