I've had this blog design for quite a while now, and over the last couple of years, I've felt like the whole format was sort of limiting when it came to what I wanted to do, and where I wanted to go with it.
I solved the problem by starting a number of different blogs. The style blog (now at CafeMom) addressed my fashion and beauty addiction. A separate food blog gave me a place to share some of my favorite recipes. For a while, I wrote a blog for Parents.com and there, I could share more of the photographs I love taking of my children, as well as ideas for fun activities that the kids and I have enjoyed doing together. And my review blogs provided a place for me to tell you all about the cool products that I get to try out.
But there were problems with these solutions. While a separate style blog has been a great decision (thanks, @MandyHornbuckle!), the recipe blog was self-designed, ugly, and eventually abandoned. And then Parents.com opted to get rid of its blogs. And then there were other topics I had been wanting to write far more about, like faith and spirituality, that just seemed a little weird to get into on a regular basis on this blog, even though I know there are a lot of you out there that would love to mull it over with me.
Plus, I'm not the same person I was when I started this blog. I like to think that I've evolved at least a little bit. And while I still make lots and lots (and LOTS) of mistakes, I've been at this parenting thing now for ten years. TEN YEARS, PEOPLE. Can you believe I've now handled every age except second grade? Yeah, so can all my new wrinkles and gray hairs. Bah dum CHHHH!
In other words, it has become clear that it was time for a change.
And if all goes well, at some point
The new and improved Suburban Turmoil will allow you to access all the things I like to share with the Internets, all in one place. To help you figure out where to go, there will be shiny, new CHANNELS!
LIVE will be the place where most of the posts I normally write here go.
PLAY will be filled with inspiration and ideas on spending quality time with your kids, helping them learn, and keeping them from (gasp!) getting bored.
EAT will contain all my favorite recipes.
PRAY will be a place where I can write about faith and spirituality to my heart's content, and not worry about freaking people out in the process!
TRY will hold my reviews, but I'm solemnly promising before God and everybody that it will ONLY contain reviews of things that I think you really should see for yourself...
And WIN will have my giveaways-- As many of you know, giveaways are kind of a pain to host, so I only do the really good ones, like those that will score you a $100 VISA gift card or $100 in Mary Kay makeup, for example (These two are going on now, by the way).
A handy dandy slide show at the top of the screen will feature the five latest stories I've published, recent posts will be listed under that, and you can always click on the channel tabs at the top of the page if there are particular types of stories you like to read most. My site designer and I have tried to make everything pretty obvious.
More channels could crop up over time- I've intentionally kept things fairly basic so that my site can change as I change. I'm a work in progress and always will be. I want a website that has the ability to be that way, too.
Oh, and I'll also have a new tagline! But you'll have to come back to see it.
Expect things to be a bit wonky for a few days as we get everything in place. And then? KAPOW.
The new and improved Suburban Turmoil!
I hope you like it.