Preparing for a New Season

March 20, 2013

I love where we live. There are mountains, the ocean, farms, a fascinating culture, great people, and affordable living. (There's a lot we don't have here either, but I choose to focus on the positives. No place is paradise.)

But one thing that is hard to deal with is the late spring. I have spring envy right now. My southern friends online are planting gardens and my west coast family are reveling in blossoms while we're in a season of alternating ice, snow, slush and mud.

Last week was warm enough to melt much of the snow off the ski hill runs. Warm days like that have been followed with frigid temps that freeze all that melted snow into a sheet of ice.

I'm a prairie-born Canadian. I understand a slow spring but living in Maine (decidedly south and east of the Canadian prairies) spoiled me a bit. I have grown used to blossoms, leaves, and green grass arriving in April.

The Gaspé peninsula is at least three weeks behind Maine's spring. Living on the side of a mountain doesn't help. Spring takes even longer to arrive in our woods than it does right on the bay. Can you hear the violins playing my song? You can feel sorry for me if you like. I'm learning to adjust, but not without a little pity party first.

Spring will come, eventually.

Waiting and preparing for spring's arrival is the perfect metaphor for some changes I'm going to be making to the blog. I have been dreaming and planning for these changes since last year but in a house with a never-ending list of technical needs and web projects and limited resources (you know, the constraints we all face), everything needs to wait its turn. It's FIMBY's turn now.

It's time for a system upgrade, a new theme, and even a new logo. It's time to re-organize this space to better reflect my goals and vision for this blog. It's time for a major FIMBY spring clean.

I had hoped to get this project done in the new year. A time of new beginnings and routines. Didn't happen. But I love how this re-birth and re-organizationof FIMBY coincides with spring's arrival. It's the right time.

This re-launch of FIMBY also coincides with my desire for a creative renewal and a break from my writing routine. After almost two years of dedicated morning writing I am losing interest in that routine. My energy is changing and old patterns and routines are no longer meeting my creative needs.

I am ready for a change. FIMBY is ready for a change.

(The kids and I made crochet flowers. It was our first time. Can you tell?)

To make creative space for this change I will not be blogging for a couple weeks, perhaps longer. I am still writing however, creating my first homeschool ecourse, but I won't be blogging for a little bit.

To facilitate the back end technical changes we will be "freezing" FIMBY, so to speak, as we make the upgrade. This spring metaphor is just so perfect because the world outside my window is still very frozen as we wait for spring.

FIMBY will still be here but only to read. Commenting is closed and no new content will be posted until the upgrade and re-launch is ready.

I can't wait for my online space, this blog, to better reflect the direction in my life and in my writing, and to perform better on the technical side of things.

You may still contact me. I will still be available for homeschool coaching. I'm will not be MIA.

I really tried to finish this series before the "freeze". I know some of you are enjoying this series and have subscribed so you don't miss any of those posts. I've spent six hours already on the last post (the whole point of the series and the conclusion I have been wanting to share all along!) and I just can't put any more time into it right now. I need to let that sit while I move forward with this change. Thanks for your patience.

I will still be publishing my weekend newsletters. Those newsletters have taken on a life of their own and if you're not subscribed you might want to. I share fresh content in those newsletters. Thoughts from my week that often never make it to the blog. (For example, newsletter subscribers know that I'm tanning this month in an effort to avoid the March funk. I've changed a bunch of other things in my life this month also and it's been the best March on record in recent years.)

In the newsletter I share stories and resources, book recommends and the like, you might enjoy. Basically, if you like FIMBY I think you'd like my newsletter (which will also be getting a new look, though the content will stay the same in this blog upgrade). You can subscribe in the sidebar.

Comments are closed on this post. And the blog will be frozen for a few weeks. Don't panic. Comments will re-open. New posts will appear.

And at about the time the ground is starting to thaw at our home, FIMBY will be back, ready to inspire creative, healthy, and adventurous living in a fresh, clean, and well-organized space.