JuggleMum has changed

JuggleMum has changed. This blog has been running as a dedicated and maintained blog in various forms and on various platforms since 2009. However 2015 is the year that it was re-born!

I’m Nadine Hill, I started this blog (which was originally called Time Management Mum) in 2008 and was regularly blogging several times a week from 2009. It was my therapy – a creative outlet to call my own, where I could express whatever I wanted to and indulge my love of learning. I soon became hooked on figuring out what html was, and how to do basic site design so I could add a new page or link one post to another. Then I wanted to know about graphic design so I could create my own blog badge. Years of nudging along occurred, learning a little more here and there whilst still putting up regular content onto the blog and finding my voice.

Finding my voice sounds like an odd thing to say, doesn’t it? Friends and family at the time wouldn’t have thought that the confident Nadine they knew might be unsure of her place in the world and who she was back in 2009. But I was lost. I’d been working from home since 2005 after starting a business so I could be there for my daughter – our first child. Which means I wasn’t part of a workplace gang anymore. I worked alone every day and took care of my family and that’s all I did. I had friends but my social life had dwindled to zero and I was always either thinking about the business or my baby. Who had the time to have a social life with the demands of baby and business weighing heavy?

I got fat. I wasn’t looking after myself and I turned to food for energy (the wrong kind- it was a sugar rollercoaster) and for comfort. My food was my friend – except it wasn’t. My struggles with weight and my successful weight loss to date are a subject for another blog post. I could fill a book with what I’ve learned about emotional eating, but essentially at the time I started blogging, I was disempowered, not ‘myself’, coping with two young children and running a home based business. There was nothing in that busy life for ‘me’.

Through blogging I was able to talk about what was on my mind. I could take photos and make everything look pretty – this gave me the reward of satisfaction. The blog was like an online journal – the therapeutic act of writing things down combined with the aesthetically pleasing act of taking and choosing photographs to accompany each post. It helped me to live again – not just exist.

This sounds like a lofty goal for a mere bunch of pixels and website coding. However blogging slowed me down – it forced me to live in the moment. I knew my children were going to grow up quick and I wanted to savour every second. The fact that I was writing about the funny things they said and what we did together on this blog, made me pay attention. Everything we did was potential blog fodder. There are some things that no-one outside of our four walls will ever know. Private family jokes and memories that only the four of us share – not everything is for public consumption. Plus until very recently I have never disclosed my children’s names on my blog, keeping their digital footprint to a bare minimum. I’ve always respected the family’s privacy – never putting online anything I’d not want to be overheard if I were chatting on a bus. But through talking about family life, being invited by brands to review their products and by building up a catalogue of posts, I started to gain a following of readers who would engage with my posts and what we were up to.

Now I’m taking JuggleMum one step further. Over the last 3 years I’ve moved away from the kind of ‘diary’ blog posts about ‘what we did today’ and started to create more posts about lifestyle. I have enjoyed sharing my recipes, beauty recommendations and family travel tips and my content has become more useful to other people in general whilst being something that readers can dip in and out of – without feeling like they’ve missed part of a running saga! JuggleMum is now less about me, and more about all busy mums – doing the daily juggle just like I am!

So the site you are looking at today is the new look JuggleMum! It has had a complete virtual nip/tuck and I think it looks rather glossy – don’t you agree?! Here are some screenshots of the ‘old’ JuggleMum so you can see how it has evolved:

This is JuggleMum today… Isn’t she beautiful?

Whilst I’m writing, I’d just like to say a heartfelt “Thanks” to all of you who have read, commented on and supported my blog and become my friend over the last 6 years. My plan is to take JuggleMum from strength to strength so buckle your seatbelt – I’d love to have you with me for the ride.

Nadine x