Remember when you were in high school or college and you were given a writing assignment with a particular due date?  Wasn’t that the worst!?  Even if you loved writing or it just came easy to you, having someone give you a topic to write on and then tell you when it was due was just plain hell.  At least it was for me.  I’m most creative and wordy when it’s not forced.  Do I enjoy writing?  Yes.  Does it come easy to me?  Most of the time.  Except when I try to force myself to sit down and blog.

As many of you readers know, since most of you are busy moms too, carving out time in the day for yourself is just plain hard.  Ever try to do something you wanted to do spur of the moment with two kids hanging off your legs?  Yeah, impossible.  So when I’m going through my daily grind and an idea strikes me that I think would make a good blog post, I can’t just stop what I’m doing and run over to my computer.  I’ve got sticky hands to clean, dishes to wash and laundry to fold.  So I take those ideas and file them into my brain {or jot them down on a sheet of paper so I don’t forget} and hope that when I have time, the ideas will flow.  But that’s simply not always the case.  I find myself sitting at my computer quite often with a post window open and a page full of blog ideas by my side and noting will come to me.  I’m trying to force myself to type something out and it just doesn’t work.

Am I giving up on this blog?  No way!  I love writing and sharing stories.  I love the people I’ve met through blogging and I love the creative outlet.  So when I have time, and the mood is right, and the creative juices are flowing you can bet that I’ll be blogging.  But I’m not going to force myself to stick to a schedule because then this will all just turn into a chore and who likes doing chores?  Not me!

If you’re still following my blog, thanks for sticking with me.  I truly appreciate your readership and hope to have many more great posts to share with you.

Today is a snow day here in the northeast.  It’s coming down at a good clip and I’d wager to say that we already have at least three inches of the fluffy stuff on the ground.  School is canceled in our town as well as the surrounding towns and while it doesn’t exactly effect us (Brinley doesn’t go to school on Tuesday’s) I think we’ll join the masses and stay in our pajamas all day and rot our brains watching TV.  This snow is coming on top of the twenty inches (give or take) that we got last week.  The ground is already covered by that snow, sidewalks are still piled high with snow banks and our roof is still under a blanket of white.

What better way to spend a snow day than thinking about my blog and all that has happened in the past forty days that I’ve yet to document?!  So, after I do four loads of laundry, sweep all the floors, make the beds, do the dishes and play with my girls, I’ll devote some time to blogging.  I hope you’ve missed me, but if not, I understand

Here are some of my current favorites:

1.  Oh What Fun – I love the simplicity of this card and think it looks amazing with a black and white photo.  The colors are bright and it just look so pretty.  I can imagine my two girls on this card (actually I’ve already mocked one up with them on it and it looks adorable).

2.  With Love Chartreuse – I think this is my top pick right now.  It’s simple yet elegant and I love how you can use multiple photos.  It will be great to be able to include a family shot and then some solos of the kids.  This card is just so clean looking.  I love it.

3.  Jolly Gems – I love the colors in this card.  It’s so cheery and bright.  It also doesn’t scream Christmas, which I like.  Again, I like the ability to include more than one photo in the card and the design is just really pretty.

We’ve been using Shutterfly for our Christmas cards for the past three years.  We’ve also used them for Thank You cards and for prints.  I have never had a bad experience with them.  In fact, I am more impressed with their service each time we order from them.  And don’t even get me started on how much I adore their photo books!  We have at least six of them.

Right now Shutterfly is offering 20% off all holiday cards!  If you’ve never used Shutterfly, right now would be a good time to start.  Their prices, customer service, and quality are all top notch.  And if you’re anything like me, you’d better get cracking on your holiday card because it might take you a while to choose your favorite design.

I am participating in Shutterfly’s 2010 Holiday Card collection promotion where bloggers contribute a write up about Shutterfly and receive 50 free holiday cards.  To learn more, click here.

Fast forward to now.  The days fill up so quickly.  The chores have increased (bigger house + yard = more chores).  We’re in the middle (well more near the end) of a renovation project.  Nora is cutting her one year molars and has an awful diaper rash which means she’s not sleeping as soundly these days.  So between contractors arriving at the house bright an early at 8am and Scott and I doing some of the remodel (read: painting) ourselves at night, time for blogging has dwindled severely.

But you know what?  It’s ok.  I blog because I enjoy it.  So if I make myself feel like it’s a chore, then what’s the point?  If I don’t get to it one day (or week), no biggie.  I have bigger fish to fry at times.  It doesn’t mean that I don’t want you checking in to see what’s new, but I do apologize if things get stale.  I’m happy to have acquired the readership that I have and I hope you don’t all leave me but keeping up is hard to do!

So I’ll be around when I can.  Hopefully not sporadically.. (name that movie!)