Hello all and welcome to the blogsite that I have spent the better part of five years developing. I come to you today to address the lack of activity over the past week or so, and I wanted to give an update of what could be in the future. As you may already know, my wife and I welcomed twin girls into the world in October of last year, bringing our total child count up to three. While I had every intention of maintaining the article frequency and quality despite the increased responsibilities, it seems that my act of burning the candle at both ends (and maybe in the middle) has more than caught up with me.
I have a job that is very demanding of me. I wake up at 3:30 am to be to work by 5. I spend a solid 10 hours at my work place, usually on my feet all day, then I make the nearly 30 mile journey home. From there, I dive right into spending time with the family. My three year old is pulling me one direction, the twins each need attention in their own way, the dog is scratching to get in so he can be fed, and of course my wife needs a break from taking care of the household all day. It’s a tough burden, but one that I bear with a smile.
So, I spend as much time with my family as I can. After all, the kids won’t stay this young for long and I’m a firm believer in being extremely hands on with every aspect of their lives. After playing tea party, changing diapers, cooking dinner, and doing whatever else is required of me, I battle falling asleep on the couch, because let’s face it, getting up at 3:30 in the morning sucks. After dinner and a little more play time, we get the kiddos bathed and off to bed, and I finally get to sit down to the blogging aspects of my life around 9:30, if I’m lucky. Blogging usually ends around 11:15-11:30, then I crawl into bed and maybe get a good four hours before I’m up and at it again. This is way less than the recommended 8 hours, but I try to catch up on my sleep on the weekends, that’s why you don’t see any articles posted on Saturday or Sunday.
Despite those intentions, that is catching up on my sleep during the weekends, I often work on these days and have no way to catch up. On average, I work a 60-hour workweek, and I often work as many as 12 or 14 days in a row with only a day or two break in between. It’s a grueling schedule that is taking its toll.
As far as the blogging process goes, it’s not getting any easier either. Sometimes, I get really lucky and the creative juices are flowing, all cylinders are firing, and there’s plenty to write about. Other times, I am riddled with writer’s block, can’t find anything worth writing about, and/or can’t stay awake. For the latter, it results in basically nothing getting written for the following day. For the former, I may write two or three articles in addition to our usual Tip of the Day offering. Over the past few weeks, however, I find myself tired, unmotivated, uninspired, and unable to muster decent content, or any content for that matter.
To make the situation worse, I’ve essentially lost interest in my aquariums. Yesterday, I broke down my 80-gallon setup, which wasn’t much to look at, but it hurts to say goodbye to an aquarium. I will keep the nano tank going, but it’s obviously not getting the attention it needs due to my extremely busy schedule.
Taking all of this in and thinking about it for some time, I’ve come to the conclusion that I may have to step back for a minute while I regain some normalcy in my life. Obviously, I don’t not want to negate five years of work and shut the site down. Instead, I’m just going to turn off the computer, take some time to relax, read a book, sip some coffee, and hopefully pick things back up once things settle back into place. I will never abandon AquaNerd or the loyal readers, so I will stay active on our Facebook page and pop in on the blog from time to time to write about things that catch my eye. Additionally, I will maintain my role as editor and make sure that the content from the other writers gets published as intended.
Wrapping it up, I realize that as I write this, I could be back in action tomorrow or whenever the first string of exciting news pops up. You can certainly never keep me away, but I do feel a brief hiatus is much needed while I get rested and refocused so that I can come back at this with full strength. Thank you for your patience in all of this and happy reefing.
