You have no idea how badly I wanted to title this “What It Is” instead of “What It’s All About” but if you saw that without hearing me say it, you would think I messed up the title rather than saying it like “What it IS, yo” [ I’m about 5% Homegirl inside and it gets out from time to time].

all about

How I Got Here

I’m not new to blogging. I started back in 2008. Yes, that’s the equivalent of horse-and-buggy days in blog time. I learned a lot over the years and have been very blessed by my experiences. From Lisa Marie has actually been around since 2014, but I obviously didn’t have much time to devote to it. I originally started it to have a new place to write where I didn’t feel tied down or obligated to post recipes like on my other blog. There was no vision in place other than me writing all about whatever I wanted. It was nice in theory, but a lack of vision and planning can end up meaning that nothing gets accomplished. And finally, an upcoming job change to doing something more left brain apparently opened up some room for creative thought on the right side and after reading a couple of posts about blogging, I was suddenly inspired to restart this blog and with some sort of vision and plan in place.

What It’s All About

Above all, I want my blog to represent me – a down-to-earth, slightly humorous, ordinary, imperfect mom – somebody that I hope you feel connected to. There are subjects that I have knowledge of and that I want to share about and I think I have narrowed those down and found a common thread that connects them. Here are some of the subjects that I plan to share about:

  • [Real] Family Life
    • Not that I am any kind of expert on family life, but I do like the opportunity to start the conversation around issues that come up in marriage or with raising children (my son is a teenager). Or I like to just share the joys that we all get to experience in our families, looking at the bright side together and finding a way to laugh through it all.
  • Health/Fitness Victories and Struggles
    • Over the years, I’ve tried many a plan for health and fitness and enjoy having a group to chat with about what’s working, what isn’t, and sharing new ideas as well as recipes from time to time. For example, my No Exercising At All “plan” doesn’t seem to be making me healthier, so we’ll need to work on that. 😉
  • Occasional Food Posts
    • Well I like food. And it just so happens that I like yummy food. So I anticipate wanting to share some recipes or food ideas with you occasionally. But be warned – I don’t take professional or even well-lit pics, which is why I can never be a food blogger.
  • Digital Marketing Tips
    • After many years of being a mostly stay-at-home mom, I went back into the workforce full time and worked for a digital marketing company. Oh yes, I learned a ton! I’d love to be able to share tips with fellow bloggers and small-business peeps to help you out.
  • Blogging and Writing
    • I have thoughts on writing, but don’t always follow through well. I want to get into blogging consistently and if I can share ideas along the way, I will. I also hope to get going on writing a book soonish, so will be wanting to have discussions about that and share resources.
  • Leadership & Customer Service
    • These are a couple of subjects that I’m passionate about in the working world, but also apply to life in general. I have a lot of years of work experience in my background, including management, and hope to share my thoughts on what makes for good employers, employees, business-owners, and more.

At first, these subjects seem a bit disconnected. But there are a couple of common threads. One is that they all represent parts of me and my experiences. C’mon, isn’t that enough? Okay, well there is another common thread. Each of these parts of our “real” offline world can be enhanced by how we participate in and make use of what we find in our online world. I can go through that list and tell you how something online helped or blessed me to make things better in “real” life. [Hello…Pinterest?] There’s a danger of becoming overwhelmed or obsessed with online life, but by navigating through it well, we can use the best ideas in the most efficient way and put the focus back on living an awesome offline life.

As you can tell by the list of subjects, post topics will vary widely. I hope you can all find topics that interest you and that you can connect with. Please do share any thoughts or feedback. I’m here and listening! Here are some of the upcoming blog post topics for the near future:

  • My Whole 30 diet experience
  • A series on LinkedIn – how to use it & why you need to, best practices & tips
  • Allowance for kids – different thoughts and practices
  • Work Life Balance
  • You Really are a Writer
  • Leading by example
  • Favorite salad recipe links

I hope this has given you a sense of where I’m headed with this blog and my “restart” of it. You should know that it can always evolve because I am constantly changing and my blog reflects me. Also, I haven’t had much time in the past couple of years to read other blogs, but want to get back into that, too. If you have a blog, feel free to comment here and give the name and what it’s all about so we can have a visit!

Thanks for being here. I’m so looking forward to sharing more with you!