how i learned wordpress

If you pay too close attention to Twitter (or even your good friend’s blog) you might start to feel rundown and defeated. So many things you should be, could be, outta be doing – so little time to do anything other than … everything you probably do every day.

For example…. one week my week went like this:

  • Kid #3 on day 5 of a 10 day run of upper respiratory flu
  • Kid #1 starting home school courses
  • Kid #2 has an itchy head — and we find lice. And also in the hair for kid 1, 2 and 3. AND OMG … do you know what that means?
  • Kid #4 has emotional meltdown over her absentee dad
  • Client wants to double my retainer (which means double workload, double the time)
  • Friend #1 loses a job and needs emotional support
  • Friend #2 is ready to file for divorce and needs help with the paperwork
  • Friend #3 needs me to cover a ballet class for her
  • Two Etsy orders come in
  • My Mom needs onboarding into Basecamp
  • John leaves for a week of training and I’m flying solo
  • Kid #2 with the lice … he also has an appt for cavities this week
  • And allergy shots
  • Twice
  • Internet provider shows up to collect payment on the wifi…because I forgot to send a check. Because…what are checks again??
  • I had to go to the grocery store. Three times.
  • I had to cook meals.
  • I had to run the household chores and make sure laundry was done.
  • And be a taxi.
  • And – oh yeah – my friend Cindy and I are launching this site: codebrainmedia.com
  • Oh and Trisha and I spent time working on the wireframes for the themes we’re going to start selling online by the end of the year.
  • And Thursday night, at the ballet class I teach, one of the dancers said, “Sarah did you get to run this week?” And I said, “Are you kidding me?”
  • (Truth: This is a normal week for me and I left a lot off.)

She had no idea how busy I was. All she knew was that I probably DID NOT go run as planned. I just turned and said, “Oh… yeah… running. That’s right. I’m supposed to be losing weight, too.”

When you read something online that says what you OUGHT to be doing – but you know that you are giving every single day your 100% best – even if some days that means the most you do is get out of bed… guess what?!

That’s OK!

I am in the THROES of Motherhood. And my life is exactly what my life is. And I’m 100% OK with that. Some days I get it all done. Some days I don’t. That’s life.

But – guess what?? This is how I learned WordPress

By blogging. By writing down my thoughts and publishing them. Do you know my original WordPress blog has over 1000 posts and 3000 comments? I don’t blog there anymore but it’s still online. That’s a lot of content, y’all!  And that’s a lot of time spent looking at the published content as an end user and deciding I didn’t like the way it rendered on the front end. And then figuring it out. By googling issues. By asking friends. By writing a blog post about what I wanted to do and asking for help. By researching. By reading. By doing. By not being afraid to try.

And now I make a living with WordPress

In fact, I even gave a presentation on this at WordCamp Denver in 2013 titled “Grow Your Career With WordPress”. IN FACT… there’s a link to the content – I uploaded this as a .pptx file. I’ve never personally uploaded a PowerPoint file to my WordPress media files and provided a link in a blog post before so there you go – here’s me doing something new for you! If it doesn’t work – I’ll figure it out!

And that’s how I am able to do all those things above AND STILL have time to write this blog at midnight. Even though I’m bone tired and I don’t really want to sit in front of a computer screen ANYMORE — I want Angie Meeker to give me an A+ for my blog writing efforts.

#80DaysWithLema

I’m going to blog everyday for 80 days. I’m following Chris Lema’s posts on Blog Prompts for Freelancers and Entrepreneurs. You should join in. It doesn’t have to be an academic thesis. And it doesn’t have to be a therapy session. Just write! If you do – throw it out there on Twitter and hashtag it #80DaysWithLema – I’ll make every effort to swing over and read your post!

Happy Blogging!