There And Back Again {The Blissdom Recap}

Sarah, Me, Mandi, and Staci

This post has been sitting in my brain waiting patiently to be posted while I've gotten back into a groove here at home. It's rather long...can you persevere to the end? The good stuff is in point #9!! :D

Blissdom was a whirlwind for me. New place, new people, and the still-crazy experience of being at a conference about blogging. :) Here's what stood out in the blur:

1) The best roomies ever, Sarah and Christine. Christine decided to join us last minute, and I'm so glad she did. These girls are the real deal--kind, honest, and interesting. None of us got enough sleep, because whenever we were in the room together, we were talking!

2) The people. I was surprised at how accurately a person's personality can be perceived through their blog. I met some awesome folks.

Pictured below: Kathy (that lady cracks me up! She is refreshingly comfortable in her own skin), Kate, Me, and Amy (we had this hilarious squeeling "I know you!" moment).

3) This has nothing to do with Blissdom, but the lovely snow sparkling all over Nashville on Wednesday morning was a highlight for this Florida girl. I wish I had stopped to take pictures!! The family I stayed with on Tuesday night took such good care of me and prepped my car for the 5 minute drive out of their neighborhood on un-scraped roads (thanks Bobbi and Chuck!).

4) Most random moment at Blissdom: Meeting Russ Taff's wife, Tori. Who is Russ Taff, you ask? I
recognized the name because he's an old-school Christian music artist and my parents used to have one of his tapes. Very random.

5) The creativity. Bloggers do web design, make jewelry, sew cute purses, cook incredible food, write books, take breath-taking photos, and the list goes on. I've never seen so many fancy cameras in one place...:) Thanks to Tricia for helping me tweak the settings on my camera for taking inside pictures.

The (in)Courage party...it was PACKED!

6) I realized I know next to nothing about SEO (search engine optimization). I'm not sure I have the time the learn all the ropes of SEO, but I might try to take some baby steps.

7) Meeting the ladies in the "Lifestyle" tribe. What a sweet bunch of women! Thanks to Robin for being our awesome coordinator. Sad that Sandy couldn't make it due to the bad weather...

8) The Friday morning prayer breakfast. Sarah and I barely made it (and showed up in our PJs), but it was refreshing to take time out and pray with other women.

9) My takeaway from Blissdom was not what I expected. I realized that 1) I could probably make a lucrative income from blogging, but 2) I'm not willing to put in the time that it would require (at least not now). Being away from home gave me some crystal-clear perspective on why I love being a wife, mom, and homemaker. It is such a pleasure to be devoted to that. I was happy to relinquish my career as an ICU nurse for that very reason.

As a perfectionist, my default setting is to do things "all the way!" I get excited and gung-ho. At first, I have fun. There is thrill in "accomplishing." But then the pressure creeps in. Pressure to do a better job or to fit everything in to my day. And that pressure is joy-killing.

So, I've decided that when it comes to blogging, the pressure's off. I will blog when 1) I have something I feel like I should say or 2) for fun, because I want to. I will still discipline myself to sit down and write, but I will not write at 9pm when I'm exhausted just because "I need to write a post for tomorrow!"

I will keep up Try New Adventures Thursday, because I have a ball with that. I will still post about homemaking, 'cause that's what I do and because I like aprons. But I might also post about photography or the price of tea in China.

10) It's cliche and mushy, but truly the best part about Blissdom was coming home.

I'm thinking lots of mushy thoughts about these two, but I'll spare you the details. (See how good I'm being, sisterchicks?)

This was a crazy-long post. In closing, a note to my readers (you!): You guys are awesome and I appreciate every comment you leave. I enjoy getting to know you here, on Twitter, on facebook, through email, and maybe even at Blissdom. Thanks for coming along for the ride!



I'm linked to Top Ten Tuesday at Oh Amanda's! Amanda is even cooler in real life, just so ya know. ;)

There And Back Again {The Blissdom Recap}