Blogging Again

Firstly, I would like to say thank you to all who dropped by and took the time and effort to leave a comment on my blog. Also, thanks for giving Facebook thumbs up on my posts.  It’s been awhile since I wrote my last entry here.

A few months back, I acquired a photo editing software called Adobe Photoshop. Since then retouching and manipulating images has become my new leisure pursuit. Though it was not my intent to neglect my blog, I needed time and intense concentration to be able to learn the complicated software. After lots of long hours of  hard work and dedication, I can finally say my efforts have paid off.  I have gained a new skill. Henceforth, I promised myself to also set aside time just for blogging. So, I’m back in the blogosphere!

I did some tweaking and experimenting on my blog design to find that sweet spot and to give it a fresh new look. I also changed my header using the new skills I learned in Photoshop. The new header is simple but I think it looks better than what I had before.

I hope this blog makeover drives my passion for writing again. I feel like a newbie once more but I'm happy to be back!

My New Year’s Resolution

As most bloggers would say December is the slowest month of the year when it comes to updating blogs. If so then I am guilty, as you can see this is just my second post this month. There were just too many distractions that were hard to ignore. One that really knocked me hard this month was the “holiday blues” though I got over with it now. Thank God!

Now it’s time to pay attention to my blog. With a year coming to a close, it’s time to reassess our goals once again. Are we making a headway or are we still stuck in a maze and starting to get frustrated? Either way, it’s time to pause for awhile and re-evaluate our goal plan. So we can decide wisely on how to tackle the new challenges ahead of us.

 Recently, I had a dilemma with my blog that I must decide whether to continue moving forward with the same strategy or to abandon the plan that does not work and start all anew. In other words, I had the thought of deleting my blog and starting all over again. I became impatient with my blog. I got tired of changing the design so many times and I can't still get the look that I wanted. I became discourage that after blogging for several months now, I am still talking to myself and my stat still remains the same.

I started this journey with no background on writing and no knowledge on how to start a blog, I am not a web savvy and so on. All I had was a strong determination to learn. I did learn a lot through research, reading and watching YouTube. Nobody taught me or help me set up my blog, I did it all by myself. Though I am still a newbie and still need to learn a lot more, I should be happy with my accomplishments.

Blogging is hard work, especially if you're aiming to become successful in the blogosphere. There are so many things to learn particularly when you are new. It can be overwhelming sometimes.  Though I am aware that there are some easy ways if you are willing to spend money into it, such as paying for a blog design, buying quality contents, buying ads to promote your blog and get more traffic, etc. That is if you want an easy and quick route to blogging. But you will surely miss the fun and challenges that go with it and this will  not guarantee you success either.

I am more interested in doing it on my own. The skills that I've gained along the way are more important. I've  realized that writing can be learned, but I can't grow as a blogger by writing alone. The cause of my frustration is that I lack some other skills to be able to move forward as a blogger.

A blog expert, Steve Pavlina said that in order to be successful as a blogger, one should need to be a web savvy. You don’t necessarily have to be a computer programmer but must understand the basics of the technical aspects of blogging. The list below are variety of web technologies that we need to be familiar with.

I have the desire on learning them one by one though I keep putting the tasks aside, so in 2012, as my new year’s resolution I will make this my priority.

• blog publishing software
  
• HTML/CSS
  
• blog comments and comment spam
  
• RSS/syndication
  
• feed aggregators
  
• Pings
  
• trackbacks
  
• full vs. partial feeds
  
• blog carnivals (for kick-starting your blog’s traffic)
  
• search engines
  
• search engine optimization (SEO)
  
• page rank
  
• social bookmarking
  
• tagging
  
• contextual advertising
  
• affiliate programs
  
• traffic statistics

optional:

• email
  
• podcasting
  
• instant messaging
  
• PHP or other web scripting languages

The Writer

Recently, I came across a blog that I became fascinated with. The blogger’s name was Sue and her blog was called “The Writer”.

For me, she has the right to that "title", for her blog speaks for itself. I became a fan. I read her posts one by one, enjoying each and every words. I like her poetic style of writing and I admire how well she writes, simple yet so passionate. I know the work of a gifted writer because when I read it, it affects me.  I can feel the emotions and sincerity that oftentimes I get carried away. When I write I sometimes imitate their style unconsciously. However my own ineptness often shows. It reminds me to slow down a bit; I am not ready to write at that level yet.  

My nineteen year old son, who is my reluctant editor scolds me at times, “Mom, don’t use these words” he said. “But why not, I like to use beautiful words?” I asked. “You are not a poet, leave them to the real poets” was his reply. Ouch, even my own flesh and blood…

Anyway, back to Sue. I can’t get enough of her writings so I kept going back to her blog. I had it bookmarked. One day, as I was reading a few of her posts, I realized she was talking about a life that is soon to be over. In other words, I wonder if she was dying (I have a hard time writing the D word), and her blog was her way of expressing her feelings, a way to relax and to forget what’s imminent? One of her post called “The Droplet” the excerpt goes…

“It was there, clinging on to the edge of the leaf and was about to fall, fall into the little puddle of water below. Yes, the droplet was ready to give up and surrender its existence to the little puddle below. But something made it cling on, just that little bit longer.”

I am not sure if she is the original author of this or if she posted it because she only wanted to express her feelings at the moment. I saw two bloggers who posted this on their blogs as well and seemed to claim that they wrote it. They titled it “The Droplet and the Ripple”.

Here’s another excerpt from one of her post…

“I write because it allows me to cheat death at least for one more day, to proclaim in my own little, tiny, fleeting voice that everyone can be a beacon, can be a light in the planes of bleakness, and can Shepard their brothers through the valley of darkness.” 

After reading this post, I was stunned. I felt a little eeriness and maybe my gut feeling is true that I am reading a dead woman’s blog. Though you can’t find a hint of anger or self-pity in her words, she seemed bidding for an extension of time, a few more days of life. I noticed her last post was May 2009.

On her picture she looks like in mid-twenties. One of her posts was written expressing love for her man. I feel sad for both of them.  I feel sad for her blog “The Writer” for I would not see new posts that I admire and enjoy reading ever again.

I hope my intuition is wrong. I hope she’s just busy starting a great career and raising a young family and too busy to spend time blogging. I hope she’s well and fine!

Frustrated Writer

I am a wannabe writer. This is one of the reasons why I blog. I know, I still need to improve my writing skills in many ways. I am really working hard on it. In recent time, I asked someone I knew to proofread my blog, after he went through it he told me sarcastically - “why not blog in your own native tongue.” Ouch, it hurts.  I know his comment was not meant to insult but simply wants to save me from a big disappointment in the end. As we oftentimes read or heard that to become a great writer, you should start reading and writing at a tender age. A middle age person like me, who barely started to embark on a journey of writing, maybe is wasting time on a futile endeavor. I really hope not!

Margaret Mead once said, “Learning to write takes time and effort, but it can be done”.

This quotation has been my inspiration. It gives me new optimism to pursue my goal. I can be a very persistent person, when I really want to achieve something, I strive harder. That’s my good quality, I guess. To achieve my goal, I realized that I need to start reading… I mean really reading a lot! Though I encountered a lot of bickering in the blogosphere about this issue, I still believe that reading is a key to a good writing.

It helps you find your own voice and besides it helps increase your general knowledge. When I became a wife and mother, I put the fun of reading on the back burner. My family became my priority, now that my son is grown-up and my husband now retired. I have plenty of free time, so I am doing a lot of catching up in terms of reading and building up my vocabulary anew.

               

Read, read, read… Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! - William Faulkner

If you do not have time to read, you do not have time to write. - Stephen King

Blogging opens a new door for us who are frustrated writers. It is a learning ground, where we can practice and grow as hopeful writers. Our blogs can be an inspiration especially if we see signs of progress in our writing efforts. I was stunned when I wrote the first post of my blog. I realized that I did not know how to write anymore. I was struggling to come up with few sentences.

 However, with persistence, I was able to scribble two short paragraphs and that became an introduction to my blog, "Homebody Mom". I consider it as a small step towards success.  

So what are you waiting for wannabe writers? Start blogging now!

Taking Baby Steps To Blogging

I'm happy that finally I got over with my fear of blogging. Little accomplishments in life give us inner joy because we know that it will lead to bigger accomplishments in the end. 


A few weeks ago, I didn't even know where to start. Now I’m the proud owner of Homebody Mom. I am just a baby when it comes to blogging. Like a little child, I have to learn how to walk but one day, I will be running like a pro. As a new blogger, I am still taking baby steps in learning how to blog. One step at time towards my goal!

Ever since I found out about blogging in 2007, I had been dreaming of becoming a blogger one day. But I always have self doubts. I am not a tech savvy. I have no confidence in my writing skills, have limited time, and my excuses went on and on. 


So for years, I was just a lurker on the blogging scene. Every time I read blogs, I would get inspired, entertained, amused and learn something new. Lately, I kept saying, I wish I had a blog of my own but I didn't know if I could do it or not. My son probably got tired of my ramblings and said “Mom, just do it. You will never know unless you try.”


So here I am…

Welcome To Homebody Mom

After reading so many blogs on the web and doing  a lot of research, I have finally started my own blog. Please bear with me, I am very new here and still learning.  

I am very eager to share hints and handy tips that I have had collected throughout the years. I hope the valuable information that I will be writing here will also help others with their everyday lives.

Aside from being a mom and a wife,  I am also a wannabe writer. So this blog is also a fun way for me to improve my writing skills. A place to record my thoughts and ramblings…

Thanks for visiting!