A funny thing about blogging, Instagramming and sharing your life online is that it’s hard not to end up viewing things in terms of content and strategy. I find this, in turn, leads to a whole lot of rules and ‘SHOULDS’ to follow. Things such as; I should mix up my content to keep it interesting, not post too much of the same thing. I should be following a content plan that fits into my business strategy to attract new creative mentoring clients. And I should always, but always, be mindful of the value of my content for YOU dear reader! And of course, these things are worth considering as guidance when thinking about what you are creating and sharing with the world. But, do you ever find that over-worrying about all the rules you should be following can totally zap the joy out of posting? That sometimes the SHOULDS get in the way of you actually creating and sharing at all?
I definitely do. Take this post. I’ve delayed posting it for ages because I found myself massively overthinking what I’m sharing on my blog – “I should break up two baby photo heavy posts in a row. There’s no value. It’s not shareable. No one cares!” When all I really wanted to do was share in my little corner of the internet a morning I spent making flapjacks with my son. It sounds pretty silly when written down like that doesn’t it? I wouldn’t blame you for having a little giggle at the ridiculousness of it all. But I maybe a few of you might be nodding along.
There’s so much (usually) brilliant advice out there when it comes to how to make the most of sharing content online, but, I think we can have a tendency to get hung up on particular points and use them as a stick to beat ourselves with. For me, it seems to be worrying about whether what I’m sharing seems ‘valuable’. Thinking that posts need to be more useful or at least inspirational in some way. But what seems particularly silly, is that the blogs I love the most, are exactly those that share simple snippets of everyday family life. Ones such as Homesong or Deer Circus. Reading about the little moments in people’s lives is joyful, and actually often very inspiring, to me.
More and more I’m feeling like what I want this space to be for is simply sharing little stories of my life, as and when I feel the urge. Sure, sometimes they may well be stories about business or creativity but sometimes they might just be tales of motherhood that go a little something like this…
There’s something about baking in the morning that just sets you up for a good day. It’s hard not to feel smug happy when by 11 am you’ve made a batch of homemade baby-friendly snacks to last the next few days. Well, a few days in theory. In practice, as they are also rather mama-friendly, they don’t last all that long at all!
I’m loving that we can do more hands-on activities together as Casper gets older. He’s absolutely not a baby anymore! It’s a learning curve, figuring out how we can do things like baking and crafts together in a way that is enjoyable for us both. It’s not always smooth sailing. But on this morning, flapjacks were a success – albeit a very messy, oats everywhere kind of success. And let’s not even talk about food hygiene practice.
Despite being eaten in little fistfuls and strewn across the dining room, enough mixture seemed to find it’s way into the oven and soon filled the house with that deliciously comforting baking smell.
And briefly to get back to my point about blogging for the joy of it… As I write the first draft of this post, on the notes app on my phone, Casper is snoozing on my chest. We had a rough night and I woke up feeling tired and touched out. But as I quietly tap away on my phone, as his cheek rest against my breast, I’m gently carving out some time for me and my creativity. I’m writing just for the joy of it and in the process, managing to reconnect with myself and my baby. And you know what? I think making another batch of flapjacks is just what we need this afternoon.
By the way, we followed this recipe as a great base for sugar-free baby-friendly flapjacks, making some additions and adjustments along the way based on what we had in our cupboard – it just might be this post is kind of useful to you after all 😉
