I'm Back!--Adventures and New Discoveries in My Seven Months Away from Steemit

Hello, Steemit! It's been a while. I've missed you, but there's been so much going on elsewhere, I had to give you up for a while. I'm back now, though, and eager to resume building my tribe here. It's good to be back.

Who Am I, Again?

I joined Steemit back in August of 2016, and for nearly three months, I posted daily to every other day. I was active on Steemit Chat. I made friends, had conversations, set goals and met them, replied to comments, read and upvoted other amazing content, and learned more about cryptocurrency than I ever knew. 

I wrote mostly about what was on my mind regarding current events, though I occasionally threw in a personal story, a recipe, or an entry in the Badass Women of History series I started. And, I even earned some good money. Steemit paid for my groceries and utility bills a few times. It takes months, and sometimes years, to build up to that kind of cash on a regular blog. I mean, it took my two years to make my first $100 on Adsense a decade ago and actually be able to cash out with it, and another year to make my second $100, before I gave up on Adsense altogether. Who needs that kind of hassle?

It's much better here. The audience is built-in, you don't have to do fancy SEO or spend your precious spare hours promoting your blog all over social media. You don't have to buy ads to get people to read your material. And, you have the opportunity to build friendships here you don't on most personal blogs. I like Steemit. It felt comfortable from the beginning, like I'd found my blogging home.

So, Why Did I Leave?

It wasn't something I wanted or planned to do. I met my original goals on Steemit, and set new ones. I wanted to work on those, and continue to build my platform. But, as with so many things, life sometimes gets in the way, and back in mid-October 0f 2016, my life got crrrrazy. Suddenly, despite my best intentions and desires, I simply didn't have time to work in a decent Steemit post in between everything else I was doing, and still get some decent sleep.

Seriously, here's what was going on back then, all at once:

I Was Trying to Close on a House--I've bought houses in the past. This one is actually my fourth, but it's the first house I've bought in a decade. It's always a hassle to buy a house, and things usually go wrong at the last minute to prevent closing. It's even more complicated now. 

Things I thought I knew from previous house purchases in 1997, 2003, and 2005 no longer applied. A tax issue held up the closing for three weeks, and an issue with an item on my credit report I was previously told was NOT an issue threatened the closing the day OF the closing. 

Fortunately, everything did eventually work out all right, and I closed on the house near the end of October, but it took from early August to the last week of October....2 1/2 months, basically....to finally get the deed and keys to my house.

I Was Getting Settled in the New House--This one kind of speaks for itself. I was getting moved in, and it was near the holidays, which I always host, so there was a lot of work to do around the new place. Even after the holidays were over, I still had an outstanding promise to host a Sip and See for a childhood friend with a new baby at the end of January, so I basically had a constant flow of visitors to the new place as I was setting it up for the first three months I lived there.

I Was at War With My Former Landlord--I rented the same house for five years, and actually wanted to buy it. I'd discussed it with the owners, and they wanted to sell. We agreed to wait until I got my credit and income straightened out enough to meet current lending requirements. However, knowing I wanted to buy the house made the owner not want to do any maintenance on it. 

The roof started leaking, the air conditioning broke over the summer, there was mold in the attic due to the leaking, the shower was clogged and I could not unclog it myself (and the clog was making mildew grow), rotten wood was forming around the eves, and trees needed to be trimmed. The landlord wouldn't do any of it. I suffered over the summer without AC, as it was the hottest summer on record in my state (we'll see how this one goes). 

I called Code Enforcement to try to force the landlord to fix things, and he made a minimal effort, but also told me he was not only not renewing my lease, but basically had decided he would sell the house to anyone BUT me. 

We ended up in court over it, because I withheld the last couple months' rent due to him not making repairs, which is my legal right to do, and he tried to have me evicted, right when I was working on closing on the house I decided to buy when he refused to sell to me. Because I moved into my new house two days before our first hearing, the case was dismissed, and I hope I never have to have anything to do with that guy again. Such a jerk.

I Was Finishing My Second Novel--I've been a freelance writer for other people since 2002, but finally achieved my goal since high school of being a novelist in 2015, when I published my first novel under my pen name of Stephanie Woods. I had an Oct. 29, 2016 deadline to finish my second novel, so had to take some time to work on getting it done and submitted by the time I'd promised (finishing a novel while moving into a new house and warring with one's former landlord all at the same time makes for a busy schedule). Fortunately, I did finish it and get it in on time, and am now about 1/3 of the way into writing my 3rd novel.

I Was Working on Getting Matched With a Kid to Adopt--I've longed to be a mother for years, and went through all kinds of expensive fertility tests and treatments with no kid resulting. A couple of years ago, it was determined I cannot carry a child, so having a biological kid meant having a surrogate, which is crazy expensive without a volunteer. My one volunteer found out she couldn't be pregnant again due to a newly discovered medical issue, so that left me with adoption. I also decided babies were too much work, and I value my sleep, so I decided to adopt an older child.

I finished the parenting classes and home study more than a year ago, but it was hard finding an ideal match for me, as I'm a bit of a unique (i.e. eccentric and non-traditional) person, and locating the perfect kid who would thrive with me took a while. Plus, we had to re-do part of the home study when I moved into my new house (which is not strictly new, just new to me....my mom had her wedding shower for her marriage to my dad in this house, as friends of hers lived here, and I bought the house from those very friends, who inherited it from their parents, who built it). 

I finally got matched with a teenage girl in March, met her in April, got approved by her whole team to adopt her in May (with her consent....she liked me), read her full disclosure file and agreed to move forward with the adoption last week. I have a meeting next week to start scheduling her "transition" into my home and family. Hooray! 

That's a lot of stuff going on all at once. No wonder I didn't have time for Steemit. I barely had time for anything else, and am currently way behind on my bills. Working from home means if you don't work, you don't pay your bills, and I haven't had as much time to devote to any of my several businesses since I moved to the new house. But, things are settling down now, finally, and I'm going to catch up on those bills, and build some passive income, too, so I can have more time to do other things I enjoy, and to spend with my new daughter.

What Are My Plans, Now That I'm Back on Steemit?

Oh, I've got goals, baby. Here, and elsewhere, I've got goals I intend to meet as swiftly as possible. I'm not just popping back in to say hello. You can expect to see me back here regularly. My gosh, so many things changed here in the time I was away, I feel behind the curve. I don't want to miss anything else going on on Steemit if I can help it.

Goals, of course, are always changing, but some of my new short-term goals include:

• A 100-Day Challenge--I'm challenging myself to build my writing audience by writing at least 2,000 words a day on my current novel, and one blog post a day for 100 days. I'm not sure if I will blog on my website or here, since I actually do need to build an email list, and should blog someplace I can put an autoresponder for newsletter signups. I may blog on my website and re-post here with slight adjustments, or I may make Steemit a totally separate thing.
• Post at Least Every Other Day on Steemit for 100 Days--This is kind of the second part of my 100 day challenge. I tend to think it's better if I make blogging on Steemit a separate thing from my personal website, so the content can be completely different. I need to keep topics writing-focused on my website, but I can write about anything here. And, Steemit is part of my audience-building goal, besides the fact that I just enjoy the freedom to write about "whatever" here, and to interact with others in a more meaningful way.
• Start Getting Up Earlier--I'm a night owl by nature. Always have been, even as a child. Getting up early is SO hard for me. But, when I do, I find I get way more done. I'm more productive if I get up earlier. Once the sun goes down, my motivation to do anything useful often goes with it, so, as a late riser, I have only a few hours each day when I'll be focused and on target with what I need to do. And, I'm not talking about crazy early rising. Just getting up at like 9:30 am would make a huge difference for the better in my life. It's easier said than done to change your body clock, but I'm working on it.
• Build a Healthier Lifestyle Via Better Exercise Habits--Ah, exercise, my friend and foe. I've been an extremely healthy eater since college. Vegan before it was cool, gluten-free before anyone knew what gluten was, and sugar-free before people knew sugar was bad. That part is easy. I even tried the vegan meal plan on the GreenChef.com meal kit delivery service for a while, and while it is awesome and ultra-healthy, it put too much pressure on me to cook on nights I didn't really feel like doing it. Exercise is an issue for me, though, because I've never had a huge amount of stamina, even as a kid, and always hated any form of imposed physical activity at school. I'm improving, though. I've been working out my arms and legs every day for a year and a half with a Thigh Master, and have recently added 1,200 reps every other day on a weighted Hoola Hoop. If I can just manage to force myself to use my neglected treadmill a few times a week, I think I'll have the exercise portion down.
• Create a $5,000 a Month Income Stream--This is what I've determined I need to make to live comfortably and build some savings (and maybe take a vacation to somewhere other than one of my dad's mountain properties once in a while). I did this in the past. I think 2012 or 2013 was the last time I consistently achieved that number, but I know it can be done. I've done it before, and can do it again....again, getting up earlier is kind of key for this. Freelance writing, Steemit, selling custom mugs and t-shirts on Amazon and eBay, building and flipping websites, and selling info products are all things I've done in the past to earn good money. If I can schedule my time well enough, I can get that income machine going again. Eventually, I intend for my novels to provide all my income, but that's more of a long-term plan. These other methods will keep me financially comfortable until I get there with the novelist career. Plus, with a teenage daughter coming, I'll need extra money to get her the things she needs and wants. I'm hoping I can make up for her crappy childhood by giving her an excellent young adulthood, and make her into a good citizen. Having money to meet her needs and wants is a key part of this.

Let's All Steem On, Together!

So, that's what I've been up to in the months I've been away, and what I hope to achieve now that I'm back. This is kind of a re-introductory post, but posts from now on will be back to what I was writing about on here before....current events, personal stories and opinions, health and wellness, through excellent food, and the Badass Women of History.

I'm excited to be back among my fellow Steemians, and am looking forward to re-connecting with some old friends here, and meeting plenty of new ones. Let's Steem on, together. 

If you enjoyed this post (and I hope you did), please take a moment to follow me here at @stephmckenzie to get more articles from me on life, the universe, and everything. Thank you!