How do you know when it’s time to quit something?
This is something I have been thinking about a lot when it comes to blogging. I started way back in 2013 first as a hobby. Then because I was putting so much time into it, I decided to see if I could make some money out of it. I came off of wordpress.com to hosting it on wordpress.org; I had two blogs for a while; I was putting up a recipe weekly and a DIY project weekly. I was making printables, and I bought a better camera and was learning how to take and edit good pictures. I bought packages of stock photos I could use. I was researching and taking classes on how to run a profitable blog.
Then life changed. I used to stay home and babysit. While the babies slept or played, I would do all of the blogging stuff. But my husband left the ministry where we were at; and for one year, I taught Kindergarten at a small Christian school. That year, I probably made the most money I have ever made with blogging — and it wasn’t that much. Maybe $3,000-$5,000. But the Lord did that. He knew we were going down in salary probably $20,000; yet that year, we had everything we needed to pay the bills. We were living by faith in moving out of our previous ministry, and He blessed our finances. We did not have to touch our savings, and I was able to do some of the sponsored posts and blogging responsibilities during the class’s naptime.
Then we moved from Illinois to Florida where my husband is the head pastor and there is one assistant pastor. I was eased into the ministry here. The first year was pretty easy, but then I took over the VBS ministry, women Bible studies, heading up the ladies activities committee, and other responsibilities. Two years ago, I became the teacher at our tiny school. There are only 9 students, but there are seven grades. I had never done anything like that before. I am at every service (of course) and entertain some.
Along with the ministry and school teaching, I have five children. My oldest now is in college, my second oldest works, and I have braces appointments and sometimes sports for other children plus just normal household duties such as cooking, cleaning, and laundry. Those activities plus a car accident where my rotator cuff was torn two years ago added more to my plate.
With such a full life, thinking about blogging became a dread and not a delight. I would stay up to 1:00 in the morning after a Wednesday night service to get a Thursday blog post down and then I would have to wake up at 7:00 to go teach. I would be exhausted and wonder if it was worth it.
Yet I didn’t want to quit as I felt like I had put in 8 years at this blog, and I have my recipes here. I have printables that may be useful to other people. For starting Christian bloggers, there aren’t many places for them to link up posts that really matter. So I kept at it.
In the back of my mind; however, was the thought process, “If I quit, when should I quit?” And that would be October before my hosting renews at a higher price. I’ve crunched the numbers about how much money my ads should pull in just to break even so that my blogging does not take away from the families’ finances, and the Lord was so good to send an email from a company where I learned I could pay for my domain much cheaper before that renewed next month. I am saving almost $20 a year!
Back in January, I did something different with my Tasty Tuesdays party. I switched to running just a monthly party. It is at the top of my home page, and people can still link up weekly. In fact, I still send out an email weekly reminding them to link up. Monthly, I share my favorite recipes that were linked up the previous month and I pin every single recipe that links up.
Even though that takes time, it takes so much less time than typing up a recipe and taking and editing pictures weekly. And I was running out of new recipes to share. There is such a relief on those weeks where I don’t have to add a new recipe.
So starting in March, I am going to start the same thing here on Thoughtful Thursdays. I am going to share monthly (and I might update posts in the middle of the month) what God has been teaching me. The wonderful thing is that I will also now share my favorite posts that you have been linking up and I will pin all of your posts monthly. When I don’t have to be writing new content every week, I can easily pin your posts. It frees up so much time.
I am going to try this strategy for the next few months and see what the Lord impresses on my heart about keeping or not keeping this blog. Then in the summer, I am going to try to add all the school printables I have been making this past school year and updating and cleaning up this blog. That’s what I say now, but the summer always goes by so quickly as I order new curriculum for the next school year, prep for a new school year, do a summer Bible study, and run the VBS program plus try to enjoy some time with the family.
So how do you know when it’s time to quit?
I feel like sometimes you don’t. So you just wait. Wait and see how God leads. You’re not impulsive.
I feel like if God wants me to quit, He will not allow me to have any time to blog and the views will keep dwindling. But if He wants me to continue, He will bring opportunities without me even looking for them, and He will make some of my printables be useful to others so that I will know I need to stay here so that others can access what I have shared over the years.
That’s my plan. How have you known when it is time for you to quit something?
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