Updating My Blog Reading List

   

Photo just for cuteness from her last visit when I was mindlessly scrolling on my phone.

      After the weird debacle on Blogger requiring us to hunt for our regular blog reads, its nice to have that feature back. I spent a little time updating my "manage" tab and deleted blogs that have been abandoned. I keep old ones though that still are technically open as just maybe an old favorite will start blogging again. I'd miss seeing them pop up. 

    Another action I've been doing is exploring blogs of readers of my favorites to see if there's more like minded or "hey, thats interesting" subject writers. I've really been hopping around reading new to me financial, food, and style, both home and fashion blogs. Travel blogs are interesting to me too, but not the ones where travelling then writing about, is their job. They seem out of my reality grasp. They might be good for part of trip preplanning but I can Google at the time and likely find multiple sources.

     I'm interested in how people are making the most of the resources they have. I think that's why the topics mentioned above mingled with real lifestyles, are fun to read. Seeing a shopping and styling haul from thrifting or reusing items in their own closet or another part of their home peak my potential for being creative. A haul from TJ Max and Home Goods just feels like rampant consumerism. That's judgey, I know. It's also admittedly hypocritical because I too like a wander in those stores. The occasional shop and tell is fun, but not if it's the entire blog, IG, or YouTube identity.

      I love the international aspect of blogging, IG, and YouTube as I get a bit of that armchair travel in real life. The US is so big, social media from other parts of the country open up my brain as well. Your thoughts? Any recommendations to share?

     

Comments

  1. Frugally challengedSeptember 23, 2026 at 12:08 PM

    I found that the daily hunt over quite a long period made me very aware of what I was still reading for pleasure. I want to read blogs with which I feel a personal connection. I haven't found any "new" blogs for a while.

    ReplyDelete
  2. BethC.,September 23, 2026 at 2:28 PM

    I like the Frequent Miler blog for points and miles. Ive met several of the writers who are genuinely nice people. They mention credit card signups but there is a lot more to the blog. One of their writers spent 7 years traveling around the US with his wife and their dog. I got several great travel trios from the blog-No Home Just Roam., including info about visiting the Leinenkugel brewery when we were in Wisconsin. I also read Laura Vanderkam’s blog and the SHUBox. Great fior time management tips. .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. SAMSeptember 24, 2026 at 9:45 AM

      Ill need to look up both of them. I'm doing a lot of desk chair exploring. I'm seeing similar flight and hotel stays price wise to Athens again for spring of 27, cant look much farther than that on the various travel sites, but I know I want to go back especially after seeing glimpses the layout and then maybe do day trips out if the city and perhaps an island or two. But the world is possible!

      Delete
  3. JackieSeptember 23, 2026 at 6:03 PM

    I really need to do a clear up of my favourite blogs and find a few new ones that I can relate to. I am doing the same thing with the Youtube channels I watch.

    God bless.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. SAMSeptember 24, 2026 at 9:47 AM

      Too many YouTube went down the whole paid for content lane to where they're not enjoyable. I get it...money to be made. A blend is fine if the organic stuff is the main.

      Delete
    2. Chef OwingsSeptember 24, 2026 at 11:39 AM

      Son2 would agree with the TOO much paid for youtube. He is on disability and realized he should have did better with finances starting with NOT paying for youtube LOL

      Delete
    3. SAMSeptember 25, 2026 at 9:37 AM

      I don't pay the ad free cost.

      Delete
  4. AprilSeptember 23, 2026 at 7:29 PM

    I am echoing those commenting on needing to clear up their lists of favorite blogs (add YouTube to my list too). Heck, just clearing off the number of pages (not blogs, not YouTube) that I "bookmarked" and have never gone back to....!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. SAMSeptember 24, 2026 at 9:47 AM

      I text myself links to go back and read and watch. Its getting way too long!

      Delete
  5. AnonymousSeptember 23, 2026 at 9:21 PM

    During all of blogger craziness I did clean up my list. I had a lot of blogs that never post anymore.
    I have found a couple I now follow that I did not before and I am enjoying them

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AnonymousSeptember 23, 2026 at 9:22 PM

      Sorry my phone does not like to use my account. Anne in the kitchen

      Delete
    2. SAMSeptember 24, 2026 at 9:48 AM

      I'm on a cooking/ meal plan kick right now getting ideas for dishes I'll never make.

      Delete
  6. GinaSeptember 24, 2026 at 10:36 AM

    I did this very same thing! Originally I was going to save those "dead" blogs and refer to them but something about that felt weird - like why did they just stop and not say why? Plus, there are other like-minded people blogging, yet for me to discover!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. SAMSeptember 25, 2026 at 9:40 AM

      I think blogging as a hobbie website and flows. I noodle around many posts that I don't publishbecause I like to visually see thoughts. Maybe I should publish even fewer as life is quite uninteresting now. But, I think some bloggers stop because life gets very hectic and it might feel like another chore.

      Delete
  7. VixSeptember 25, 2026 at 12:43 PM

    That photo, it melts my heart!
    I always feel so guilty deleting blogs from my sidebar but sometimes its got to be done. Like you I can't be doing with rampant consumerism, the odd buying post is fun but when that's all they write about, no thanks ditto a constant litany of illnesses! xxx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. SAMSeptember 30, 2026 at 7:21 AM

      Isn't she just the sweetest...though she was probably planning a foot attack. It gets draining to read woe all the time, though Ill update on real stuff. I know that can be seen negative so am trying hard to stay 10,000 feet.

      Delete
  8. AnonymousSeptember 26, 2026 at 9:29 PM

    Can you suggest and personal style/ dressing blog for an early 70’s female….need to change my styles and get more interesting for me!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. SAMSeptember 30, 2026 at 7:22 AM

      Maybe read Vix, Vintage Vixen, then click her readers comments. She has lovely readers.

      Delete
  9. AnonymousSeptember 28, 2026 at 7:25 PM

    I can’t find Laura’s new blog after she moved to Portland! Cindy in the South

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. SAMSeptember 30, 2026 at 7:23 AM

      Hmm, whats the title if you recall?

      Delete
    2. AnonymousOctober 1, 2026 at 7:07 PM

      I can’t remember. I know I found it originally from Tamara at My retirement project but now I can’t find her blog either….. sigh. Cindy in the South

      Delete
    3. AnonymousOctober 3, 2026 at 1:26 PM

      Update: I found her! Make the Lemonade is the name
      of her blog. Cindy in the South

      Delete

Post a Comment

If you comment anonymously, it'd be nice to have a name to go with the comment. It helps me string other people's comments and therefore their experiences together.

Popular posts from this blog

It's Worse Than I Imagined

      The shit show since January 20th has been a big reason for my reclusiveness the last few weeks. Let the comments fly. Create a crisis. Lie that you resolved it. Get your sycophants to suck it all up. Rinse. Repeat...for four F' ing years.  Oh, and let's shout, "but her emails" while a foreign oligarch is raiding our private personal data with his hoard of teenagers. Let's pardon January 6th criminals, several of which immediately committed additional crimes.  I said it was going to be my only political post election post but man, it's even worse than I could have imagined.
Read more

Home Found

Image
      N ow a big life update and another explanation for my blog absence. I toured a few homes with my son in mid April. He wanted me with as he's not really lived in Minnesota (before coming back) since he was 19 and he's never owned a home. After a winter of snow, a spring so far of cold, and rain, and employment opportunities that require flexibility, he shifted his search to low maintenance living.       He almost put an offer on a beautiful condo with all his buttons checked just across the main road from my neighborhood. He paused though, realizing he doesn't want to settle down in our town but rather move to one of the twin cities. I'm much less familiar with Minneapolis but aware areas he'd probably like were a tad out of his pric e point. I know St Paul pretty well so was of more help. We proceeded to tour a few condos in St. Paul. A great two bedroom, two bath, while needing updates, was a top contender. Still, something was missing though lo...
Read more

Testing the Waters

Image
        I've missed blogging. I blogged for nearly nine years in a previous iteration. It was a daily ritual during the long hiatus from regular life that the Covid pandemic created. Even as the world, my world, opened up again, the clicking away on my phone or computer keyboard, reading comments if something I said had any resonance, and reading and commenting on other blogs in return became my morning norm. Life sure is unpredictable. A year ago, just after Christmas, I had read of the tragic loss of my blogger friend's husband who passed away on Christmas morning, then read one of her readers lost her husband the same week. Never would I imagine just a few weeks later would I be joining that unasked for club, faced with my own widow story. But there it is. I've had to try and figure out life in this unplanned and foreign place. I'm not a young widow, having raised and launched three children, but at now 58, feel too young to be thought of in the same space as my 8...
Read more