Happy New Year! And happy two year blogoversary! Can you believe that two years have passed? Well, that pretty much blows my mind. I’m really excited about 2012 — it’s going to be a good one. I have some exciting stuff to share with you over the next couple months…
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about this space. I love blogging, but I think I was in a fog last year. Coming off of that crazy year of school lunch eating, I continued to blog daily even when my content was so-so. Instead of giving myself a few nights to work on a concept, I would often force myself to blog about something right away without letting it percolate. Bad idea — I resented having to push myself and then what I wrote lacked oomph.
I found myself writing up a sub-par blog posts when I should have been replying to your comments and answering emails (blog maintenance, anyone?). After I revealed myself, I started sharing more personal stuff while veering off of the main topic of this blog (ahem, school lunch?). Weirdly, I lost my focus when I came out. And over the past two years to keep up with daily blogging, I often went without optimal sleep.
Now that it’s 2012 there will be some changes:
1) Fed Up with Lunch will be focused on school lunch. I will continue to write pieces about school food, discuss food politics and educational issues, open the floor to you in open thread posts, talk about the book and book appearances, share fantastic perspectives from guest bloggers, and support non-profit organizations working with food and kids.
2) I’m moving any posts that I can use the word “my” to describe to another site (to be announced). My packed lunches, my CSA (community supported agriculture) posts, my recipes, and my attempts at gardening will be housed separately. Don’t worry — I will blog a link to those posts here, giving you the option to click over or not. While many people appreciate a more personal perspective about my life, there are plenty of people who aren’t interested. Plus, even though those posts are food related they have nothing to do with school lunch, which is what started this whole thing in the first place!
3) Fed Up with Lunch will be a professional blog, and not a hodge-podge of weird stuff that strikes me at any given moment. I want to feel proud of this space and sometimes I just feel like it’s just odd. That means that there will be fewer blog posts, but better content. I’m going to do more planning the content and reflecting before hitting publish.
4) I will be a regular contributor to another site! It’s an exciting project that aligns with much of what I’ve blogged about. More to come about that in the future…
5) Prioritizing my health will come first. I’m not proud to say that I put blogging ahead of myself and any household responsibilities. This year I will turn off the computer when I need sleep — it’s as simple as that.
Eating school lunch for a year and everything that happened afterwards has transformed my views on life. I truly believe that anything is possible. How in the world did that one little idea turn into this blog and a book? Let’s all listen to ourselves, live with intention every day, and vow to not get wrapped up in fear and doubt. Let’s do this in 2012!