Dropping you all an update today to let you know that I am taking a blogging break starting tomorrow and continuing through July. I will be back around the first of August. I have a million factors that have brought me to this crossroads, and no, none of them have anything to do with other bloggers in my local congregation quitting blogging. Here’s what’s going on:

1. The 30-Day Challenge. My husband has recently become obsessed with Morgan Spurlock and his 30 Days television show, and he has been issuing himself 30-day challenges. Today he wraps up his challenge to go without soda and without biting his nails for 30 days. He’s teaching himself discipline in all areas of his life 30 days at a time. The challenge that begins tomorrow and that has also been issued to me is to spend 30 days engrossed in God’s Word with the goal of reading the Bible in its entirety in 30 days. This equates to about 40 chapters of Bible reading every day. I, too, could use some additional spiritual discipline in my life, and I am going to spend my days reading the Bible and meeting my self-assigned quota of journal pages every day. Needless to say, this challenge requires me to sacrifice much of what I enjoy doing in my free time, and writing for A Fool of Myself is a logical time-spender to sacrifice during this time.
2. The New Business. Chris and I have started freelancing again, and this time we are serious about making this venture stick for the long term. So we’re pursuing print design, web design, and blogging clients, and as money comes in, we’re legalizing the business one federal or state form at a time. Much of our evenings are spent working on our own collateral or on client projects, so blogging naturally takes a bit of a back burner. It’s simple math really: I can make money working on the business or not make money blogging.
3. The Training. I haven’t talked much about it recently, but I’ve started running again with the hope of doing a longer race in November. Training for this race starts next week. I’m hesitant to use the word marathon because I’ve said I’m training for a marathon a million times before on this blog, and I’ve not yet had the discipline to stick it out. So I’m saying that I’m running to prepare for a longer race this fall. After July is over and I’ve stuck with the training plan for a month, I’ll have a better idea of whether I want to do a full or half marathon.
4. The Miscellany. In addition to all the above activities, I am throwing a baby shower next month and helping with a wedding shower. I have at least one crochet project/gift to finish, possibly another small one. At work, I’m working to unroll an online membership database that will allow LPC’s people to login, update their information, register for events, check their giving records, etc., and all that requires a lot of thinking. And I have a family reunion. And there’s a ton of yard work we need to do that has to be done during the hottest six weeks of the year.

All this to say that I think it’s wise for me to sacrifice some television and blogging and a bit of Twitter this month to focus on a few other things that are of great importance to me and my family. I’ll still be maintaining SGFblogs.com and planning a July meetup, and I’ll still be on my Twitter account and Facebook because part of my work depends upon those social outlets, but I’ll just not be hanging out here. For that reason, comments will be closed come tomorrow, too. I’m also declaring Google Reader bankruptcy and will not be checking RSS feeds, which means no Twittering on bloggers_guide or tweeples_guide and very few comments on your all’s blogs.

Chris and I could definitely use your prayers during the next several weeks. Thanks for being faithful readers and thanks for understanding! Talk to you in August!