It’s been a loooong while since I’ve been here. Like, I a really long while. Almost two years. My last published post was March of 2021. At the time I just had to walk away. Between everything going in my life and the world, I was overwhelmed and just done. If you would like, you can read more about that here. Life seems to be getting better, and I’ve been missing the blogging and connections, so I figured it was time to get back to basics with blogging.
Back to Basics with blogging
So what do I even mean by getting back to basics with blogging? I mean getting back to why I even started blogging in the first place. If you are feeling brave you can check out my first post, from back in June of 2013! While my blog may have evolved a bit since that first post, it was still meant to be about sharing my life, and trying to connect with others.
The more I blogged though, the more I got wrapped up in getting all the pageviews I could, applying for sponsored posts, being sure everything was perfect. What started as something fun, turned into a 20-30 hour a week “job” that wasn’t really bringing in any money. The joy of blogging was gone (and you know, my blog is called “A Sprinkle of Joy”) which is when I decided to step away. It just wasn’t worth it. So now I’m going back to basics with blogging. I’ll be sharing family life, crafts, recipes, and so on. I’m going to try to not get wrapped up in all the pageviews, and stress, and just use it as a creative outlet, and to connect.
Update: Life lately
So….what has life been like around here? With three kids, it can get pretty crazy!
Family Photos
Well Annabelle, Autumn, and Aubrie have all grown a bit (obviously). We got family pictures taken in the spring, and I really loved how they turned out. We don’t get pictures taken every year, so when we do I always love to share. Particularly since I get to be in the pictures!
The pictures pretty much showcase each of our kids personalities. Annabelle always pretty bubbly, Autumn, a little more reserved. And Aubrie. The wild card with a spirt fire personality.
Can we also take a moment to appreciate how nice our outfits look together? Matt always rolls his eyes when he comes home to me laying out fits out on the ground to make sure they look nice together.
Pearl and Whiskers
In the fall we added two cats to our family, Pearl and Whiskers! Funny story about how that happened. Annabelle wrote a note to Matt and I asking for a pet fish, promising to feed it and wash its tank when needed. After the girls went to bed Matt looked at me and said “well… if we are going to get a pet it might as well be one we can actually pet.”
For those who don’t know, we did have two cats a few years ago. They got sick, went to the bathroom outside the litter box (ruining carpet in the basement. We had to pull it all up), and we ended up having to put them to sleep which sucked. So Matt and I were turned off pets for a while. But the girls had been asking, and we did miss pets.
So, Matt started looking at our local cat adoption place. We found a cat we liked, then told the girls we were going to the store to look for a fish. When we got there, and revealed we were actually there for a cat, the girls went crazy. As it turned out, the cat we had picked out for adoption had a sister she had “bonded with”, and so we came home with two cats!
Pearl is for sure a mischievous cat. She always wants to get outside, and has managed to sneak out the front door twice and into the garage twice. We have to be super careful when coming and going because she is quick, and will also wait right by the door with she hears the garage open, or the front door unlock.
Whiskers is much more chill. And for some reason is skittish around me (but tolerates Aubrie “Elmyra-ing” her). In the photo above, she was snuggling with me when I was sick, which for sure surprised me.
Flour grinding and Bread making
About a year ago, Matt asked me my thought on grinding my flour. I had already been reading a little bit about it, and decided why not! Home milled flour is supposed to be much healthier for you. In fact some people with gluten sensitivities (obviously I am not talking about celiacs… that is something much different and complex) cam actually tolerate products made with home milled flour.
So I said “Let’s do it!” After lots of research on Matt’s part we ordered a mill. Then waited. And waited. And waited some more. We even ordered a hand mill, and oh my goodness, that was a lot of work After a long wait of 6+ months our flour mill arrived from Germany!
So now we buy wheat berries, I use the mill to grind them into flour, then use the flour to bake bread and other baked goods, like this sourdough (yes, I started a sourdough starter).
Making my own bread has been fun! I’ve like playing around with different types of wheat berries and coarseness of the flour. I’ll do some dedicated posts later all about baking with home milled flour, as it is different than all purpose.
Back to subbing
I almost forgot to add this! I renewed my teaching certificate, and decided to get back into subbing! For those unfamiliar, before having Annabelle I was a 1st grade teaching. After I had her, I finished the school year and have been staying home ever since. Now that Aubrie is getting older, I decided to dip my toes back into teaching. I am blessed to have an amazing mom and MIL who agreed to watch Aubrie so I can sub, hopefully a few times a month. I don’t know if I will go back to teaching full time once Aubrie is in school full time (the thought of working after being a SAHM for close to 12 years does fill me with some anxiety). As of now I have just subbed at the girls’ school, but I may branch out a bit (once again… makes me a little nervous thinking about it). We will just have to see how this year goes.
As a side note, I hope that getting back to basics with blogging is like riding a bike, and that everything will come back. After being away for a while, I’m trying to clean up my blog a bit, which is proving to be a big task. One of those tasks is switching to the new Google Analytics, which I thought I did. Then I got an email which made is seem like I didn’t. I think I messed something up, and I hope it can be fixed. Fingers crossed I didn’t, because while I’m not overly concerned about pageviews, I do like to see what’s doing great.
Phew! Well that post ended up much longer than I expected. But if you made it this far thanks for sticking with it!