Hello, readers! I can't believe it's been more than 2 months since I last wrote a blog post. Honestly, there's been plenty to write about, but over the past year, I've started wondering if anyone still reads my ramblings?
Then I got a sweet, concerned email from a long-time follower (thanks DeeAnna!) wondering if I'm doing ok. YES! I'm still alive and well. I've just been reflecting a little.
My blog began
in 2007 as a one-stop-shop for my family and friends to get caught up on pictures of my growing kids and to see a glimpse of our daily life. Back then, I was known as
Three Blondes and a Redhead...Kaylin was an infant and Ryan was only 2 years old. Within a year, I had dozens of followers. As an overwhelmed stay-at-home-mom, I didn't realize I needed to be heard...to have a voice. I appreciated that others understood my exhaustion. I loved sharing recipe ideas and organization tips with strangers all over the globe. Friendships developed with people I would never meet in parts of the world I may never visit.
A few months before Jason was born, I evolved into Intentionally Katie, my page got a facelift, and things got big-time. Dozens of readers became hundreds of readers. I actually met people around town who recognized me from my blog...it was a trip!
Then when I
began homeschooling in 2011, I lost some people. I've always written about our daily life, which was soon consumed with all things homeschooling, and many couldn't relate. I had less time to compose and publish blogs posts (oh, but I started so many...!) and people got sick of checking in, only to find nothing new.
Looking back over 2015, my single-digit, monthly post numbers are truly pathetic. If nothing else, I love journaling about our life! And I hardly have anything to look back upon.
Blogs don't seem to be nearly as widespread as they were when I began writing nearly 9 years ago. Sure, there are certainly plenty of blogs to read, but with other social media outlets to stay connected and get ideas, I have noticed my followers have dwindled, comments are scarce, and I tend to wonder if anyone has the desire to read about my relatively mundane world...?
I also wonder how safe it is to post pictures of my kids. I don't want to sound paranoid, but this world is going downhill at warp speed and there are some crazies out there! I've strongly considered making this blog private, since it's turned into less "struggling moms, you're not alone" and more about a personal memoir of my kids and our family moments.
But those decisions are for another day. What have we been up to these past few months?
In October, just as my body was finally recovering from
a miscarriage, Mike and I headed to Los Cabos, Mexico for an all-expenses-paid FREE vacation. This trip was earned by the top 19 people at
Tastefully Simple and I was one of them!!! It was fantastic. We snorkeled, went horseback riding on the beach, relaxed, relaxed and relaxed some more. We needed this getaway! Badly. We came home and I got back to work, trying to earn the top trip to Italy next year!
In November, Ryan finished up his first season of tackle football and Jason ended his 2nd soccer season. Weekly practices for both boys, tumbling for Kaylin and games all weekend long kept us very. busy. After 12 years unmedicated, I decided to go to the doctor and get back on my ADD medicine. It was a decision I'd wrestled with and finally just threw in the towel and did it. Things are so much clearer in my head! Later in the month, our house was invaded by workers as we got the
house and cabinets painted and finishing Kaylin's "tween" room. November is a blur.
In December, it was all about Christmas: Baking, Christmas movies, holiday parties, the whole sha-bang. We had a more mellow holiday season this year...I wrapped our gifts just days before Christmas and we didn't even visit Santa until Christmas Eve! But it was stress-free. The month/year ended with the sad news that my favorite grandmother passed away. She was sick for a very long time, but it was still a sad time for my family.
In January, we celebrated the New Year up north and went sledding, had our family pictures taken professionally (FINALLY...it's been years!), I went to Atlanta for a leadership conference, and Kaylin got braces. Mike and I also jumped into our 2nd complete round of
Whole30. And I've been working out like crazy to get my pre-pregnancy, pre-Dallas-move-stress-eating body back. Yoga, lifting weights, kickboxing, cycle, I take about 6-8 classes each week and I'm finally feeling comfortable in my own skin again.
That brings us to February. Earlier this month, I contemplated ending our homeschool journey. I was burned out, the kids were sick of it, and I was sick of THEM (just being real). I felt trapped in a life that I'd chosen. After reading about others with this same experience, I made the drastic decision to pull the plug on academics. We go to the library 1-2 times a week, pull 30-40 books about any and all topics of interest, and we read. A lot. We read together, we read alone, we talk about what we read, the kids do presentations for the rest of the family about what they've learned each day, it is very different and giving us all the break we need. The kids still do math every day, plus a
creative journal I bought them each for Christmas, but learning and school is finally becoming fun again. For all of us.
In other news...after many years of wondering, we went through the process to see if Ryan has ADHD like his mama. He asked a lot of questions after I went back on my meds and when I described my symptoms, he said, "It sounds like you're explaining what's in my head."
He was officially diagnosed a couple of weeks ago and we're seeing huge improvements with his new medication. More than anything, his confidence is skyrocketing. He no longer wonders why he struggles with simple tasks, makes silly mistakes in his schoolwork, forgets basic instructions, and a million other things. I have tried battling this issue with homeschooling, nutritional changes, everything I could think of...I wanted medicine to be the last resort, but it was officially time to nip this issue in the bud.
I think that's it! You're finally caught up on everything within our walls. If you've made it this far, feel free to leave a comment if you'd like me to keep my blog public. Don't be shy! An anonymous comment will do, as long as you're not a psycho stalker. You can be a normal stalker, just not a psycho stalker, because no one has time for that kind of drama. Especially me!
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