The thing about taking a break is that you won’t know how long the break will last until it’s over, or even if it’s really a break and not a breakup. I stepped away from Frugally Rooted for the past nine months. Originally, when I saw that tank top at sprouts I thought I’d be back in action within the month. I was just starting a new job that I knew would be more time consuming and would take more brain power than what I had done in the past. I wanted to focus on my career in education and step back from the grind of operating a blog. Spoiler alert, I’m no longer at said job and I’m rediscovering this passion project I started in 2018.
The Stages of “Taking a Break”
At first, it felt liberating. I no longer had a profitless side hustle. I no longer had to edit pictures, send my mom lengthy posts for editing, or get up early on Sunday to make sure my post went live. Then, people in my life started to ask what happened to Frugally Rooted, much like your aunt asking about your boyfriend at the family picnic. I started hearing that people missed my weekly emails and my social media presence.
At the time, I thought to myself, “that makes one of us.”
Next, I went through a period of completely forgetting that I even had a blog. It didn’t cross my mind often and when it did it was to look up how much carrot I put in my chia seed pudding recipe or to find a link for the house we rented in Iceland. I was officially over Frugally Rooted. We had both moved on and were happy living our lives.
As time went on, I found myself cooking something special, scoring a sweet deal, or discovering new products and would realize this would be perfect to share on the blog. It felt a little like that thing that happens when you end a relationship and start to forget that they never replaced to toilet paper roll or that they chewed with their mouth open. I started to miss the writing and the connection with people over healthy living. But, I knew my free time was especially limited and I couldn’t make it work even if I missed it just a tiny smidge.
As I thought more and more about relaunching Frugally Rooted I also took a close look at other aspects of my life. I ended up leaving what I thought was my dream job in search of a better work-life balance and to pursue other ventures. At the same time, I thought about writing again. All along, I had continued my deep dive into health and wellness topics and wanted to share some of that research and experiences I had acquired over the past nine months.
Then, one night, I did the relationship breakup version of the “you up?” text. I just started writing. I wrote down ideas of blog topics and drafted a few recipes. It gave me butterflies. Like actual feels that maybe just maybe we could patch things up and make it work.
Getting Back Together
Now, here we are. Frugally Rooted is officially off the ground again. The relationship I had with my blog before wasn’t sustainable, so I’ve decided to set some new ground rules and boundaries. Here’s what I came up with:
- I’m going to be posting blogs when I have high-quality content to share. I’m not setting rules or unfounded expectations for myself when that happens or how often
- For me, social media is the least authentic and most difficult part or this. I consider myself more of an observer on Instagram and Facebook. I’ll be posting, but I don’t plan to be as present in that space as I was before.
- I won’t be comparing myself to other bloggers. I will tell you this from experience, comparison is a thief of happiness. Just don’t.
- I will be welcoming some different perspectives than I didn’t entertain before… more on that soon
New blog, who dis?
So, if you’re reading this it means that you trusted the process with me and accepted that the breakup was either necessary or temporary. Thank you. I appreciate the community we’ve built around Frugally Rooted and the conversations we’re all engaging in. You are all my people. I’m equal parts excited and nervous about getting back together with Frugally Rooted but I have a feeling it’s going to be good.
Much love,
The FruGal
PS- The FruGuy and I are happier than ever and did not suffer a breakup when Frugally Rooted went south. He says hi 🙂
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