This blog is on hiatus until I get the itch again

I never actually came out and said this, but when I resurrected 5kids1wife.com last November and started blogging every day, it was never meant to be a permanent thing.

I brought it back because I had a list of topics about which I wanted to write, and a few specific things I wanted to say.

Over the last 10 1/2 months, I've covered all of those topics and said every one of those things.

So now we're giving it a rest.

This sort of pause is well known to the maybe five people who have read the blog since its inception. It's what I do. I go on a blogging spurt for a year or two, then I stop.

I start doing it again whenever inspiration hits.

When that will be, I can't say. But as always, I plan to keep the domain name and occasionally check in with a random post or two as life events dictate.

Then, at some future time, I will pick it up again.

Much like playing the saxophone, I blog in fits and starts (I'm currently on a sax hiatus, too.) My focus right now is on my family, my health, my job and my PA announcing, probably just about in that order. There simply isn't time for much else.

I am grateful for the regular readers and frequent Facebook commenters. The blog gets, on average, around 300 page views per day. I honestly don't know if some of those are "bots" or other artificial/electronic views, but there are enough humans checking in that I get to hear all the time from friends, family and co-workers about how much they enjoy 5 Kids, 1 Wife.

That makes me profoundly happy.

So hey, while we're apart, do whatever you need to do to make sure that you and those around you are happy, healthy and fulfilled. Tell those people you love them, and don't forget to tell yourself every once in a while how awesome you are.

Because you really are.

Take care.

This blog is going on hiatus until Spring 2018 (though we'll occasionally post between now and then)

NOTE: I wrote the following post in early February 2016. And now, sitting in a hotel lobby in Southern California on March 13, 2016, it seems a bit...I don't know, abrupt? This particular blog has been in existence less than a year and a half, so it's not like I'm bringing some long-running institution to an end. I'm not bringing anything to an end, actually. This is just an extended break, and it's absolutely the right decision.

But I've been blogging on and off for more than five years, and I feel like I should say something that expresses some degree of the appreciation I feel for everyone who regularly reads these little missives. Many readers have come and gone, especially back in the days when the blog was titled "They Still Call Me Daddy" and drew a wider audience thanks to The News-Herald's now-defunct Community Media Lab. But there's a core of you who regularly read and react to my posts, and I'm so happy you've always taken the time to do both. Thank you for your efforts, because you make the whole thing worth it. You know who you are.

Anyway, here's the original post, which as you might have guessed by now (and certainly from the headline) is announcing the suspension of the blog, for the most part, for a couple of years. I just wanted to make sure you knew how much I appreciate the fact that you ever visited this little site in the first place...
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Every couple of years, I start up a blog that ends 12-18 months later because I don't have time to maintain it.

Guess what I'm going to say next, kids!

Actually, this isn't an "end" so much as an extended pause. I told you a couple of weeks ago that I'm now going to grad school online, and that's unavoidably time-consuming. So I'm not even going to try and fight that fight.

Instead, I'm going to take a planned break of about 24 months. That's when I should be graduating with my master's degree, at which point I'll presumably be able to come back and do the blogging thing again. And presumably I'll have something to say that you want to read.

In the interim, I'll very occasionally throw up a post if I feel the itch, which I'm sure I will. I'll post links to those pieces on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, or you can just visit www.5kids1wife.com directly and take a peek every once in awhile to see if I've put something up.

I'll maintain this domain name in the meantime, which is something I didn't do last time I gave up www.theystillcallmedaddy.com and some Japanese person snatched it up. Really, that happened. I don't know why.

This particular blogging stint has been going regularly since December 2014, which is pretty good for me. I appreciate the fact that you take time to read this stuff. I honestly do. And I hope you'll come back once I do.

So for now, it's so long and thanks for all the fish. Please keep in touch via the social media platform of your choice. Take care, stay healthy, and tell people you love them. That's all I've got for you.

We'll talk again.