It’s hard to believe it, but I’m currently in my 5th year blogging.

Yup, that’s right.

The first time I hit “Publish…” and thezombieshuffle.com officially became a blog was back in March of 2014; 4 1/2 years ago!

I had been writing about these same themes for a few years prior to that, but it was just for my own consumption and I didn’t have any idea that I would one day be putting my thoughts out there, for the world to see.

I have to say, these last 4 plus years have been quite a journey for me.

My life has gone through a lot of ups and downs since that day. Some really hard times, and some really great times.

Most importantly though, I’ve grown significantly as a person. Looking back, I’m not the same person I was at the start of this journey. And I think that’s a good thing, as we should always be trying to grow.

Which brings me to the title of today’s post…

So, what’s going on anyhow?

Any regular readers may have noticed that my blogging output has taken a bit of a hit in recent months. I used to get a post out every week, or every two weeks at the worst. Before my last post I realized I had gone two months without posting.

And now it’s been two months again 😬.

TWO POSTS IN FOUR MONTHS?!?

Geez, how in the world did that happen?

Well, there are lots of reasons actually…

First, I moved into a new place back in March. And although it’s great, it’s also been a lot of work. It seems like there is *always* stuff to do in order to get it where I want it. To have it feel not just like a house, but like my home. So when I have time I often find myself tackling some of the little things. Thankfully, although there’s still a lot to do it’s slowing down. I look around now and think “yeah, this is *my* place”. And that’s great!

The second reason is probably the biggest.

I work on projects for my job, and a project that has taken up the past 26 months of my life has just completed and is going live right now.

This has meant that these last few months have been pretty chaotic – testing, working through last minute issues against deadlines, and finally getting this thing out the door. The last two weeks in particular have been brutally exhausting; but there’s light at the end of the tunnel (yay!!!).

The reason this has had such a big impact on writing is, a big chunk of my consistent writing time has over work lunches. And the past few months I just sorta work through lunch. Hopefully you can see the problem there.

The next reason is, I’m happily in a relationship (and have been for close to a year now). She and I both have fairly busy lives, and when we can have some time to spend together we try to take it.

One of the themes in my writing has been about “choosing” our partners, and making them a priority. Well, I’ve always tried to “walk the talk”, and she’s a priority to me.

Lastly, it’s been summer; and it’s been beautiful. So I’ve been trying to spend as much time outside enjoying it as possible.

When you combine all these things, writing has definitely fallen by the wayside.

That’s not to say I’ve stopped.

I’ve written thousands and thousands of words over the past few months. I’ve started a number of posts, and written out rough ideas for a number of others.

I just haven’t gotten any to the point where I feel they are ready to hit “publish”.

Things are starting to get more settled at work, my place needs less effort, and fall is hitting. So I’m hoping to get back behind a keyboard and get some posts out.

So there you go.

If you’ve noticed the drought, that’s why. Hopefully people are still around when I get back to to posting. I’ve kinda missed the little discussions and feedback in the comments, as there are a handful of readers I’ve gotten to know over the years.

Drew