NaBloPoMo–No Mo?

As I write this it is 6:19 AM. Besides nocturnal Steve and myself, not a creature is stirring in the crowded Thanksgiving morning Seyfried house: Sheridan, Ya-Jhu, Aiden, Peter, Rose, Julie and Gil, are nestled all snug in their beds with, I imagine, visions of drumsticks dancing in their heads. Dad and daughters are running in the Turkey Trot in Fairmount Park at 9, a wise move given the amount of groceries they will be consuming later today.

While they are gone, my Kitchen Kapers will resume. I baked the brown sugar cake layers and made the cranberry-orange jam yesterday, but now I need to prepare the cranberry buttercream frosting--a first for me, and I’m a tad worried because the recipe is filled with advisories: “while adding butter, the frosting will break and curdle. Increase mixer speed and it should come back together. Frosting will be too runny to use at first, try refrigerating for 30 minutes,” and so on. Triumph or tragedy? Only time will tell! But can’t dwell on it for long-the gruyere roasted potatoes must be dealt with, as well as the lobster flatbread appetizer! Luckily the rest of the fam will handle the bird, stuffing and veggies, but it’s still capital W Work.

November is always a chock-full month.  My church duties increase as the education year is in full swing, along with preschool chapel times and Advent prayer center prep and leading adult Bible study every week and on and on…all of which begs the question: am I out of my ever-loving mind to blog 30 times this month??

Well yes I am, but that’s not the reason. The reason is, back in 2016, I discovered National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo for short) when bloggers everywhere were challenged to blog daily from November 1-30. This was related in spirit to National Novel Writing Month, also in November, when you are supposed to write an entire novel (I actually did this, in 2006). So, I did a blog-a-thon in 2016, then 2017, then 2018 and here were are again. Could I have achieved this literary feat in, say, the lazy days of August? Of course, but that would be sensible! It HAS to be November, because…well, it just has to be!

Ironically, in 2017 the official NaBloPoMo disbanded (though the November novelists are still going strong). So no more cute badges for my home page, no more online blogging support group. I am on my own out here in Blogland, cranking out the posts on top of an insane daily life schedule. At any point, I could switch months for this exercise, or stop altogether. I sold an essay the other day (of about the same length as a blog post), for which I am being well paid…reminding me that I am actually trying to make money writing.

To sum up: 30 posts in 30 days=lots of work, no financial compensation, during one of my busiest months.

Sounds good to me! Bring on NaBloPoMo 2020!