A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

Archives for July 2022

Back to the blog

Several years ago, I set out to have a blog post each day. 

I went a little deeper than a year, but it burned me out. Ever since then, it hasn’t been the same blogging. I continually try and get back into the blogging world, but outside of the monthly photo challenge, sometimes I’m just not into it. 

There are a variety of reasons for this. 

The first, of course, is time. It takes time to write blog posts and make sure they are where you want them to be. Sometimes I don’t have the desire to do all of this. 

Second is the changing of the blogging world. When I first started blogging, it was a lot more interactive. Even for me. I used to love visiting and reading blogs – especially personal ones. And it was nice when people returned the favor. Alas, my blog has never been anything big where there were a lot of comments and interaction. Even if I respond to comments, it often ends with just that. 

Over time, it becomes normal not to blog. Though I feel I have plenty of topics, it’s tough to carve that time that I feel I need to give. You can’t just write and leave it out there. You have to have that interaction part. You need to visit other blogs, read and comment. It’s how small blogs survive. 

But, the blog world changes. 

A few months ago, I went looking for some blogs. A lot of the blogs I found are lifestyle or “mommy” blogs. A lot of the themes and topics weren’t of interest to me. That doesn’t necessarily mean I shouldn’t blog. Part of blogging is a mental release of things. It helps you see and appreciate things you do. 

Finally, a lot of it is time. With Harper and such, sometimes when I am home and on a computer, I like random surfing and such because it’s a way to let my mind wander. It might be YouTube or something else. But it’s often things I don’t need to think too deeply about. 

There are things, however, I like doing that can be made into decent posts. I’m still working on understanding and learning woodworking. I’m in the process of buying a house. I’m still navigating dog ownership. I really still want to do more videos (which could also become blog posts). I still geocache and go to a few baseball games in the summer. There’s a lot for me to do if I can start focusing and putting, so to speak, pen to paper.

So, let’s try this again. 

Over the weekend, I went through my blogging folder on my Google Drive. It turns out I had written up a bunch of posts. Some of them are ones where I need to polish them a bit or change some things around. Heck, I have a few that are kind of outdated (car things), but I plan to still use them. 

I miss aspects of blogging, so I am going to, once again, try and get back into it, though likely slower and a bit more simple. The reality is that blogging helps with my mental well being. Some posts eventually might take a “real” turn. By this I mean kind of going inside my head and seeing where I am with things. Life isn’t always cupcakes and candy, afterall. 

We shall see how this goes. But, hopefully, I’ll at least have a couple of posts per week, starting with cleaning up and posting ones I’ve already written!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” A ‘lil HooHaa on Facebook! You can also follow me on Twitter @softball29!

Photo Blogging Challenge (June 2022): Water

So. I promise that every challenge won’t just be about Harper. And I had a few ideas of other things I wanted to do with this theme.

Alas, it’s way too hard to get away from photos of Harper when water is involved.

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Really hard.

And in the end, I also wanted to make sure it wasn’t just photos of dock diving, so I worked to at least figure that part out.

Harper definitely likes water.

One interesting story about her with water — drinking it. A few months ago, I didn’t think she was drinking enough of it, and of course I was getting way worried. Who wouldn’t when it comes to a dog drinking, right?

So I reached out to my trainer and asked her — and she mentioned something about village water and chlorine etc. So we started with spring/bottled water with her and she totally drinks way more, so that’s a good thing.

Anyway .. I hope you all had a great month. It’s been crazy busy for me and I’ve been working on understanding self care and trying to take care of myself. I’ve always been way too married to a job and such and I have finally started to realize that life is short. I need to make sure I’m in a good place so I can enjoy life and with Harper!

Here are my five for the month! Let’s see what you all have!

1. Dock diving

Harper is into dock diving. Sort of. I don’t know if she will ever compete, but we have fun. Most of the time, I have to be in the pool for her to jump to me. I don’t mind, usually, though. And it also allows me to take photos from inside the pool (yes, I’m careful!) Where she dives, there are three levels. The ramp, the lower dock and the higher dock. This was her first time jumping off the high dock! Her trainer is watching on!

2. Get the toy

Once in the pool, she needs to get her toy and then swim back to the ramp and go back up. Here she is getting the toy.

3. Waiting

Before dock diving lessons, I always try and walk her around so she can go. And after, we sit back so she can see others diving, but not be trying to get closer. Most of the time, she sits like this, watches, and waits.

4. Water(melon)

Harper loves watermelon!

5. In the creek

Harper loves to explore, and that includes creeks and rivers. A park opened in town and it has an easy access to the creek, so we went exploring one day.. so much fun!

There’s my five and let’s see what you came up with! If you took part in this month’s challenge, make sure to link up below.

And for those of you who participated, make sure you try and get to other people’s blogs and comment (here, too!).

Let’s continue to grow this challenge and have a strong community. Come back and check out the others who link later on, too! NOTE: We have a Facebook group for those who participate in the challenge and are interested. I’ll post any announcements there and hopefully it can be a place where things are discussed and some interaction etc. You can access it here.

** CHALLENGE CHANGE **

From this point forward, I am going to do the next theme at the bottom of each linkup. Also, the posting date will now be the first of each month, thus giving you the entire month to take the photos etc.

That means it’s a one-stop shop! Hopefully this helps out with everybody.

So, below is the linkup for May. Make sure you drop your link there. The theme for July is Get low. Remember to come back on August 1 to link up and check out the theme for that month!

Photo Blogging Challenge: June 2022 results

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” A ‘lil HooHaa on Facebook! You can also follow me on Twitter @softball29!