Mar. 22 - Pt. 1 - Why I Skipped A Day

Hello.  It's 37 degrees already before 7am here in Wisconsin.  They say we might hit 50 today, but chance of rain is good.  That's fine.  Warm and no snow!  It looks a little foggy at the moment as the sun is trying to come up.

I skipped posting yesterday because, yes, I'm once again confused and frustrated with all sorts of things.  I know this is probably boring to anyone who has been following for a bit, same old story.  I know I was just talking about 'leaving court and living quietly in the country' and referencing a bible verse about something similar.  I guess I'm just trying to figure out what changes I need to make to be able do this.  The blog is always the first target in the This Must Go category, and I'm not sure I understand why I think that way.  I skipped blogging yesterday but did it buy me any extra time or ease my mind?  No, I just sat here looking at other sites more mindlessly, and did not get busy on any of the millions of other things I tell myself I'll do.

My oldest brother (Brother1, as I've called him here) deleted his Facebook and Messenger accounts a couple days ago.  I'm in awe.  I've been wanting to do that for so long now but can't seem to take that final step.  I've trimmed down my friends list and how many groups I'm in or pages I follow.  I've somewhat given up on the hope that maybe someone will actually post some family news instead of just reposting stupid crap or vaguebook whining.  I need a personal FB account to be able to run our Achy Joints Creations business page, but I could run it through Hubby's account if I had to.  But for some reason I just can't fully step away from it.  So when he said he has, I was like 'Oh my gosh, I can do it too.'  But so far, nope.  I did uninstall if from my phone though.

I guess I just really don't know what I'm looking for at this point in my life.  I'm perfectly willing to just live a quiet life here in the country.  I've always been a homebody, and it's probably a factor in why friends I've had over the years have drifted away.  I think I hang onto my internet habits and interests because I feel safer, more comfortable with those interactions and friendships.  I don't have any desire to meet or hang out with people I chat with online, but I love internet friendships.  I find I'm really missing the old days of chat rooms and chat programs like ICQ.  (Anyone remember that one?!)

So while I'm content to just live my life old school, plant some flowers and enjoy them when they bloom, decorate for holidays, watch a good movie . . . I still feel like I want to share those things with someone besides Hubby.  So no, I don't think I can just dump my internet life.  What is there to change then?  That's what I'm trying to figure out.  My expectations maybe?  Probably.

Back to Achy Joints Creations for a bit.  If you're new here, that is the little craft side hustle Hubby and I have.  He does woodworking projects to sell, and I was making soap to sell.  We did two years of local farmers markets and have an Etsy shop.  Events of late 2021 sort of slowed our Achy Joints activities and for most of 2022 we were on a total break.  Scattered discussions about it have us deciding to continue to put AJC on hold for 2023, possibly all the way until Hubby can retire.  So in recent days I've been thinking about just putting our Etsy shop into vacation mode, or maybe completely closing it.  Then yesterday afternoon, out of the blue because the shop has been absolutely dead for a long time, someone purchased a bird feeder.  We were both like 'Wowwwww, is that a sign to keep going?'  lol

Anyway, just a lot of mind swirlies happening again.  

Oh!  Another thing that has frustrated me with the blog is that I can't get AdSense to work.  I've submitted it for review three or four times now and it keeps coming back saying I have things that need to be fixed, but of course it does not specify what or explain how to fix those mystery things.  One of the results keeps saying something like 'low quality content' or 'not enough content/site still under construction.'  What?  It's most definitely not under construction, and as for 'low quality content,' I see other blogs that are just as boring or worse than mine but still running ads.  So I just don't understand what they're looking for?!  Things were sooooo much easier years ago with my original blog.  Kicking myself once again for deleting it.  And if you're going to suggest ways to improve content quality, don't bother.  I took a blog course several years ago and know about all the little tricks, but that's not the kind of blogging I want to do.

I'm rambling now and have lost track of what points I'm trying to make.

A question though . . . I love when people take the time to leave comments, but do you click notifications for follow-up comments?  I reply to every comment and often ask questions in return, trying to start conversations, but 99% of the time that's where it ends.  Once again, it's just so sooo different blogging this time around.

Okay, I'm going to do a quick 'normal' post as soon as I get this posted.  I skipped one day so now you get two posts!  lol  If you've made it to the end of this blah blah whine whine post, thank you.  I'm not looking for advice.  I just wanted to document this struggle for myself, to be able to look back on it.  I do appreciate you taking the time to visit though!