Travel to find new hope and renew the mind
Terri Webster Schrandt

Stumbled, Broken and Inspired: Weekend Coffee Share

Travel to find new hope and renew the mind

Or, “What I did on My Winter Vacation”

If I say my blogging break is over and is now past tense, is my break broken? Well, ponder that while we have coffee this morning and we “break” our fast.

Yes, my blogging break is over. You saw that I did manage to post for the weekly photo challenge, which has always been my best day of blogging. If I did nothing else on this blog but post for the weekly photo challenge, I could still enjoy a rather successful blog in terms of readership.

But…

…I like to do more than that. I actually like to write. I managed to write some content for the non-fiction book over my break, but leisure reared its lovely head and beckoned me to SUP, windsurf and relax on the beach in Mexico. The photo is of me snorkeling.

If we were having coffee, I would also tell you that I had to prepare quite a bit of curriculum for my new course that starts at the end of January, and I spent about 12 hours of vacation time working on that. As a professor, I like to be prepared. My class teaches leisure education to new recreation majors, and, ironically, I created and typed most of their assignments from my beach chair. Nothing wrong with that.

My break gave me some time to find some much needed inspiration. At this time last year, I was enjoying my first month of retirement (no part-time teaching) and had gleefully committed to blogging every single day. It helped me develop great habits and gave me a framework for using an editorial calendar and remaining consistent with my blogging schedule, now whittled to three days per week.

I also had a chance to read some very inspirational posts. There is nothing like the motivation of a brand new year to dust off the blog and write fresh content. I recently read a post about “Stress Free Blogging” and it mentions taking a break and making good use of time management. Check it out on Mostly Blogging.

If we were having coffee, I would explain what I mean by “stumbled?” If you haven’t yet heard, Stumble Upon is a web site where visitors choose and “like” content that appeals to them. Like any social media site, bloggers’ content may be “stumbled” which helps bring more readers to their blogs. Bloggers cannot stumble their own blog posts. Having a community of bloggers who love to read your content and choose to share on social media will help promote your posts. You have to reciprocate. This is one of the reasons why blogging is fun. Yes, it takes work, but it is worth it.

But I digress, a little…one of my posts was stumbled by a couple of great bloggers which resulted in 56 views. Not a huge number, by any means, but significant to me. I created a Stumble Upon account and loaded the Stumble bar. When I read a blog I like, I add it to my list then select the thumbs-up icon. It takes 6 seconds. I have committed to using this to help promote great blog posts!

Indeed, blogging takes time, energy and commitment. Using social media and other ways to promote our own blogs as well as others can pay off in many ways!

What inspires you to continue your blogging journey?

Fall-weekend-coffee-shareThanks to Part-Time Monster for hosting the Weekend Coffee Share feature.

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50 comments

  3. Your weekly blogging added another country to my blog. My first for Mexico. Coffee Sharing spark my views yesterday so that was great. I will have to lookat Stumble On tool and I think I know why pingbacks aren’t working for me. Hugs

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  5. I am inspired by what I see, hear, and think about as a result- and of course by the beauty I can capture with my camera! Other bloggers continue to inspire me- I only wish I had more time to read and post- 9 hour work days are killing me!

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  6. Hi Terri,
    Thank you so much for thinking of my article when you composed this post. I am flattered! I appreciate the exposure to new readers. By the way, I love your graphic. What did you use to make it? Thank you again! Very thoughtful!
    Janice

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  7. I need a break because there is no “true” vacation in sight. Going to visit my in-laws but that’s not like going somewhere with only my husband. I need to get into a better groove like you have. I need it. You are quite the inspiration for me. I love your photo. P.S. I still can’t understand SU and right now I’m trying to learn Pinterest. Can’t do both and write and make $$!! 🙂

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  8. Terri, I blog because I love to write. If that weren’t true, I wouldn’t be here because it does take time and effort to put ideas to posts, read other bloggers’ posts, and share posts. Thanks for sharing the Stumble Upon website, I’ll have to check that out this week.

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  9. Glad you had a good vacation, and that you did manage to get some work done along the way! 🙂

    I’ve only just got back to my StumbleUpon account after ages of dormancy, but I’m still figuring out its usefulness.

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  10. I’ve wondered about StumbleUpon at times. It looks interesting and I might have to try it. Recently I’ e finally decided to try Pinterest for the New Years. Although I’just getting started so far, it looks promising.after one on My recent posts on Jane Leslie, we had an exchange on our Facebook pages, and she also started following me on Pinterest. I also tried adding a Problem Nyerere tab on my Facebook blog page.

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  11. My blog is inspired by my children but at the same time, equally by my love of writing. While the children are still young there is always something to write about!! #overthemoonlinkyparty

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  12. I think it has to be interaction with many other bloggers that inspires and motivates me to blog. I’m learning all the time about this wonderful new hobby and interest of mine and I love passing on what I have learned.

    I’m going to try that Stumbled Upon sharing button and see how I get on, Terri. I have to start somewhere and this post gives me the inspiration to start. 🙂

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  13. I have heard about the site, Stumble Upon, but I have never used it nor do I know what it is. I pretty much keep my blogging posts to WordPress – probably not a very good thing, but I don’t think my writing is good enough to put it on Twitter, Facebook, ect. It’s great you got some of your professorship work done while on vacation. What a wonderful vacation you had!

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    • Thanks, PJ! Are you kidding about your writing? You need to share you stories, they are brilliant…do not be shy! Start with a Facebook blog page. Also Stumble upon has oodles of categories, including writing, fiction, etc. I have stumbled several of yours onto my writing list 🙂

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    • By all means, I would say “share,share away!” I wouldn’t be concerned if your writing is “good enough” to share on other sites, because if you share it, then you’re giving your writing exposure to many more people who might not be on another platform. Remember, the Internet isn’t just for “great” things, it’s for everything and people get to choose what they want to read – I’m sure in the global community, many people would choose to read your writing, because they relate to your perspective.

      Just my opinion, but I felt like making a comment. Good luck!

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  14. You made me smile with the comment about creating curriculum from your beach chair! January almost always calls for fresh and renewed focus. It just seems to go with the territory.

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  15. I’m impressed that you actually got some work done at the beach! I remember WAY back when before I retired and I’d take some work with me on vacation with the best intentions of getting something done. Almost never happened. I’m sure your students will appreciate your dedication!

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  18. Hello, there! I found your blog through the Linky Party on Janice’s blog. I’m so glad I did, I really enjoyed reading this post.

    I’ve heard of Stumble Upon, but I have to confess, I don’t really know how to use it. It sounds really simple, though, sort of like Pinterest, but a little different. This post inspired me to experiment with it and see how I like it.

    I like that you asked a question about what motivates people to write. For me, the motivation is to sort out some things that are personal and yet, also apply to many people. I write two blogs. One is about energy work (I know that many people don’t consider that a legitimate thing, but I’ve been guided to become a healer, myself, and part of my blog is with resolving the hesitation I have because many people don’t consider that a legitimate profession). The other blog is sort of a more general blog, but I do Freewriting exercises, essays on things that matter to me, or just my thoughts about parenting and being a mom. I’ve recently started doing interviews with people in the belly dance community, which was something I really loved to do before I became a mom, so I guess, what motivates me is that I’m still kind of “finding myself” and getting into my niche….I found out through blogging that I enjoy creative writing and I’m motivated to keep doing it so I can get better.

    I also found that I really like the blogging community and feel like it’s a very supportive community, which surprised me, but I was glad to find. 🙂

    Welcome back from vacation. I’m looking forward to your posts this year.

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