I could pretend that I'm sequestering myself with my family for a cozy, prayerful Advent, but that would be a big fat lie. The truth is I don't know what's going on. Today I will give you …
TEN THEORIES WHY I CAN'T SEEM TO GET ANY POSTS UP, AT LEAST NOT ANY GOOD ONES
1. It's too cold in the house and I'd rather wrap at least one hand permanently around my coffee cup, leaving only one hand free to snake out of my sleeve and click the mouse once in a great while. Perhaps if I turned the thermostat up I would feel more creative.
2. Deep down, maybe, I know that the minute I get engrossed in writing a post the baby (ack! he will be two next month! must start calling him something else!) will start crying. Just can't face the frustration of having my train of thought interrupted. Even now I feel panicky just knowing that at any moment someone will wake up.
I am a classic introvert, and if there is anything I miss about being single, it is the ability to choose to be alone whenever I crave it.
3. Perhaps I am more in the mood of being… like… a passive consumer of media rather than a creator.
4. An effect of the Marian consecration that I perhaps didn't foresee. Getting what I asked for, maybe.
5. Feeling sorry for myself because it's slowly becoming clear that all the business travel my husband's been doing for his "new" (last few months) job within the same company is not merely an artifact of learning the ropes at a new job but is in fact the new normal. I know lots of people have to deal with their spouse being gone more than 4-8 days per month, and so I mostly don't get grumpy about it because I'm thankful that there is a job, especially one he likes that's well suited for him and pays well, but on Day 3 of a four-day stretch of putting the kids to bed by myself, I do, in fact, sometimes get grumpy. And then I have trouble thinking of non-grumpy things to write. Which means I post nothing. Also, putting them to bed by myself cuts into my blogging time.
6. Haven't even been cooking anything very interesting lately (see #5), so my old trick for climbing out of blogger's block — post recipes until I get back in the habit of writing again — is not working for lack of inspiration.
7. I know it's not for lack of topics. I do think of post topics I would like to write about. I remember having a political thought a few days ago, for example. It would have made an okay post. Maybe something about the rhythm of life right now is maybe preventing me from getting to a computer in time to put it into words. Most of what seems interesting to me slowly evaporates as time goes on and seems not at all interesting by the time I sit down at the computer.
8. I do a lot of my blog thinking and composition mentally in the pool, swimming laps. And lately, it's been hard to arrange things so I can get to the gym two or three times a week, for perhaps the last 5 months (see #5). Could be that I just don't have time to think underwater right now.
9. But maybe it's a symptom of something good. Teaching the kids always has its small frustrations, of course, but right now school is interesting and intellectually challenging and even fun. Busy, but fun. It's quite possible that because I'm busy with fun parts of school right now, I'm not looking around for something to help me procrastinate. Maybe that's all the blog ever was.
10. It's the holidays, and there are cookies everywhere, so I can't bear to write weight loss posts (another old standby for digging out of blogger's block). If that's some January, when it will draw a lot of traffic — and face it, probably be on my mind for personal reasons — I'll probably feel like writing about (sigh) my most popular topic again.
11. ARGH. SOMEONE IS COMING DOWN THE STAIRS NOW.
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