Hi, my name's Brittany, and I'm a quitter.

For most of grade school, I attended a small Lutheran school, sharing a classroom with two other grades, with only five other students in my grade. Our little school's sport was VOLLEYBALL. Apparently, there were lots of other Lutheran schools with volleyball teams because we played a lot of games. If I recall correctly, my last year there (20 years ago!) our team was near undefeated and we made it to the Lutheran Sports Association of Illinois Volleyball Championship Tournament (this is also a thing, apparently). Our team was made up of 3rd-6th graders and most of our opponents were 7th and 8th graders. Of course, we didn't get far in the tournament, but we were proud to make it as far as we did. We were small but mighty. We had great coaches, and our team worked so well together. The team was made up of all the girls in my class, who were all good friends.

TBT: yellow socks. circa 1995

One of my best childhood friends, Angie and I were feeling pretty big when we showed up to the first volleyball tryout at the public middle school. None of the other girls had really played. So, we both had pretty cozy spots as starters on the A team.

I moved away and attended a new private school in 8th grade. It was the same situation, I was the shining star of an inexperienced gang of misfits. I was proudly named MVP of my 8th grade volleyball team. Haha.

For high school, I switched schools again, and it was there that all my pride and confidence in my athletic abilities crumbled. I was not the best anymore. I clashed with a lot of the players. And when my mom was checking on enrollment with the school and the team, she told the coach that I was last year's MVP. This piece of information gave the coach this impression that she'd be getting Gabrielle Reece on her freshman team. She was sorely disappointed when she realized that I could barely set a ball, and had trouble controlling my overhand serve. It was a hard season. There were a couple of girls that had natural talent and were each about 7 feet all. That was not me. I was so used to getting praise for my ability and achievements. But instead I received constant criticism. I know my memory is blurry on a lot of it, but the negative feeling is still there. What I remember most is that I just wanted to be done. And when the season was over, I was DONE.

I quit volleyball. It's a shame how big and terrible things seem when you're young. But, I guess that's all you know at the time, you can't see the future and know that things, circumstances, and you yourself will get better. I wish I would have stuck with volleyball. Maybe one more year would have made a difference. Maybe my relationships with teammates and coaches would have improved. Maybe I would have continued playing through college? Oh we'll never know, will we.

Things are getting a little tricky for me at the moment.

A few weeks ago, I was so gung-ho about blogging, networking, improving my writing and photography skills. But things have been nuts. My laptop has been acting up. Josh has been working long hours. We've had several visitors.  All on top of the world's fussiest baby who has no desire to sleep through the night, preventing me from ever sleeping through the night.

Quitting sure sounds super appealing. When things get hard, I always want to throw in the towel.

I am a quitter. The only thing that's good for is if I were a smoker.


The more I've been reading about successful blogging, it's all about getting lots of content out all the time. As in, I should be posting a blog every day. I should be posting on social media several times a day. I should be keeping up on other bloggers, liking, commenting, building relationships....

But, the perfectionist in me is not going to post a blog everyday if it is going to be a fluffy no-brainer piece of nonsense. No one wants to read that crap. I wouldn't. I have a lot of good ideas saved as drafts. But having the time, energy, and a clear mind to actually hash out the posts is another thing. Ugh.

And honestly, I have no idea how these mom bloggers can blog that much. Who is watching your kids? Seriously? Because when my kids are up, I'm with them. And when they're napping, I'm trying to get stuff done. You know, like laundry. The only reason that I have the brain capacity to write at this very moment is because Hubs finally has a day off and Grandpa's in town, which allowed for me to get a mid morning nap. #winning

The point of this post is to tell y'all that I'm not quitting. I'm just going very very slowly. And the baby just woke up. Later!