I saw this view of the slanted sunlight when I was out on my morning walk. It is significant because I would NEVER have seen it before this past June, as there used to be a tree in the way of this view!
With yesterday's count of "Spark Days left" down to 15 (14 counting today)... I kind of panicked about my thousands of blog entries over there that I had dragged my feet about reviewing/preserving.
Why did I drag my feet? Clearly it was the emotional heavy lifting involved in reading and making decisions about them. I still have 239 pages of blog titles to go through. The phone app says that is 3,581 blogs!
I had already "printed off" most of the "featured"/"popular" ones, and then I started in on a couple of events of significance: Kevin's first Boston Marathon. My first Olympic distance triathlon. My fall and injury in 2016, and clawing efforts to "not lose the awesome", as I phrased it for my then-trainer.
But now, I went all the way back to the beginning. To when I posted my very first blog entry... and I found in those blogs from 2009 a lot of interesting time periods of my life. You see, I started blogging on Spark about the time I joined my then daughter in law at Jenny Craig, to make that attempt to keep her company in her efforts to lose weight and get healthy. It weaves its way, in smallish paragraph or two long blogs, through the diagnosis of hyper-parathyroidism, the lead up to surgery, son's pre-deployment training, the days surrounding the Fort Hood shooting in November that year... my decision to give up soda... son's deployment, etc. And that's all in the first year!
I had already decided that "what I don't get to, I won't get to"... but now, reading this history, I realize "OMG, this could be of value to someone who is now where I was then..." and also "this is an awesome example of how far I've come." There is a lot of history from 2009 to 2021!
So... folks... I'm scrambling to review and print off what I can, and delete those that are no longer of importance to me as I go, so as to avoid duplication of effort. If I disappear for a bit, don't worry, I'm still "at work".
What to expect in future: the resurfacing of some of these "old" blogs in either OKM's Spark Archives or in Encouraging Words from OneKidsMom. And I may do a little more organizing, perhaps merging some of the shorter entries, or excerpts from them, into a "lesson learned from X period in my journey" kind of blog instead of preserving each individual entry. Once Spark is gone, and I'm not straddling multiple platforms, that becomes a project worth doing.
Kind of a step on the way to the book some folks kept saying I should write. Don't know if I'll ever take it that far. But I know that reviewing some of these old "dash off a paragraph or two of a pep talk before I go to work" blogs has been motivating for ME where I am NOW in the journey.
So... all that dumped out there... let's get out and live the best we can, this one and only Tuesday, August 3, 2021 we'll ever get. We are each and every one of us Worth It!
Life is good!✨ððĢð
Of course a book! So clever! You were on before I was, but I was aware o some of your beginnings, your having referenced them perhaps. I think you were one of my early friends" though, as I started maybe a year or so after you. You have so much wonderful information to share!! I wish I could help, but it's a 1-person job!
ReplyDeleteIt is indeed a one person job... but also a bit more than full-time to get it done in time. What gets done, gets done. What doesn't, doesn't.
DeleteI’m super grateful that I only ever wrote about 250 blogs on SP.
ReplyDeleteBut once upon a time I had my own scramble to capture “where I started from,” in a series of pre-SP blogs... http://web.archive.org/web/20210617182314/https://www.sparkpeople.com/mypage_public_journal_individual.asp?blog_id=4136520
It’s so interesting to look back and see some things are still the same, and others have changed nearly completely!
This hilarious excerpt, for example:
DeleteMarch 10, 2009
Current BMI = 45.67
They’re doing a 4-week nutrition workshop at work that I’ve joined, which turned me onto sparkpeople.com (Although I’d heard of it before, I’d been avoiding it, because I really don’t like social networking sites. They just don’t do it for me.) It’s a pretty convenient place to log food and exercise for free, though, so I’ll give it a run for a while and see how it goes.
ð
Oh, that excerpt *is* hilarious!
DeleteThe best part about that comment is that in the end I was tracking *neither* my food, *nor* my exercise at SP, and *only* using it for support. So I guess *some* social networking is acceptable. ROFL.
DeleteSo acceptable that it would drive me to create an entire Google group out of whole cloth just for that purpose... ðĪĢ
It all depends on the kind of support, doesn't it? You found your tribe! As, coincidentally, did I!
Deleteits a lot hugs good luk with the book
ReplyDeleteThanks.
DeleteI had the same experience looking over old blogs, going back to 2009.
ReplyDeleteIt was taking so much time to skim through them, then to choose which were save-worthy…so much personal and family history there…it then to figure out how and where to save them…toooo overwhelming.
So I did nothing.
ðĪŠ
I started out just trying to save the featured ones... but then I found some of the ones that meant the most to me were never featured. Finally, I have decided that I will do what I can in the time-box allotted! I focused my attention on the going forward part, and now that I'm confident it will fly, I'm going back to save the pieces that I can.
DeleteFirst ... please, please get allllll your Spark blogs over here so I can read and learn from them. I selected Spark friends in the beginning based on face value of them accomplishing reaching their health goals ... as I was struggling. I truly want to achieve my own goals and need the "support".
ReplyDeleteI stopped reading my Sparks blogs and just started PDFing them.
Second ... I must be blind, dumb or high on too much sugar ... I can't find what you shared.
Notify is a checkbox, under the comment entry box. On the lower right, across from the "Publish" button. You have to check it before you click on Publish to get it to work.
I wrote a bonus blog showing what my comment window screen looks like. But I'm always logged in... note it sees me as logged in as OneKidsMom, but in your screen snip, it doesn't show you logged in to your Google Account. When I changed who I was replying as to "Anonymous" or "Name/URL" the Notify me checkbox disappeared. So, that's the next thing to try... log in before commenting, with Reply as set to your login id.
DeleteFair warning, when you click a Notify me check box, you won't just get when the author replies, you will get EVERYBODY's new comments, and if it's a popular blogger, you might get a LOT!
And I said to myself...I want not to look back; look forward. I had already created a memoir of sorts over DH's health issue.
ReplyDeleteI deleted every danged one of them.
No regrets.
You are a strong woman! I have deleted several. But I have saved several too. And I have a lot more to look over and decide! I took time out to go workout with the trainer!
DeleteSo many memories packed into those blogs. Busy printing.
ReplyDeleteHUGS and good luck.
I'll take all the luck I can get! THanks.
DeleteWise woman to pace yourself. This review of the past is like going through grandma's old box of photographs... emotional heavy lifting!
ReplyDeleteA gigantic chore lies ahead and just a few days remain.
ReplyDeleteGood luck!
Thanks. Today I went through several "pages" of blogs... now there are 226 "pages" of blogs left to go... and I'm calling it quits for the night.
DeleteI can understand your feeling that looking at old blogs is emotional heavy lifting. I have trouble organizing old photos for the same reason. But your blogs seem like such a valuable record of your life, and you're right that a lot of the information you share can be helpful to other people who are facing similar circumstances. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteThanks. I have to take regular breaks. A lot of living has gone on since 2009, and I'm finding it all. Some of it is repetitive and can be pitched. But some of it details important life milestones and how sticking to the program helped get through it, or the self-talk needed to avoid falling back into unhealthy ways of coping!
DeleteI knew I could not manage reading, deciding to save or not as I went thru the blogs. I just did a mad scramble to save and may never get back to them. But, they're saved.
ReplyDeleteOn to saving other things now. Will do what I can. Taking breaks as needed.
~ JEANKNEE
Pacing ourselves, that's what we're doing. I pitched more than I saved today. The alphabets are gone. The Mental Toughness homework is gone. What I don't get to, I won't get to, and we'll survive.
Delete