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BlahBlahBabble Educate Me

Must Break Through…

Mary Allen College in Crockett Texas

As I went to bed last night I was angry with myself. I started this site over, fresh and new, so it wouldn’t feel like and empty shell any more. A clean slate. A new start.

Yet what I wrote yesterday didn’t feel like my voice. It didn’t feel authentically me. If you & I were talking, I wouldn’t sound like that.

It pisses me off.

That anger is a good thing though, because I’m going to keep it in mind as I write, or at least I’ll try. If I wouldn’t say it out loud, then I’ll think about how I would.

I want my posts to feel like a letter. A note from me to you. A journal for myself. Personal.

Practice, practice, practice. Now that I’m aware of it, I can deal with it.

No more being pissed off at my writing. When it feels like crap, I just need to break through and continue.

Photograph taken on a recent Texas road trip. The former Mary Allen College in Crockett, Texas.

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BlahBlahBabble Reverb10

One Word: Learning… #Reverb10

Blue Ribbon

I remember regretting last year not joining in on the Reverb movement, so it caught my eye when I started to see people talk about it the other day on Twitter. As I mentioned, I miss writing. What better way then to have 31 days of prompts!

Today is the big day! Reverb 10 is all about reflecting on this year and dreaming about the next. I’m looking forward to seeing where this goes. Are you joining in? Leave a comment so I can read your posts too!

Encapsulate the year 2010 in one word. Explain why you’re choosing that word. Now, imagine it’s one year from today, what would you like the word to be that captures 2011 for you?

My word for 2010 would have to be Learning. It felt like every week, I was learning something new about a whole variety of things. Adjusting to having a son that is now out of high school but still living at home and how that changes the family dynamic. Learning to let go of control of things in my business that are not my strength so I can focus on where I shine. Learning that I can’t do it all, and that is ok. Learning sometimes things I already knew, but had no idea I knew.

I love learning, most of the times. Sometimes, lessons are hard though. In the end, I’m grateful for all the things I’ve learned.

Learning wasn’t the first word I chose though. The first word was growth. As I looked back on the year, I feel like I’ve grown a lot, but that growth? It wouldn’t have come without learning. Sometimes it is important to acknowledge what got you to where you are at.

I would like the word that captures 2011 for me to be empowerment. I’ve been working behind the scenes of my business (part of that whole growth thing) because I’ve realized that I’ve got the chance to do something big. Bigger than just me. With my boudoir photography, I’ve had the opportunity to really impact women, especially moms. I will be focusing on that even more next year, because every mom is beautiful, and I want to show them just how much – just as they are. I want to empower them to know that beauty, and to be ok with it.

To be honest, at the end of it all I think there is some empowerment for me there too. I’m still learning about that though…

Be sure to leave me a comment if you’re participating in Reverb10! I’d love to check out your site and follow along!

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BlahBlahBabble

31 Days to Building a Better Blog Starts … NOW!

I’ve said for some time now that I want to do the 31 Days to Building a Better Blog program. I’ve read about it for at least a year now, and everyone I know that has done it, and stuck with it, has said how much it improved their blogs.

This ol’ thing? She needs some polish and SHINE! This month marks the 10 year anniversary of this blog. 10 years! Sure, I’m old skool when it comes to blogging. If you tell me you’re a long, long time blogger but you have no idea who Jish is or you’ve never heard of Greymatter, I might not believe you. But I’ve gotten a bit rusty. Maybe it is lazy. Maybe it is the fact that I have, oh, 5+ blogs that I’m running at once. Whatever. I need this.

Do you need it too? Who wants to join me? Go read all about 31DBBB. Buy the book. We’ll do it together. Won’t it be fun? I’ll write about my progress here, and I’ll post about it over on Twitter too. Leave a comment and let me know if you’re in!

From the page about the ProBlogger book:

Each day in the project contains:
– A Task – something to DO that day.
– Teaching – each day you’ll be given great instruction on both the WHY and HOW of the task of the day.

Who is this Workbook for?
31 Days to Build a Better Blog is for bloggers at different stages of their blogging including:
– those who have just started a blog but who don’t know what to do next
– those who have had a blog for a while but it’s stalled in its growth
– bloggers with bloggers block and lacking inspiration
This workbook is NOT designed for bloggers yet to start a blog (PreBloggers). It doesn’t cover setting up a blog.

I’m so excited – I can’t wait to do this!