It’s time to pivot.

I’ll be honest. I’m a little nervous about this blog post.

I have considered putting it off for another day, until I’m 100% prepared. But the truth is, I’ve been ready to verbalize this shift for a while now and my phrase for the year is “don’t wait” – so I’m pushing forward now. Apologies in advance for the length (and the possible word vomit) but I have lots of thoughts to share!

When I first started this blog back in 2013, it was a pretty random hodge-podge of my life at the time. I was teaching special education, so I shared a ton of budget-friendly teacher outfits and various education-related activities. I was also a newlywed, so I had a ton of posts related to engagements and weddings. There were also things like DIY projects, sharing our travels, etc. Then I took a couple years off from the blog and by the time I returned, my life looked completely different. I was no longer teaching and was staying at home with my baby and my blog’s focus shifted to life now.

I love writing and creating, and I love using this space as a place to do both. Honestly, I’m not in this to have a ton of followers or monetize my blog or anything like that. I just truly enjoy using this space as a creative outlet and it doesn’t matter to me if 10 people or 10,000 people read my words. I just know it makes me happy to do this, and I’m going to keep doing it.

That being said, I just kind of post whatever I’m feeling like on any given day and it naturally tends to focus motherhood. If you follow my associated Instagram account, you may have noticed that it’s almost exclusively been focused on motherhood lately. Don’t get me wrong, I love that! Motherhood is a huge aspect of my life right now.

But it’s not the only aspect of my life. It’s not my only passion.

When I think about what I want this space to be in 2020 and beyond, I want it to really be a reflection of me. A reflection of my life – all of it! Over the past few months I’ve tried to be more intentional about blogging more aspects of my life and I’ve been loving it. I realize I could just keep things going as they are now, but I know myself and know I need to verbalize this out loud if I really want to push myself to grow in this space.

I feel so passionate about multiple areas of my life. Motherhood. Turning our house into a HOME. Living with less and being content/minimal-ish. And of course, reading!

I want to show our real life, the joys and struggles, to encourage and lift up other mamas who see the “perfect” pictures on social media and feel less than, like they’re falling short of some magical motherhood standard that doesn’t exist. I want to document the process of updating and renovating our house into our home: the ups, the downs, the victories, the “oops!” moments, and of course, the finished products! I want to share ways that I’ve found to simplify my life (without subscribing to strict rules like “only have 10 items in your closet”) so I manage it less and enjoy it more. And I want to keep on sharing what I’m reading simply because I love it.

It’s scary to make this intentional pivot away from just posting (especially on Instagram) about motherhood, because I feel like right now the world of blogging/social media is kind of a “stay in one lane” kind of place. You have mommy blogs. You have home design blogs. You have bookstagrams. You have blogs and social media accounts that you can follow that typically focus hard on one area, with maybe a sprinkling of some other things occasionally.

And I think I could choose a lane and be pretty happy. I could find joy in a platform that solely focuses on motherhood. Or one that solely focuses on reading. Or living with less. Or updating our home. I think it could be good, maybe even great. And honestly, in the world of hashtags and algorithms, it probably would be “smarter” to choose one focus. To stay in one lane. To bow down to the algorithm and try to play the game and gain a following.

But I also think it would feel incomplete. Each one of those areas is important to me, but they’re all only one area. And truthfully, I don’t have one big passion. I have several.

So I’m shifting my perspective a bit. I’m allowing for a pivot. I’m creating a broader definition for what I’m doing here.

Life is meant to be enjoyed. I believe you can live beautifully with kids. I believe you can have a full life without feeling overwhelmed by stuff. I believe your home can have style and a good design but also be functional and manageable for your lifestyle. And I believe you can make time for reading (or whatever you are passionate about!)

Maybe no one is interested in reading this. Maybe everyone who has followed me will decide this specific mixture of content isn’t for them (or almost everyone – I’m hoping at least my family remains loyal readers 😉 )

I don’t have a specific “word” to describe my path forward here, but I have these thoughts about what I’m trying to convey:

Enjoy motherhood without constant overwhelm. 

Have a beautiful home that we can live in.

Live abundantly without constantly managing stuff.

Create space within my life to actually thrive and have time for my passions.

I’m nervous but excited to say all this out loud. I’m feeling good about what I want to do going forward. I hope you’ll stick around for the ride!