Cue Ross, "We were on a breaaaaaaaak."
Crazy story: three months from today exactly (Christmas Day! Who starts a blog on Christmas Day?!) I will have been doing this for ten years. That's all of my twenties. That's really my entire adult life. It's hard for me to remember a time before blogging or even an event I've processed without writing about it.
For the most part, I have kept this site small and personal. No guest posts. No contributors. No assistants. Minimal sponsored content (though there have been a ton of affiliate links). All the recipes shared or projects completed are real things I have done...for my life, not for blog content. For better or worse, there have been no photographers or editors. It's just been me, day after day, week after week, typing away.
And it's been a good 9.75 years.
I started this blog in college while trying to find a career direction. It witnessed the move from California to Maryland to live with a boy. It watched that boy become my fiance then my husband then my partner in parenthood. It struggled with me through two deployments and four moves. It was my record as I documented those moves and decorated those houses. It watched my rocky start to motherhood and then my joy as I settled into this role. It saw me try many different businesses before finally landing on what feels like the one.
In some ways, it feels like a lifetime. But then I remember I'm 30 and my life is starting, not ending. ;) There have been so many highs and lows this past decade, but today? Today it feels like Paul and I are just getting to the good part. We're putting in the time and dealing with the long hours. We're making mistakes, feeling stupid and then trying to improve. We're raising our sweet kiddo and she's teaching us more than college ever did. We're making plans for the future and dreaming the big dreams. Yep, it's a wonderful place in life to be.
And it's also the right time for me to take a break from the daily 5am posting to this blog.
I am incredibly grateful that I started writing when I was 20 years old. I am grateful for these past ten years that I have lived and shared. I've made it clear many times that much of my "career success" is due to this blog. And I've made it clear that much of the blog success is due to "posting consistently." But I've also said (though maybe not as loud as I should have) "when something feels like it's not working, re-work it"
This is not a decision to "quit the blog" but instead it's a decision to figure out how this blog still fits into my job and life. I do think I will write a bit here over the next few months, but I have no idea what that will look like. I'll be using the "time off" to determine what I want this space to be. I need to think about why I'm writing here, and that's really hard to do when I'm still trying to crank out content every day.
In October I'll be working on podcast episodes. I'll be answering emails and monitoring customer service requests. I'll be shipping GTWBs. And of course, I'll be celebrating the time my family has left as just three (and probably watching a Scandal episode or four).
If all goes well, in early November we'll welcome our second daughter (I'll share a birth announcement here just like Ellerie's). There will still be behind the scenes work to do, of course, but I look forward to taking a more consistent maternity leave this time around. I really blew it last time and handled the newborn months terribly. I can't redo that period unfortunately, but I can learn from it and give myself a bit more grace (and space) the second time.
Around Christmas Day, I'll re-evaluate and decide what makes the most sense blog-wise for my family of four and for my business. Posting twice a week? Posting twice a month? Returning to every day? Who knows? I have loved this blog and I am not sure I'll ever want to give up writing completely, but right now I am overwhelmed with relief to be pressing pause.
As always, but even more so today, I appreciate you checking in and reading. I say that often, I know, but I mean it often. The fact that so many of you have shared your comments, stories, thoughts, support and kindness back at me through the Internet is the best part of this whole site.
While posting is sporadic here, I'll continue to IG away @elisejoy so if you're into book recs, recipe shares, podcast quote call outs, coffee mugs, Ellerie pigtails, the occasional real-time craft project, adventures in house-hunting(!?) and yep, bump pics and newborn photos, I'll see you there.
Thank you.
