On a break
Since starting this blog almost three years ago, I’ve regularly published two more more articles every month. I love writing and I love web development, so this never (or hardly ever) felt like a chore: there was always something to get excited about, which meant I couldn’t wait to dash off a few thoughts, whether on the train home from work or late into the evening, even after a long day of coding. But this pandemic has utterly defeated me.
Straight after Christmas, the UK entered its third lockdown. This one has no end in sight. Schools have closed. My husband and I are having to juggle work with homeschooling our energetic and easily-distracted 4-year-old, who is missing out on some important chances to build relationships, and doesn’t fully understand why he can’t be with his friends. We’re currently in week four, and likely have many more weeks to go.
In many ways I am very fortunate: I still have my job, my husband is able to take on most of the homeschooling, we have plenty of outdoor space nearby, no one in our family is ill, and our child doesn’t have special educational needs. But still, it’s exhausting. I’m finding hard to get excited about CSS, much less writing about it. There just isn’t the space.
So I’m taking a break from writing for a little while, and taking the pressure off myself to publish new content. I’ll likely still be making demos for fun, and might post some of them here, or dash off a quick blog post when the mood takes me. But don’t be surprised if there are no new tutorials for a while. As my very wise friend Cassie said to me, many people have a reduced appetite for consuming content right now. There’s more than enough out there. It’s okay not to be “always on”. You can give yourself a break.
I hope you’ll stick around for when I come out of this tunnel, whenever that may be. In the meantime, take care of yourselves and your loved ones 💜