Welcome to This Week’s Miscellany, the occasional round up of Carrots family updates, photo dumps, books I’m reading, links I loved, and big news.
(Psst! After our regular TWM updates, I have some big news so be sure to check out what I’m sharing at the end of the post!)
Friends, there’s still 12.5 weeks until my due date. That’s right. This is my 6 months pregnant bump photo, not my “we’re on our way to the hospital” photo. Ah, the glamorous life of a 5’1″ girl with a short torso.
The good news is that baby girl is right on track. I hope the weeks leading up to her birth fly by but I think something weird happens to time in the final trimester and life feels like it’s moving through molasses. I’m sure in the dead of Texas summer when this little one is due I will feel VERY READY.
In other news, it is SPRINGTIME. Which means playing outside around our backyard farm (did you catch the tour?)
And making flower crowns out of our wildflower patch worthy of Anne Shirley or a fairy from A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
We’ve also prioritized Family Fun Days to enjoy the outdoors before the heat hits. Lots of picnics at the park!
And Benjamin and Lucy both got their first “stripes” on their Jiu Jitsu belts which was a big moment for them. They’ve both worked so hard! We’ve seen so much growth in Benjamin in focus and ability to stay attentive thanks to the discipline of his classes. I can’t recommend it enough for scatter-brained kids in need to some energy expenditure.
Lucy has always had a great attention span, so her growth has mostly been in confidence and strength. And she loves to see her friends (she’s one of those kids that makes friends wherever she goes). To be honest, I’d be thrilled if she keeps it up through high school so that I can send her off to college knowing she can take down and destroy any unfortunate soul with ill intentions.
Podcasts:
On The Simple Show, Tsh Oxenreider and I did a deep dive into what we’re calling “social self-care.” We did a four part series on friendship, stewardship, books (our literary medicine cabinet!), and living in the knowledge that we’re going to die. It was a great series and I hope you don’t miss it!
On Fountains of Carrots Christy and I talked with the lovely Patty Breen on the often misunderstood topic of annulments and just this week we released our interview with the one and only Jennifer Fulwiler about choosing to follow our passions AND serve our families. Great conversations!
Have you noticed that I’ve ACTUALLY BLOGGED lately? A magical combination of late second trimester improvement to my pregnancy sickness, a completed book manuscript, and Daniel’s new work schedule have made the stars align so that I can actually blog again.
I have so MISSED writing in this space. Writing my first traditionally published book has been an incredible experience, but it was challenging for my personality to work on ONE project for so many months and ignore all the ideas I had for blog posts.
I have a list a mile long of things I want to write about (and I always like to know what you want to hear about, too, so share in the comments if you’re so inclined) and it feels so good to have the time and mental space to connect here on the blog with you wonderful folks.
Here’s one snag: not as many of you are actually getting to see these new posts.
I’ve talked with other bloggers and this seems to be an across-the-board issue that’s affecting everybody For years, I could type something up, post the link to my followers on Facebook and voila! They can click over. Easy peasy. Now? Not so much.
Facebook only shows what I post to less than 25% of my 12K followers and that’s on a good day. I much prefer Instagram and Twitter to FB these days (except, of course, the Fountains of Carrots Raspberry Cordial Social Club which is my happy place on the internet with over 3,000 like-minded folks), but social media is always a gamble.
The rules are always changing. So I’ve decided to switch gears and focus on connecting with you through your email inbox, that way there’s no social media in the way! If you want to keep up with me and my writing, you can subscribe and I’ll be able to reach you without having to go through big bad Facebook. You’ll be the one controlling what you see and don’t rather than the FB algorithm.
I’ll still be posting here to the blog (and you can sign up to get my blog posts sent to your inbox here), but I’ll also be spending a lot of time on creating good things JUST for my email newsletter subscribers.
What’s this email newsletter thing, you ask? It’s basically content from me that won’t show up here on the blog. It will only be accessible to my newsletter subscribers. I consider my newsletter subscribers to be my inner circle of folks who support and encourage me and I want to spend even more time investing in that connection.
I occasionally write “secret posts” that are just for my newsletter subscribers, often on my most vulnerable and behind-the-scenes topics. But I haven’t been very consistent. Sometimes I only send something out if there’s something REALLY exciting going on. That’s going to change.
In addition to the secret posts, I’ll also be sending out more regular emails, either weekly or bimonthly because I am revamping This Week’s Miscellany and moving it to be an email subscriber only feature.
When deciding how I want all of this to pan out, I’ve been thinking about which email newsletters I subscribe to and what I love about them. Here’s what I came up with:
- Short and sweet. I like updates from writers that I can read quickly and that tell me what they are reading/writing/enjoying.
- I like behind the scenes looks at how writers and creatives structure their lives and what they’re dealing with/struggling with.
- I like content that is helpful to my life.
So that’s what I’m keeping in mind. What does that mean for This Week’s Miscellany?
Here’s what I’m envisioning:
- A weekly “here’s what’s up ahead for the liturgical year” section with links to recipes, etc
- Current reads
- A quick look at our meal plan and how it connects to what’s growing in the garden
- Family update
- links to my favorite articles and podcasts I enjoyed that week.
- links to any new blog/podcasting content
I want it to be something you could read in 4 minutes that will brighten your week!
So that’s what to expect weekly (or every other week). And then occasionally (like next week) I’m going to be sharing a secret post about something that’s on my heart. This time? Comparison. AKA how I used to struggle with envying other people’s circumstances (or productivity!) and how I got over it.
So if you want to stay in touch, pretty please sign up for my email newsletter so that I can reach you without depending on the fickle social media gods! THANKS A MILLION!
Honestly, I find this to be a little disappointing. I enjoy the family stuff on your blog, but I follow WAY too many people for it to be realistic to be on all the email lists. I rely on Feedly.
What kind of content will you still be posting here? My favorite posts are the ones about your sweet little family, especially homeschool posts and miscellany.
I understand the need to try new things and see what works, but I did want to give you that feedback.
We’ll just have to see how it works, Keats. Most people don’t use feed readers like you do and I hate for people to miss all of the content due to social media getting in the way. The blog isn’t going anywhere and I’ll still be posting regularly here, but TWM is definitely going to be just email.
I feel your pain with the pregnancy bump!! I always get HUGE, and people start assuming I’m ready to pop when I’m only 5-6 months pregnant!! You look lovely, though! 🙂
Solidarity, sister!
Is that a Waco Park? It looks AWESOME! Details (if you don’t mind)
Yes! It’s the playground up by Lover’s Leap at Cameron Park. They have two other playgrounds there, too.
I never really got into following blogs via Facebook or other social media. I very much still rely on my feed reader and currently use Feedly. However, I’m not opposed to trying out a new email subscription to see if it works.
Feed readers are great!
I love the newsletters already! They are exactly as you describe – beautiful little reads full of wisdom and warmth. Thanks for all you do. -Katie
Aw, thanks, Katie!
I still use Bloglovin’, and I’m another person that will be sad to see you moving to a newsletter format. It’s a popular move for bloggers, I know, but I don’t usually subscribe to them.
I`ve been getting your newsletter for a while and have to admit that opening it happens far less often than reading the actual blog. There are too many newsletters in my inbox, from bloggers to all kinds of consultants. Everyone wants attention, everyone uses attention grabbing titles and most of the time they just want to sell something that the rest of the text is supposed to lead to. Most of the newsletters I get either go straight to archives for the abstract time in the distant future when I might be interested to look something up or wait in the main inbox for months until I empty it in the hopes that I might find time to read them. Sometimes actual conversations get lost between them.
On the other hand, I read blogs at least weekly. I have a list of blogs organised by subject and a separate group for favorites linked to the side of my own old blog where I open all the new posts at once and go through them in an hour when I have the time and desire. While reading the blogs I have never felt that I might have missed something by not opening a newsletter. When I have opened them they usually contain something that will come up in the blog, if a little later. Your blog is in the favorites list so I always know when you post. The few newsletters that I have opened have been nice but I can`t say they offered more than the blog.
The consultants whose newsletters I get and rarely open (only on periods when I`m actively working on their subject) occasionally send letters to ask if I`m still interested or should be removed from the list since I haven`t opened their letters in a while. It seems that when you exceed a certain number of subscribers keeping them all costs a lot and there will inevitably be a large group of subscribers that are not actually readers, much less buyers.
Just something to think about.
I read you last newsletter about envy now. And I was thinking perhaps you would write about your concept for the newsletter a bit more? I have a newsletter and I haven`t written anything there for several years since I don`t want to limit my writing to a small group of people that might decide to open any given letter. When I find a new blog I like I usually go through the archives and sometimes collect links, ideas or pieces of advice for re-reading in the future. No such chance with newsletters. Writing a good piece and sending it to a newsletter seems close to throwing it away to me. Some people might read it, then it gets deleted and new subscribers or regular or new blog readers won`t know anything about it. Gone forever.
A completely different matter is materials for e-courses. I have held a few e-courses where I sent weekly letters to an e-mail list. Later I turned the same materials into an e-book. I got the idea from a book and found it pure genius. You get feedback and relevant questions from people that are actively interested during the course and you get paid for the same material twice. That helps the process of creating better content and you can be sure that most letters are opened. But why would anyone limit general snippets of daily life to a newsletter?
I think Ingrid probably said it best, but I’m going to have to agree with all the previous comments that this isn’t the best idea. I love your blog and check it almost every day, but I really don’t like mass email. For most of them, I unsubscribe and delete them right away. I did subscribe to yours a while ago, and I appreciated that they weren’t sent out too often. Now that they’ll be going out more often , I’ll probably unsubscribe, to be perfectly honest, which is a shame, because I love TWM, but don’t want emails cluttering up my inbox. Why not keep TWM on the blog? You can still send it out in emails if you want, but why keep it from those of us who dislike mass email? That goes for all of the other things you listed. I’m really sad that I might not see those any more, since those are the main reasons I check this blog. I don’t want them lost in my email, I want to see them here on the blog where I can easily find and refer back to them, and where everyone can benefit from them.
I also don’t get the point of “secret” posts. Since the email is open to anyone to subscribe, that’s pretty much just as public as the blog. If you wouldn’t say it here, why would you send it out to a bunch of people in a mass email? Plus, I completely agree with Ingrid that you’re throwing your writing away by sending it only to a small group of people who will most likely delete or ignore it. Why waste your time like that?
Please don’t take any of this too harshly. I love your blog, and I wish nothing but the best for you and your family. I also love the updates on your family, the liturgical ideas, and all the other things you’re thinking about changing to email. Please keep putting them on the blog.