Real Life Vs. Blog Life; Keeping Perspective

Do you ever feel like your blog life and real life are battling against each other for time?  I sure do!  In fact I feel this way all the time now ever since I have gone back to work.  I especially feel this way even more so this time of year when everything is starting to bloom outside and calling me to come outside and play.

The dogwoods are blooming, the sun is shining and the temperature has been absolutely wonderful!

I have been spending my precious time off cleaning up a bit outside

We finally finished raking up all the leaves that had accumulated here in our natural area by the fence.  It may not look like it in this photo but it was a momentousness task.

I bought and added a few purple verbena to my flower area in between the pool patio and deck areas.  The Mr. has almost finished the lattice work too.  We still need to stain it and add more mulch to both this area and the natural are but I am pleased with how things are progressing.

This picture shows you quite a change from the way things looked here only a few weeks ago.  Do you see how large the leaves on my Oak Leaf Hydrangea have already grown?

Speaking of large, here's a glimpse of my Encore Rose bush.  It's huge isn't it?  I'm so glad to see it's starting to bloom!

I finally found a little time to put out just a few Easter decor items.

The scary bunnies are back!  My family is going to have fun with these again.  LOL!  The Mr. and son #2 do not particularly like them at all.

There is something about the facial expression on these bunnies that just freaks them out.  They also claim they have eyes that follow you around the room.  Hehe!

On the mantle I changed up just a few things for a more summery feel.  

I added my faux chocolate bunny for the holidays.  

I thought I'd show you my glass decanters I bought from work too.  We sell these in different sizes and shapes and in green too.  I just love them!  I think the purple is the perfect accent on my mantle this year.

Now that I've shown you some of what I've been up to, I'd like like to get back to the real meat of this post.  Real life verses Blog life and keeping perspective means time management, which I have not been very good at.  I can't tell you how many times I have rushed out of here off to work or stayed up late to post and visit and comment and so forth.  I know first hand how difficult is to keep up.  So it should come as no surprise when others find it too difficult to keep up with me.  

Once again I find myself feeling frustrated by those who stop following.  Why should this matter so much?  I guess because I have always felt like I really try to make a connection with those who follow my blog.  I guess maybe I don't or maybe I just don't measure up to their standards.  Whatever the case may be it's a bit annoying when it happens with no explanation what so ever.

I was thinking about this and thought that maybe it was a good idea to once again explain what type of blogger I am.  I mostly blog about my real life and my decor.  Rarely do I post pictures from magazines, Pinterest, other bloggers or other sources off of the internet.  I enjoy sharing some of my things and enjoy looking at yours and getting all sorts of inspiration.

Like you, I enjoy sharing my photos of my finds and home.

  I started off blogging under the name of Sailing Simply.  I miss that name and that blog so much and often wish I had never changed.  It still sits out there in cyber space waiting for a visit from me The Decorative Dreamer.  I kept it up because I had intended to post some of my sailing exploits on there.  Only I find that when I sail I really just don't want to be taking pictures.  I rather enjoy being with my family and friends and just enjoying the moment.  So often when I take my camera, I only take a few pics then decide not to post them.  Also, I find family and friends are not so keen to have their mugs plastered across the internet.  Do you know what I mean?

     I've especially enjoyed those few authentic friends I have made through blogging and try to visit and communicate with you as often as possible.  In real life I find I just don't have the time to do this often enough.  I don't have the time in large part because I work full time now.  I'm in retail and that means my hours change every week.  I work a few nights each week in addition my day time hours.  It's a very challenging thing to rotate your work hours and your home life, not to mention maintaining a blog.  But I have felt like I was doing it well.

It's nice to know when you do something well.  It's nice to also be rewarded for it too.  Woohoo!  I work hard and I'm so thankful to work for a company that recognized that.  I was also thrilled to be able to add another pin to my lanyard.  LOL! We get them for all sorts of things, kinda like hat pins.  Yeah, I love the small stuff!

But what I want you to know what I enjoy most about blogging is...being authentic to who I am!

 When I say authentic it means I am sharing my life, my thoughts and it's my blog.  The authentic blog friends that I connect with just seem to have a mutual enjoyment of sharing a part of our lives.  Somehow, at some point we have made a connection that the other person we are communicating with is real and has feelings and is sharing a snippet of their life.  It does not mean we have to constantly keep sharing comments back and forth on every single post.  We visit when we can and acknowledge that the person on the other end has a real life.  This are the friends that I have maintained.

  I wonder if those that just stop following others ever acknowledge that or maybe their life was just not able to make another connection with someone at that time because they only are interested in looking at pictures.  That's okay too, we all blog for different reasons.  Maybe they were just not that interested, who knows.   The internet just makes it too easy to log off from another persons life, but should we do so without even a goodbye?  I guess that's just part of the risk of blogging of opening up your life and sharing a little piece of you.  If you have dropped me because I didn't visit you enough, or didn't make the connection then I am truly sorry.  In my defense, as I hope you can see, I have a real life.

And it's calling me away to spend less and less time here in blogland.  I plan to keep sharing things with you and visiting you when I can.  I hope you understand that w/out my real life there can be no blog life worth sharing with you.  That's my perspective.

If you have read through this and would like to share your perspective I would love to hear from you.  What's going on with you?  Do you ever struggle with blogging and real life and time management?  

Thanks so much for dropping by.  I hope you have a beautiful day!