Taking Small Steps to Protect My Family Online

I've been following Hailey Devine's blog for a while, and when she posted her thoughts on keeping her family safe on Instagram nearly a week ago, I immediately wanted to share it with everyone and remove everything I've ever put on the internet.

Since then, the post HAS gone viral, as I hoped it would (I've seen some non-blogger friends share it on Facebook) and I've had a couple days to calm down and process things. Let me tell you, I was really freaked out right after reading Hailey's experiences. Especially the bits about finding foot prints outside her house and about how people stole pictures of her baby girl to use for "baby role play". That really hit home with me, since I have a little baby of my own that I share pictures of.

I had a looooong post written on the topic... but here are my watered-down thoughts instead:

This blog is a valuable and fun way to document my life and keep my family & friends posted on what I'm up to and let them watch Nicole grow. However, I need to think more about the safety and privacy of my little girl (and my own privacy, for that matter). Growing and/or monetizing your blog, meeting other bloggers, etc. are (to me) petty reasons to make any aspect of my life so easy for anyone and everyone to access. There are so many cute blogs and friendly bloggers out there that I think we often forget that there are malicious creeps too. They just don't let you know they're reading along. Scary, much? Yeah.

In other words, this blog isn't worth the risk, however small. Who knows if there are any weirdos gleaning information about me from this blog right as we speak?! The chances are that there aren't any... but there could be, and that's so freaky! I honestly have no way of knowing! Oh... I mean... hey, you creeps who are reading this right now, I'm on to you!

However, I don't want to stop blogging. So what's the solution? I'll give you one guess!

Starting one week from now, this blog will be private! I've thought long and hard about this decision over the past few days, and it feels right. I still want my family and friends to read along though, so please put your email in this GOOGLE FORM so I can give you permission to keep reading!

Is it a cure-all? Goodness, no. People can hack your email, or hack websites where your info is stored for online shopping, or... or... so many things! There's no end to the risks of using the internet! But like I said... why make it easier for the creeps?

I'm probably going to do a "Facebook Friends List" purge sometime soon too. And my Instagram account has already been made private. I'm re-thinking other things as well... do I really need a LinkedIn account? I barely even USE Twitter! What else can I get rid of?

Hmm.

Pardon me while I go pull a "Ron Swanson" and drop off the grid. (Parks and Rec, anyone?)

Hair loss. It's a doozy.

My hair magically stopped falling out during my pregnancy. It was awesome! So much hair! When I combed or brushed my hair there would be only one, maybe two stray strands that would come away.

Now here I am, almost 4 months post-partum, and my hair is falling out in small fistfuls. It's not the greatest feeling in the world. I've told myself that as long as no bald spots show up I can deal with it! I don't want to worry about having a female comb-over. Noooo thank you. Nicole likes to help the hair-loss process along by casually grabbing strands and pulling ;) She does it unintentionally right now, but if she's anything like her cousins then she'll be obsessed with hair not too long from now.

My hair is also getting darker by the day. Look at the roots! (And no, I've never dyed or highlighted my hair.) At this rate, I don't think I'll be able to call myself blonde for too much longer. It's a shame 'cuz I liked my natural golden locks. Maybe some sunshine can fix that? Hooray for spring and warmer weather!

I've also felt great recently because I've limited myself to only posting on one social media site (that includes this blog) every few days, and I love that rule. It's amazing how much happier I feel when I'm not worrying about when I last took a new Instagram photo, wrote a new blog post, updated my Facebook status, etc. (because for some reason I feel an urge to post things while lacking the inspiration to post something "good".)

SO much less stressful. I remember a time when blogging didn't stress me out so much. It was back before I started interacting with other bloggers, actually. I'm making a return to that "blogging is fun" feeling by extracting myself from the outside blogosphere. I even considered making this blog private, but I won't go that far. Just... no more going out of my way to interact with other bloggers for this girl, or worrying about the "quality content or no content at all" rule (which I never follow anyways).

Let me tell ya, I feel better already. Blogging for ME! Let's make this fun again.

Hello, mood swing!

Either it's because of the pregnancy hormones
Or it's because of how much I dislike the current weather
(the world looks so dreary when most of the trees are bare and there's no snow)
((doesn't the leaf above just look so lonely??!?!))
Most likely it's the hormones...
But I hate blogging all of a sudden.

Hate it.

Like... I want to delete my blog and never have to post on it again.
So I'm putting myself on blog time-out until the baby's here
(which could and should be any day now)
Because I'm pretty sure I'll like blogging again once I'm not a grumpy, full-term preggo.
It could take a day... it could take 2 weeks
But I'm forbidding myself from blogging until the baby has been evicted from my womb.

Just so I'm not driven crazy by my own blog, ya know.

Yes, I have an obsession with this leaf.

See ya'll when I'm finally holding my little girl!

To be amazing

source

I had a nice little post typed out about how I wish my life were more exciting (notice the cobwebs that have been present on this blog for the past year? I sure do) but then I found this quote. New life motto. Sure, I don't have as many fun things to blog about as my fellow bloggers do - but that's my fault. They are amazing because of hard work. If I want to be an amazing, fun, spontaneous, active person, then I have to make that choice myself and not just wait until the opportunities come knocking at my door.

First thing I want to work on: figuring out how to use my phone and my point-and-shoot to take the best pictures I can so that using the "I don't have a DSLR" excuse won't cut it anymore. I can't sit and wait for a fancy camera to come along before my photos start looking good. (Along with that, learn how to use Photoshop. It's just sitting here on my computer and I rarely ever use it. What a waste!)

I took this little picture during my walk on Monday, and I keep thinking of all the ways it could be better if I just took the time to learn how to optimize my camera-usage and my photo editing software.

Other ways I can work on being "amazing" and take control of how many adventures I have in my life:

1) Go outside more often. Adventure is out there!

2) Don't wait for friends to contact me; take initiative.

3) Do not depend on the hubby to suggest adventures. Too many have been turned down in the past for him to suggest as many of them now (sorry for that Doug) so take that initiative too!

4) Expand my repertoire of foods I am capable of making (and willing to make)... and share said food.

5) As I keep telling myself when I'm on Pinterest: "Don't just pin it, DO it!"

Five is good for now.

Meanwhile, we used two homegrown tomatoes with our dinner tonight. First ones we've gotten off our plant! If that isn't exciting, I don't know what is. We also have basil plant that we've used several times on pizza already. Yum. We need an oregano plant or something...