So pursuing my passions. The first step to pursuing them is figuring out what they are. I mean it is fairly obvious; I love exercise, travel, writing, accessorizing, learning new things, sailing, wine, chocolate and a handful of other things but which of these things can I turn into a career and how do I do it?

I opened my eyes and ears and began to realize there were actually quite a few opportunities to write, although most of them are for free. I began guest blogging as opportunities presented themselves and started my gig as the Traveling Mom of Toddlers.

But this has not been enough. I have this nagging idea for a book, good or bad, I know I must write.

When I became a mother, my eternal search for balance became both more challenging and easier. It was challenging in that there was another element to factor into the list of priorities equation and yet easier since the new (kids) factor jumped straight to the top of the list, causing everything else to settle into a new priority-order slot. I have a pretty good idea of what my priorities are: family, work, exercise, friends, not always in that order but pretty close but the two things I am struggling to figure out their places are blogging and reading.

This blog is in desperate need of some clean up and maintenance and photo organization but alas that takes time I do not have right at the moment. Instead I will be doing some stepwise upgrades here and there like the one I am announcing today.

Back in 2006 when I started an earlier incarnate of this blog, we were living in a Boise hotel ready to catch a plane to our new home in Shanghai when I sent out an mass email telling all of our friends about this blog and how they could subscribe via RSS and it would send them an email to their Inbox with each post. JD Mullin was quick to respond back that was not how RSS worked and later I even documented how to add blogs to your RSS Reader.

Fast forward five years and the ability to subscribe to a blog and have the posts show up in your email Inbox, how I thought RSS worked five years ago, is now readily available technology. This blog is jumping on the technology bandwagon and now has a way for all of the posts from Hoobing Family Adventures to come to an Inbox of your choosing.

I am still on my July bloggy break (kind of) but I have been posting at a few other sites.

Starting now, I am the Traveling Mom with Toddlers at TravelingMom.com and today was my first post.

Last week I guest posted about “Transitions” on Shaken But Not Blurred while Alicia is spending time with her tiny baby boy.

Way back at the beginning of the month, I was a guest poster on a peek inside the fishbowl talking about A Melody of Twos: Two Girls Two Years Apart.

I should have posted this earlier but better late than never, right?  Tea Collection, my favorite children’s clothing brand (super unique and cute as well as high quality) is having a sale that ends Wednesday of this week, like in 24.5 hours.  It’s definitely worth checking out and you can do so by clicking on [...]

As we prepare for a camping trip, I find myself very eager to unplug from the computer and iPhone.  This along with the fact my right hand is requiring preemptive carpal tunnel stretches ON MATERNITY LEAVE from excessive use of my phone for internet engagement has me thinking that I need a bit of a [...]

Clicking will take you to the Top Baby Blogs site and also cast a vote for Hoobing Family Adventures on the Top Baby Blogs site. The more votes the blog receives, the higher it will be ranked on the site. You can vote once a day if you are really motivated. It’s also fun to say awhile and check out some of the other great blogs linked to on the site.

And if you do decide to click, THANK YOU! Most of all thank you for reading.

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I have written about 27 blogs in my head over the past couple of weeks but my limited time on my computer has prevented me actually writing them on the computer. I spend a lot of quality time on my iPhone as it is trivial to single-handedly manipulate while I am breastfeeding or holding Eloise, but actual computer time is not so easy to come by. So here’s your chance to direct what I am going to write about first. I do hope to get to all of these blog entries but it may be awhile for some of them, so tell me what you want to hear about. Here are some options. I am also open to other ideas.

There are some seriously cool innovations utilizing smart phones, iPads and social media these days. In this past week, I have learned of two noteworthy applications worth sharing.

One, PInterest, allows you to “pin” websites and collect images from all over the vast internet posting them on boards. Here is a link to a few things I have pinned. I LOVE this idea because I am constantly sending links to myself via email to save recipes, project ideas or news articles I want to read when I have more time, but PInterest allows me to save them all in one place. It also has a social media aspect to it where you can follow your friend’s pins and repin them if you so desire. This shows some of the boards from people I “follow” and gives you an idea of how pinned items are collected onto boards.

Sorry for all of the hype. I have a draft of the birth story, but it needs some refinement. Miss Eloise had a record number of awake hours today which we are hoping means she is going to have a record number of consecutive sleeping hours tonight. What is also means is that the afternoon hour where I planned to work on the labor story and finish it off was spent staring at my awake daughter. I don’t know what it is but when she is awake (and half of the time when she is asleep as well) I cannot bring myself to do anything besides just stare at her. It’s as though I am trying to memorize every movement she makes and understand what makes her tiny being tick. She is so precious.

So…one more day…and all of the gory details will be here to read, if you are so inclined

There were ten comments (not including my replies.) I asked random.org for a random number between 1 and 10 and it came back with 10.