Stepping back...

One of my 2010 blogging goals was to post each day.  And I've managed to keep it pretty well.  But, some things have come to light over the past couple of days, and I'm feeling the need to step back and reconcile my recent posts against the purpose of this blog.

Originally, the main purpose of this blog was to allow me a venue to work on my writing - mainly to empty my brain and just "put words to paper", so to speak.  I've noticed that recently I've been doing less "free writing" and focusing more on my daily life with my family.  While that's not all bad, I have a separate blog whose purpose is to keep our friends and family updated on the goings on in our family.  This blog isn't supposed to take its place, though that seems to be what has been happening lately.

I've also realized (thanks in part to an email I recently received) that you can't see my face and hear the inflections in my voice when I write.  I tend to write "off the cuff" and forget to include key clues in my writing to communicate to you, the readers, the tone in which I'm writing.  Thus, I'm starting to sound like an ungrateful, complaining mom who can't wait to get my kids all grown-up and out of the house.  I can assure you that this is not the case at all.  I love my children and I feel extremely privileged to be able to stay home with them.  I've just failed to bring that aspect of my life into my posts, using the blog to "vent" instead.

I enjoy the online community of "friends" that I have and the feeling that we're going through life together.  But, I have also realized that I cling to the online friends and fail to find friends in real life.  I live vicariously through the blogs I read and the status updates on Twitter and Facebook, but I fail to connect with the people around me.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with all these realizations, but I know I need to do something.  One of the things I know I need to do is to regroup and refocus this blog - staying away from "family matters" and focusing more on my writing.  I'd love some feedback from you, my readers, as to what topics you'd like to see me write about.  I struggle to come up with relevant topics, but when I have a topic in mind, the writing comes much more easily.

Please feel free to leave your thoughts or comments below, or email me at "ashleypichea (at) gmail (dot) com".