On a Personal Note - The Return of Lifestyle Blogging
This is my corner of the internet, and I am turning toward it in this intense time of life to record and process some snippets. I had a lifestyle/parenting blog back in 2005 (!) when my partner and I first got married and through our journey of building a family. As my kids started to get older and the internet started to get more expansive (and creepier), I spent some time reevaluating how much of them and how much of our family life I wanted to share online, and scaled WAY back. Parenting bloggers and influencers are facing more and more scrutiny as the world of social media takes more and more of our eyeball time, and children of those parents are now young adults, and are also sharing some of the issues with oversharing their lives online. So, overall, I feel good about my choice to scale back, especially sharing their details. However, what I miss is sharing, sharing, sharing myself and our lifestyle online, and connecting with others with humor and shared experiences. Lifestyle blogging has made a bit of resurgence in this ancient year of 2026, so, here I am, a mere TWENTY years later, jumping tentatively back in with some long form blogging on my own site. No substack, no social, just me and my keyboard and all (some of) the thoughts in my head!
Currently, I have two teenagers and a nine year old, and between my partner and myself, five aging parents, one of who we are currently navigating care for in a different state. We both have full time, high pressure jobs and are directors in our respective organizations, and currently our kids are at three different schools (one in high school, one in middle, and one in high school). With all of this, I am struggling to take care of my own health and neuro-spiciness (hello ADHD!) and an inability and fear surrounding going to dentists and doctors. My partner and I celebrated twenty years this year, and he’s been dealing with his own issues, also impacting our family. We’ve moved back and forth between two states since 2018, finally all five of us settling in Oregon again this past fall. Post-covid life was such a confusing time that I still feel like we are processing, and now the political and world landscape feels a bit precarious, so, like, it’s been a lot. Despite all this, I find joy in so many things - the gorgeous flowers blooming this spring, an amazing book, a solid cup of coffee, fancy cheeses, a rainy day, sharing an old movie or book or song with my kids, binging the perfect show, rearranging my house, and sleeping in on Saturdays. So, truly, I feel like life right now is just finding that balance, and putting down my phone and appreciating those joyful moments when they happen.
Some of my goals with writing again are to explore all of these, my inner struggling and my consumption of things that make me happy and motivation to keep on keeping on. Feel free to stick around - I can’t promise consistency (hat tip ADHD!) or life changing reveals, but I can promise laughter, an honest and genuine voice, and (perhaps) a tiny little micro community.
xoxo,
Kat
