Category: blogging

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2017 – Plans and Hopes and This Blog

This time last year, this blog was at its most ‘successful’. In that, I mean I was posting regularly, sometimes three times a week. And I was loving writing and always had ideas for blog posts swimming round my head.

Fast forward to the end of the year, and it’s easy to see the blog has dwindled. I barely post at all any more. I wouldn’t say I’ve fallen out of love with it. More that, returning to my business after maternity leave with Sienna has lead to me throwing myself in to building that back up again at the cost of this blog.  This blog was only ever a hobby. Something I enjoyed doing, when I had the time. And over pregnancy and the baby months, I seemed to have a greater need for that release than I do now.

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Where Have I Been?

This blog has been pretty quiet over the last few months.  I thought I’d be able to pick it back up a bit more now Ella is at preschool and I have my non-working mornings to myself, while Sienna naps, before we head to pick up Ella.

But those mornings have been spent working.  I’m doing a big push on my business at the moment.  I’ve always worked towards the ‘work less for more’ approach with my business.  I want to spend time with the girls while they are young, but I also want my business to be a ‘success’ and for me to be a key person of influence in my industry.  And this, of course, does require some time.  I work two full days a week typically.  Some weeks, I work more and Sienna goes for an extra day to nursery, and Ella spends the afternoon after pre-school at nursery too.  But mostly, I work Tuesdays and Thursdays.  And the rest of the week I play at being a mum!

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missing in action

Missing in Action

It would see I’ve gone a bit AWOL recently!  Where once upon a time, this blog would have at least one post a week, sometimes three a week, there suddenly seems to be a lull.  A post when I feel it is essential, such as Ella’s birthday letter, rather than when I want to write.  I’m sorry if you’ve missed my ramblings.  For some reason, the blog has taken a bit of a back seat over the past couple of months.

And I’m not entirely sure why.  Having been blogging for about three and a half years now, I think I’ve just hit a bit of a point where I stopped thinking about the blog.  Ideas for blog posts stopped popping in to my head.  I stopped having the desire to just sit and write.  I think it’s just a case of needing a bit of a break from it.  The photo taking, the writing, keeping up the social media, the whole thing really.  As with any hobby, I think you can get a bit of hobby fatigue, where you do it for so long that you start to not want to do it.

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Snapchat

Beginner’s Guide to Snapchat for Bloggers

I’ve been using Snapchat for a couple of months now, and absolutely loving it!!!  I really did discount it at first as something for the young ‘uns!!!  But then I realised, firstly that I am still pretty young.  Or at least I feel like I am, so that’s enough for me!!  And secondly, that Snapchat offers a lot of things that other social media platforms don’t.  It’s a lot more ‘raw’ than other platforms.  It’s all run through your smartphone (or tablet) and you can only take pictures through your phone.  So, there’s no need for fancy cameras or editing software.  There’s a real authenticity to it as a platform.

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Writing Is My Therapy

Writing is my therapy

Both girls are at their nanna’s today, as I have a couple of meetings this afternoon.

So, as I’m sat here with lots of jobs that need doing all around me, I find myself instead with my laptop on my knee and the urge to write.  It’s often the case.  There’s so much I could/should be doing, and yet instead I’m drawn to the keyboard.

I started this blog as something new to try.  I didn’t know if I’d keep it up.  And certainly, when I first started, when pregnant with Ella, I only posted every few weeks and hardly anyone other than family and friends read it!  I didn’t really know what I was doing and why I was doing it, but I knew it was something that I wanted to keep up.

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Ready to go walk the dog!

The Ordinary Moments #23 – Not Doing Much

Sienna has slotted in to our family life with relative ease!  There have been numerous occasions where I’ve been pinned to the chair feeding her non-stop, while we settle in to breastfeeding.  And of course, there’s the getting up in the night to feed her too.

But otherwise, there doesn’t really feel like there has been a vast change in our lives since Sienna came along almost 3 weeks ago.

The one thing I have noticed though is that I’m not doing as much as I usually would.  I had been blogging about 3 times a week.  The blog has definitely taken a back seat!  I’m just about managing to get my Ordinary Moments done every week!  And I wanted to get Sienna’s birth story up before I forgot what that birth story was!  I keep thinking of posts, then the day passes and I’ve just not had chance!

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Blogging Through Pregnancy

Today marks that pinnacle calendar date.  The date that you can almost guarantee you won’t have a baby.

DUE DATE!!!

So, after today, I’m officially overdue.  Though really it’s all a bit daft considering only around 5% of babies are actually born on due date!  It’s almost a date that exists to annoy us when we do move in to the overdue phase!

When I originally started Life of Mum, I was pregnant with Ella.  So, it very much started off as a pregnancy blog.  This time round has been a lot different.  I blog far more than I have ever done, usually around 3-4 times a week.  I’m getting more opportunities through my blog.  And it has become a real passion as opposed to a some-time hobby.

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Turning Thirty!

So today I turn 30!!

I didn’t really know how I’d feel about turning 30, but really I feel like it’s just another birthday, taking me a year on in my life!  And I’m definitely looking forward to what my thirties have in store for me!

My twenties have been pretty damn good!  I guess going in to the next decade is a reason to reflect on the one before.  So, here goes…!!

I’m not really someone who has their life planned out.  I’m more of a ‘go with the flow’ type.  I didn’t have any expectations of where I would be by the end of my twenties.  I would have suspected that I would have at least one child, maybe two, so not too far off the mark, with number two due in a matter of weeks.

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Two Twitter Accounts

Running my own social media training business, I’ve already got a good following on my business social media account (@_SamFlynn) of nearly 8.5k.  When setting up Life of Mum, I also created a separate Twitter account devoted solely to the blog.  I built it up and tweeted blog links and the odd ramble now and again.

But I found it really hard to manage two separate accounts.  I found I just wasn’t posting on Life of Mum anywhere near enough.  And I had to build up a following from scratch.  So, I decided to get rid and just promote my mum blog through my main Twitter account, and hopefully bring some new readers in, and give my customers and contacts more of an insight in to my life, where they could get to know me!

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