When There’s Nothing to Blog About

by Sally Matheny

When There's Nothing to Blog About

I started blogging in April 2011. A whopping fifteen viewers read my first post. At first, I didn’t want to blog, but writer friends said it would improve my writing. I’ve maintained a schedule of posting every Monday and I am learning a great deal in the process.

     I know experienced bloggers write out their posts weeks in advance.  For some reason, I’ve just not been able to do that. Most of the time, I’m observing and pondering throughout the week and begin writing my post one or two days before it is posted.

     Some weeks a topic emerges and the words flow easily. However, most weeks it’s several hours of hard labor trying to birth something worthy of reading. And occasionally, there comes a time when I think there's nothing to blog about, which seems silly. Surely, there is something of interest to write about! The challenge is writing it in such a way that benefits my readers.

A Sleigh Full of Writing Ideas

     Take this week for example. Its two weeks before Christmas. Christmas! There should be a sleigh full of ideas, right? Well, I started a post on Christmas traditions- whether to treasure, toss, or tweak them. Eh. It was boring. But I plugged on thinking I could perk it up later.

     It never fails during these struggling times of writing that I am paged.

     “Mom, I’m a little concerned.”

     I look up from my laptop at my nine-year-old redhead. I am thinking he must have seen a news report about hurricane victims or overheard someone’s unfavorable health prognosis.

      “What are you concerned about honey?” 

The Concerns of a Child's Life

     With his little furrowed brow he looks at me and states, “I’m concerned that I only have one gift under the tree and other people have more.”

     I close my laptop and focus my attention on his blue-blue eyes and his green-green heart.  We talk awhile about why we have Christmas and how we are always fair in our gift giving. Finally, I make the point of how crazy-focused he gets on his gifts when he sees them under the tree. I purposely do not put his gifts out until Christmas morning because he will drive me insane with questions. Mainly, “Can I open just one today?”

     We come to a point of understanding and he goes off to play. I go upstairs to continue working on the blog post. I get sidetracked looking up statistics on re-gifting. Did you know 78% of Americans think re-gifting is okay? While I ponder how to tie that in to my blog post on traditions, my husband comes in and sits down beside me.

Clank. Scrape. Clank. Scrape.

Life's Sweet Interruptions

     Looking up to see him licking the chocolate ice cream from his spoon, I inform him I am trying to work. Immediately I regret the comment as he gets up to leave. I beg him to stay and chat while he eats his ice cream. He does and then I turn back to my writing after he leaves.

     I’ve ventured now into writing remarks about people intentionally buying and wearing ugly, Christmas sweaters. This article is not going where I wanted it to go. Arrgghh.

     “Mom!” My nineteen year old, home from college for the holidays, is screaming in frustration. I pretend not to hear her.

     “Mom! I NEED you!”

     Closing the laptop once again, I venture downstairs. “Calm down. What is it?”

     “The red velvet cake I baked for Dad’s office party has broken in two, and half of it is in the pan and the other half is here, and I’m too tired to bake another one and so, here you go. Do whatever you want with it because I’m done.”
 

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

     Her hair is pulled up into a messy bee-bop with strands dangling in front of her flushed face. It’s good to see her back home in the kitchen, even if she is spazzing out a little.

     “Calm down. Let me see if I can fix it.”

     “Good luck,” she spurts slumping off to her room. Bless. She hasn't caught up with her sleep since exams last week.

     The cake appears to be in several pieces on the plate and one large piece is still in the cake pan. All I need to do is loosen the large piece, apply it to the cake and ice it. No one will ever know.

     Easier said than done. The cake stubbornly clings to the pan. Now, the cake looks like someone smashed it with a piñata pole. Even if I “glued” it back together with icing, it would look a mess.

Savoring Life's Moments

     Wondering if anyone has ever made a red velvet cake trifle, I start to laugh. The rest of the family gathered in the kitchen.  I told my husband his cake would arrive late. I’d bake another one the next day. The redhead ecstatically ate what was now deemed the family cake.  The daughter was relieved she could go to bed. And I knew what I was going to write about.

     Life happens—to all of us. We all have good days, crazy days, and not-so-good days. One thing I have learned by blogging, is my readers are most encouraged by things that happen in real life. One of my most popular posts is Best of Intentions Hit the Ceiling. Evidently, people like learning from my mistakes. I guess it beats learning firsthand from their own.

     God provides teachable moments in every breath we take. We can choose to keep our heads down and continue plugging away at what we’re doing—thinking we’ll figure out how to fix it later. Or we can turn our attention to what God brings before us: the good, the bad, and the ugly.

     Tune in to what God is teaching. Stress less. Laugh more. Trust.  Love.  Forgive.

     While I’m learning from my own good, bad, and ugly moments, I want to be a source of encouragement for others in their life journeys. As long as we're living, there will always be something to blog about--it is just a matter of learning how best to share it.

     Got to go. I’m being paged.

     In the meantime, why don't you share with us what you blog about?