Time to tally up how we did last year on our New Year’s Resolutions for Borealis!
1. Challenge ourselves to have more adventures
We have learned our lesson on this one. When we came up with the “Adventure” category for Borealis, Jen and I thought we’d be writing posts about fabulous trips, amazing outings with our kids, and impressive feats of heroism. We got a dose of real truth in 2012 when we spent the year being pregnant again (Breanne) and dealing with heart disease — again (Jen). Our adventures in 2013 were starting new jobs (Breanne and Jen), adjusting to life with two young kids (Breanne), and adjusting to life with two new diagnoses (Jen). While we do take amazing trips sometimes and aren’t strangers to fame, the truly medal-worthy events of life are much less glamorous.
2. Write for good content and not search engines.
This one was easy. We chalk this up to finding our blog’s voice after our first year.
3. Do more posts in a series.
This was another easy one to do. Here are a few examples:
4. Bring in other writers more.
I think we both are editors first, writers second, so this one came naturally to us as well.
5. Write about at least one of our “too raw” topics each.
Breanne: When we made this resolution (less than a month before Blythe was born) the “too raw” topic I was thinking about was the struggles I had with nursing Beatrice. (I was so afraid that it would happen again, but thankfully things went much better the second time.) But I never ended up writing about my struggles, partially because I was afraid I’d jinx it with Blythe, and partially because I’m embarrassed by about how sad and crazy I let it make me feel.
I did write about more personal things than I expected, like:
- Pumping at work (Making the milk)
- Having an unplanned but scheduled c-section (It’s so easy to judge about birth stories)
- Writing about work is always scary. But it’s a huge part of our lives. (5 things I learned on my job search)
Jen: I’ve got plenty of source material for something truly raw, but I never quite go there, I think because I don’t want to hurt others in the process. There several things that cut close to the bone this year, though:
- The long, hard, best road — how dragging myself to the starting line got me back on my feet after six months of heart-related misery
- Own your awesome — yep, that was embarrassing
- What I didn’t see coming — this went through weeks of revisions, and precipitated many, many conversations with my husband about what we wanted next for our family
- In two years — Oh, the tears when I realized that the most remarkable thing to say about my two-year survivor anniversary is that there isn’t anything remarkable to say. Just two years of living, the most amazing thing there is.
Breanne and Jen
