As Time Zips By

So what have I been doing for the last 10+ years instead of turning this blog into a money maker? It seems that lots of people who started blogging when I did went on to either turn their blog into a business or else to turn the skills they learned into a business...photography, blog writing, etc. I cheer each of them on because when you love something and can also make money doing it, it deserves a cheer!

So why did I take the path less traveled in the blogosphere? Part of it is a desire to keep it simple, part is a lack of time to turn it into a business.

A little over a month ago the half year anniversary of this blog rolled around without any fanfare. Still, that means that I've now been blogging over ten and a half years. During that time Sweetie and I have remodeled the farmhouse, the main bathroom, the laundry room, and...the biggie...the kitchen. We've also created a new front entry, redone the front deck and maybe the back one, too...all of these projects run together sometimes. There were a couple of window installations when we discovered that the folks who built the house didn't believe in window flashing. Sweetie built a 20 x 15 one-story shed from scratch and remodeled the old storage shed into a kitchen for the remodel and then into an art studio for me. He has been upgrading his work area in the barn over time, too. Perhaps the most interesting was the time when we removed some tall windows in the living room area of the house and ended up repairing the second story, the first story and even the subfloor due to water damage.  So I guess that these project are one reason I didn't devote all my energy to making my blog into a source of income.

Then there is the P.E.O. Scholarship group. Making scholarships for women a reality takes time, energy, patience, persistence, and good will. There are also fundraisers that take all of that and skills, too. I have benefitted far more from all of our efforts as a sisterhood than I've ever given, but the time spent is also time not available to the blog.

Somewhere in there I took watercolor classes and graphic arts update classes on programs like InDesign and Photoshop. I do a 10-12 page full color Newsletter for the regional arm of P.E.O., plus various cards, programs, flyers and that sort of thing. For a couple of years I helped with the photo albums, too. Sometimes I have to revisit art skills that have gone stale.

Lately I've been trying out acrylics painting a sand and seascape with clouds. It's a work in progress in many ways.

Let's not forget the garden, a source of joy for me. During those ten + years I started hundreds of tomato starts from seed,

way too many zucchini and other squash plants, plus beans, cucumbers and flowers galore. Anyone who has gardened knows that producing the plants is just the beginning of a lot of work over a lot of months.

Then there is social time with family and friends, fun time with the dogs, the usual life stuff like grocery shopping and laundry and cleaning the house. It's a wonder I have time to do the couple-a-week posts I do put up.

So, there you have it; lots of reasons why this is still an ordinary, non-commercial food blog. Still, I've posted over 1,180 times and so there are over 1,000 recipes in all those posts, too. Hope that you wander around and find some new ones that tickle your fancy. A lot of them are for baked good, especially bread, but there are plenty of others. A great one for this time of year is the Creamy Coleslaw Dressing recipe. Coleslaw goes so well with barbecued meats and poultry, pulled pork, and grilled sea food. You may also enjoy the fictional Land of St. Honore', where baking is a birthright.

Thanks for stopping by, dear Reader.