Sunday, November 1, 2009

Na-Blo-Po-Mo

November is host to a lot of "National Month" type events. You know, like American Diabetes Month, National Adoption Month, and National Family Care-Giver Month (I don't even know what that last one is but I think I just did my part to raise awareness). But most notably (around this site anyway) is that November is NaBloPoMo. I will save you the awkwardness of hazarding a guess: it stands for National Blog Posting Month (Yes, "bloggers" obviously love an abbreviation, but it has legitimate roots, as an offshoot to another November marker- National Novel Writing Month).

For thirty days, bloggers share the common goal to write everyday for the entire month. I'm not exactly sure of the purpose, as I guess it varies from person to person- stretch writing skills, boost reader "traffic", create a sense of discipline...etc. Some bloggers choose to see the meaning of the "Mo" as "more" rather than "month", in an effort to setting up more achievable goals, and extend the fun all year.

Looking at our October offerings, I figure I can't exactly post less, so it might be worth giving it a shot. I'm not naive enough to start making daily promises, but it'd be fun to give this little site a concerted effort and see what comes of it. As you may have noticed, the Bowdens haven't exactly jumped on Post More bandwagon (I say we, though when it comes to posting my husband is with me more in spirit than in practice) But I do love the idea of carving out time to devote to something I enjoy. Problem is, in order to PoMo, I need to DoOtThiLe, or Do Other Things Less. If I'm going to devote time to the blog, I'm going to have to steal those moments from somewhere else. Some things are obvious, like pushing TV to the side in favor of writing, but what about all those other pesky duties, like work, Young Life, cooking dinner, cleaning? (ok, now I'm just naming theoreticals...) It's a struggle to fit in all the things I have to do, let alone things I want to do. Renee just wrote a great post on priorities and wanting MORE. Apparently a pretty universal struggle...

So I'll start the month strong. I'll have high ambition and lofty goals. I'll undoubtedly continue to have times that I fail to measure up to the standards I set for myself, but I will try. Because that's all we can do.

See you tomorrow!

5 comments :

  1. aw, thanks for the linky court!
    good to know i'm not alone in trying to balance life... like many feel i'm sure!

    wow, that would be great to blog for 30 days. it's very liberating to get thoughts and ideas down! it woudl be good for me to get smaller blogs done rather than huge long ones :)

    i'm excited to follow you and see what creative things you come up with! ... and of course, we'll enjoy some SYTYCD in there :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Your new blog layout looks great! Mighty impressive!

    I have tried several times to post daily, but after around ten days I usually succumb to a night of laziness or poor time management and I miss a day. And a day turns into two which turns into three and before I know it a week or two go by!

    Yes, a little balance would be good! But I'm always up for a challenge so maybe November will be the month!

    Good luck to you as you try also!

    ReplyDelete
  3. whoa, beautiful new place you've made here courtney! love it! here's to NaBloMoPo or however those letters go...

    ReplyDelete
  4. Glad you guys like the new look! Did I convince you all to write more often too? (Crafty you're probably up to your ears in scrapbooking...not sure you need anything else on your plate!)

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love the idea of a month long challenge- but I probably need to work up to it, perhaps with a week long challenge first!

    ReplyDelete