July 2015

Taken in Baguio last March. I PC-restored my laptop recently and unfortunately lost many of my photos.

My eyes accidentally went to the stats on top of my day-old blog. It read very meagre numbers, very very small. The numbers were a speck compared to my old blog’s stats.

Surprisingly, I didn’t care, not even the tiniest bit.

You see, another reason why I started a new blog is to free myself from the mindset of competitiveness. I got tired of always monitoring my statistics. I needed to let go of such an unnecessary stress.

However, I would be lying if I said completely starting a new blog from ground up is easy. It’s difficult, and sometimes, I have to remind myself why I’m doing this.

Content

For starters, there’s virtually nothing in the blog. I made the choice to not migrate my old blog, so I have to write a lot during the next few months for it to have acceptable content.

On the other hand, it is exciting to have the chance to focus on writing content again with brand new categories and stuff. To be honest, I stopped writing relevant content in my old blog because I thought it wouldn’t matter anyway, I would be transferring anyway. Well, I have no excuses now!

Can you spell blog-horrhea?

Design

I’m currently using a free feminine theme from Angie Makes right now. I find it really pretty, but I’m also hoping to have a customised design just for A Joyful Mess. It’s not my priority now, though. Maybe when we reach a point of stability, we can contemplate on having a customised design made. 🙂

And everything else

I published my first blog post yesterday, but really, my blog was (and is) still not 100% ready. I just figured it would be great to finally start blogging here since it’s the first day of the second half of the month. I’m not sure what the relevance is, but I like the timing.

Looking at my blog now, I realise there are still a lot of things I need to do. Setting aside my pining for a customised design, I also need a new author picture (not that one, which I just grabbed from my old blog!). There’s nothing wrong with that picture – aside from the little fact that both Yuri (my son) and I look different now.

I also need to update my about and contact pages which, you guessed it, are all just grabbed from my previous blog! Even my job is not the same any more!

Outside the blog, I also need to update all of my links. Eventually, once we are able to publish more posts, I’ll also have to revisit blog directories and submit this new blog.

In other words

Starting a blog is just like having a baby. The conception of an idea is only the beginning, and the work doesn’t end with giving birth. You need to feed it, clothe it, nurture it, and be consistent in loving it – an inconsistent mum would be really scary.

But it’s satisfying and oddly comforting. And yeah, it’s also a lot of fun.

Hello! Welcome to my new online home. I call it “A Joyful Mess,” and I want it to be a blog that is truly me.

Why Joyful Mess

I’m a messy person. I may have a bit of an OCD, but I am no grace under pressure, I don’t have the gift to “whip things into shape,” unless you’re talking about something virtual, and I am no Martha Stewart. Even my bun is a mess.

But having a type-A personality made me hate this aspect of myself. I want everything to be perfect and in order. Two things made me realise that the mess will always be part of life – of my life. I first realised that when I became a Christian and made the decision to make Jesus the centrepiece of my life.

However, because I was (still am) working, I slipped into my old neat-freak, perfectionist ways. Then I was reminded about it when I became a mother.

Have you noticed that we are not born with the instinct to clean up but rather the instict to make a mess? To dig, throw, discover?

There is truly nothing wrong with order. The problem is the obsession with order. It becomes a problem when you refuse to step out of your comfort zone, when you stop living your life to avoid making a mess. So instead of always telling my son, Yuri, to not make so much clutter, I have decided to welcome it as part of his young life. He will never learn about anything if the books stay in the shelves and the toys in the closet.

And instead of berating myself when I mess up, I thank heavens that I am one messy, messed up person because it means I need God’s grace to give order to my cluttered life. I thank God that I need to depend on him because in my weakness, he is strong. I am learning that there is joy in the mess.

Now I welcome and embrace the clutter and hope to document my messy life here.

What about my old blog

Perhaps a lot of you know that I used to blog in davaomommy.com. It’s still up and running now, but I have felt the need to “rebrand” and start anew since last year. The reason is that I felt the blog name itself was too cold and sterile and, honestly, didn’t evoke any emotion.

I wanted a more personal blog, one that sounds more introspective than informative.

I chose to start all over again. Instead of just migrating my entire blog to a new domain name, I decided to let it live for two reasons. First, Davao Mommy was the product of more than 2 years of hard work. I couldn’t just remove it from the blogosphere, so I would let it run until its natural death.

Second, it’s just too taxing and frustrating to migrate a blog, fix pictures, change tags and categories to reflect the new blog’s etcetera etcetera. I couldn’t be bothered.

A day in the life of a toddler, almost preschooler, as told by his mess and this semblance of a cleanup. 🐤🐔 #toddlerlife #preschool #homeschool #homeschoolphilippines #wahm #wahmlife #aviary

A photo posted by Marie Angeli Laxa (@maanlaxa) on Jan 7, 2015 at 10:03pm PST

I hope you accompany me on this new adventure!

Beginning again is a big deal for me. I have backed out several times because I wasn’t sure the time and effort would be worth it. All the work I’ve done on my previous blog will now go to waste (hopefully not). All the connections I’ve made, I may or may not take with me to this new home.

But I’ve never felt as confident as I do now. I feel like I’ve made the right decision: both to make a new home and to start from ground up.

This may be worth it after all.