Four Year Blog Anniversary: Life Musings

This morning Facebook reminded me that four years ago, on January 15th in 2014, I shared my second blog post. 

It was a blurb about what I was doing in the studio: Winter Studio Games. 

I had my snowmen card ready for lessons that week, and my weekend plans included teaching group lessons to make up for the lessons missed due to your typical western Pennsylvania winter weather. 

In 2014, I was averaging 4-5 blog posts a week. They weren’t epic posts; just little glimpses into the life of a piano and voice teacher. Occasionally I’d share a worksheet or game idea. I remember spending SO many hours each week working on graphics and crafting files. It was simply a labor of love. A labor of creativity.

As time passed, blog posts got longer. I felt the need to say and share really important things every time I made a post. It needed to be epic. It needed to be perfect. It needed to be social-media-share-worthy. 

(And you can probably imagine, that kind of self-pressure can really build up!)

Today there are 360 blog posts on the site. Yep… you could read one a day for an entire year, and still have a couple left over.

And then things changed. 

Compared to previous years, the blog was rather quiet in 2017. (Yes, 51 posts qualifies as “quiet” in the piano/voice blogging world.) 

Some really big “life things” happened in late 2016.  On Thanksgiving that year, my husband lost his father after a swift 8 week battle with cancer. The day after that, we became caretakers to his mother, who in a devastating blow, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. My husband also became the sole caretaker of the 60 acre family farm, landlord to 9 renters, and Vice President of the family business. 

To say that it was adjustment would be a gross understatement. 

Yes. This is very different than my normal posts.  I haven’t made many personal posts over the years, but today I felt the urge… I hope you’ll bear with me. 

Today I wanted to say a huge thank you to the piano and voice teachers who have reached out over the past year. I’m so grateful for your love and support, and I keep you in my thoughts daily, as I know you too are going through major life adjustments.

Sometimes life will throw things at you that will totally change everything. Priorities will change. Perspective will change. Hobbies or interests might get pushed to the back-burner. Business models will change.

When your in the midst of those changes, it can feel really, really uncomfortable. But just remember — in your most difficult or darkest of days, “it won’t always be like this.” Change is constant. Tomorrow will be different. 

What will 2018 look like on my blog?

I’m not sure yet. After 13 months of limited writing, I sincerely hope to get back into the swing of things. Perhaps that means going back to simpler posts and blurbs. Less can be more, right? 

We’ll see where it goes. 

Just know this: Even if I’m quiet here, I’m always rooting for you, my piano and voice teacher friends.  

Thanks for reading, and as always… stay tuned.