The Great Blogging Challenge

I miss blogging. I miss putting my randomness out there on a regular basis for people to read or, in the case of my blog at this particular moment, not to read. I started this website in the spring of 2008, blogged consistently for awhile, and loved it! My main goal was to have a sort of diary of my son’s antics but also to have fun. I loved participating in different blogging games like Wordless Wednesday or Favorite Foto Friday and getting to know a few people in the blogosphere. Due to a lack of time and a need for sleep, I stopped blogging regularly. I ended up neglecting my blog for a few months, then going back and backdating posts, so there would be some kind of record of what my family was up to, but stopped reading other blogs and abandoned my minuscule place in the blogging community. I want it back. Blogging keeps me writing and keeps me taking pictures—two of my favorite things! It’s time to revitalize those neglected hobbies of mine.

In order to do so, I’m giving up TV. I don't feel like I've ever watched a ton of television, but I turn it on when I don't need to, like when I'm cleaning, and I know it makes me work slower resulting in wasted time. I don’t mean I’m going to go crazy and take a sledgehammer to our televisions and never watch TV again. That would be a little extreme. Plus, we don’t have a sledgehammer. My intention is to leave the TV off during the course of a normal day. Sure, I’ll occasionally use an episode of Little Bear as a babysitter if I get smelly and need a shower, but I vow to stop turning on Little House on the Prairie reruns as I fold the laundry. It slows me down. It rots my aging brain cells. And I’ve seen all those shows before anyway! I’ll still watch some TV with John in the evenings (although our show, Lost, is ending this season—sad), but no more daytime TV. No more Food Network. No more Dr. Quinn. I’m done! In case you’re thinking yeah, right, Jenelle, don’t make public professions of TV purging unless you’re really going to stick with it, I’ve been practicing leaving the TV off for the past month or so, and it's been going well. It's actually liberating and probably why my blog that was stuck in October for months is finally current.

I will always be pressed for time. There will always be a house to clean, children to entertain, meals to prepare, papers to grade, or classes to take. In fact, I’ve got several projects to finish up in the next few weeks for an online class I’m taking, and I need to dedicate several hours a week to studying foreign language to finish up my graduate degree. I probably should be working on those things instead of writing this, but hey, a girl can’t work all the time. Since I’m always busy and have multiple interests, it’s time to stop wasting time on something that doesn’t really interest me anyway. BYE-BYE TELEVISION. You’re wasting precious moments of my life. Get lost.

SO, now that TV has been banished, I desire to spend some of my found free time doing something I deem more worthy of my leisure time—blogging! Sure, this could be a temporary phase (my phases often are), but I feel like blogging NOW, so I’m gonna! To try to break back into the habit, I declare the next thirty days “Jenelle’s Great Blogging Challenge.” I’m going to attempt to blog every day for the next 30 days. We’ll see how long I last. Ready, Jenelle? Set? GO!