I want to thank all of you for taking the time to read my blog posts. When I first started writing, thanks to the encouragement of my friends (special shout out to Brenda, Jamie, Julie & Shari), I had decided to create Make It Special by Tracy for myself. I knew it would help to keep me distracted during my time of grief. A little personal project. If no one really read it, I was okay with it. (At least that is what I told myself. Anyone who knows me, knows I am a little competitive...might even say I have tendencies towards overachieving.) And the blog has been keeping me "busy," the one adjective which we all seem to aspire to become.
What I didn't realize was how the act of writing would also be very therapeutic. I am getting to understand myself better. I also believe I am learning to grieve in a more productive, self-analyzed way. Some of the thoughts I put on the page are just jumping to get out of my head (or even "my heart"). I can't type the words fast enough at times. But many of the ideas and thoughts are not on the surface. They are much deeper, so I have had to do some digging and introspection.
It feels good to spend this extra time with myself. You would think at my age, which I will not post here, I would know most all there is to know about myself. Luckily, that isn't the case. I realize we are always changing, hopefully evolving and improving. In my case, I am trying to figure out who I am now without my husband. Each of us has our own inner work to be done. All-in-all, I strongly recommend writing in some form to any of you who wants to spend a little more time getting to know themselves or possibly figure out "what is next?"
In addition to reading my blog (thank you again!), I hope you are also following me on Instagram. My goal on IG is to try to make each of our days a little more special. I have made it very simple for all of you! I only post one Instagram graphic each day. Consider it your reminder to spend a little time with yourself. I hope you can personally get out of the blog and Instagram posts as much as I do when I'm creating them. ❤️
Here is the Instagram schedule for the week:
Monday = Make It Special Monday
A quote, song lyrics, or another form that expresses a sentiment usually tied to the blog post for the week.
Something to get you thinking. And feeling.
Tuesday = Blog Post Announcement
Simply an announcement that the new post is available for reading!
Along with the title and a link in my IG bio to get to the post.
Wednesday = Dig Deeper
Additional information about the blog post topic.
Or a deeper dive into information already given in that week's post.
Thursday = Make A Moment
A suggestion to take time (not a lot, just a moment) to do or to feel or to ponder something.
It helps to have a reminder to take time for yourself.
Friday = Weekend Plans
Just as it says, it is a recommendation for an activity or adventure or ??? to do over the coming weekend.
Let me do the homework to help you make your own weekend a little more special.
SEO: What is that exactly?
For those of you that have had trouble finding my blog online via Google search, so have I! I'm still in Kindergarten as far as SEO goes. SEO is "Search Engine Optimization". SEO is the process someone (me, in this case) uses to direct the most visitors to their site (makeitspecialbytracy.com).
Certain words/phrases in the content of any website, blog, online resource, etc. help that site to appear higher on the results page of the search engine. In other words, when you search on Google using certain keywords, they lead you to a list of results. Those results are based on the sites' SEO quality. Hopefully, as a result - you get more visitors to your site.
Since you can't even find my blog when you KNOW to type in "makeitspecialbytracy",
I obviously have some work to do. FYI: If you simply add the word "blog" after "makeitspecialbytracy," I am the first result! I'm getting there!
And visa-versa. Because they go together like...
💕 We go together!