Blogger Idol -- Going for it

It's been pretty wild & crazy around here since my last post. My mom came & went. Paxton got an appointment to be assessed at the Maryjane Rees Speech Hearing and Language clinic at Sacramento State for his speech delay. Phoenix started first grade in his Communicatively-Handicapped class and seems to be doing well. I found out the "issues" I thought were caused by my IUD could be something much worse (more on that later). Jay got the call that he's finally needed at the second salon location so now we're cleaning one in Roseville & one in Citrus Heights. Our neighbors next door, my closest friends here in California, the only friends I've made here on my own, moved the last week of August and once again, I'm left to my own devices.

Lots of stuff going on, I just haven't found the time or motivation to post about it all here. Which could explain the steady increase in my stress levels. Blogging really is a release for me; even when I don't think what I have to blog about is worthy of a post, I should blog. This is my story and I'm leaving pieces out.

I read a post on Where the Sanity Ends about how writing can help improve one's mental health and I know my friend Kelly at DeBie Hive would agree. She's been telling me for a while that she posts as often as she does because blogging is her therapy. I really respect and admire Kelly, for a lot of different reasons but this is one of the top five. She's not blogging for us; she's blogging for herself and that makes the topics and content more real. She doesn't worry about readership or stats. She's processing all the good, the bad, the ugly, all the mundane, every day happenings and the moments of total Mom-meltdown, the special surprises life serves up & the nasty ones too and she's offering us a front row seat to it all.

This makes me think about why I blog & the release I get from posting about the things that are happening. I get to verbalize and edit the feelings I'm going through and it helps me to put things in perspective and then put them away somewhere in my memory bank, where they won't play in a loop like a bad song on perpetual repeat.

Knowing this, I definitely need to get back on the blogging horse.

I love writing and I need to find that love again & really utilize this kind of therapy. I've got some shit to work out and this works for me, more than I've realized before. I might need to force myself to find time. I might need to battle the feeling of guilt for doing something that's not kid-, the biz-, house-related but I NEED TO DO IT.

There's even more motivation for me to lace up my Big Girl boots and jump back in the saddle.

 In the form of a contest.

It's called Blogger Idol and I'm pretty sure I don't need to explain the concept in too much detail. Instead of showcasing singers, it's showcasing bloggers and highlighting the art of writing.

What? you say. The art of writing?? Yes. The art of writing. The ability to put feeling, thoughts, ideas, ANYTHING, into words we can share with others is an art form. The skill it takes to touch people's hearts, their souls, to make them feel what you, the writer, are feeling or hoping to portray, is an amazing one. A skill I hope to learn. One I hope I am learning. Besides the free exposure I could get just from participating, there's so much I could learn & if I get anywhere in it, I have to actually blog on the regular and provide weekly posts.

All to the good. Putting myself out there at all is to the better, I think. I write this blog for me but also to relate with other people. If what I have to say, the experiences I've been through, can help someone else, that's a huge bonus for me. This could get me out to more people, making the chances of impacting someone greater.

I want to help people.

I want to share the things I've experienced, the challenges I've faced down because someone else out there is dealing with it too. And maybe reading my story will give them strength. Maybe they will feel what I've written was meant for them to read. I've felt that way reading Kelly's blog SO many times; I know her willingness to share and her ability to open up, to relate her story to all of us, is the main reason we've become friends. She makes me feel.

I want to do that too.

So I'm going for it. I'm filling out an auditions form and I'm putting myself out there, to be seen, to be read, to inspire, to be judged. To share. Wish me luck & show your support by giving Oh Boys a shout out on the Blogger Idol Facebook page.