Hi there! Happy Monday!

I hope that you’re having a wonderful start to your week, and enjoying a little extra sunshine with daylight savings time. Today I want to share my thoughts on celebrating FIVE YEARS of LeahTackles.com and share what my plans are for the future of this blog.

In 2012 I began watching YouTube videos and became obsessed with the beauty community on YouTube. I had watched YouTube for a few years before, but in 2012 I was going through the hardest season of my life when we found out that our second child, who I was 27 weeks pregnant with, would likely be stillborn or be born shortly after birth. Connor is now six years old, and while much about is future is still unknown, with the help of intensive programs and therapies, is a kindergarten in a mainstream classroom. I began watching beauty YouTube videos during a time when I didn’t wear makeup, didn’t leave the house, and if it wasn’t for my toddler I wouldn’t have gotten out of bed. It may seem odd, but watching this videos was the perfect mini escape from reality, and for someone who had written “zines” in middle school on AOL (dating myself, much? I do turn 32 tomorrow) and always loved beauty products, it was a form of comfort.

I loved watching YouTube videos but knew my strength as a writer, so I decided when Connor was about one-year-old that I wanted to start a blog. My YouTube came about a year later. If you know my personality at all, I research everything, so naturally, I researched a lot and had my blog ready to go before the launch. It was close to my birthday, so I thought that my 27th birthday would be the perfect time to post my first post and share it with the world (or a handful of friends and my mama, but you get me). I was about 11 weeks pregnant with our third child, but miscarried days before my birthday. I knew driving to the emergency room with my husband deep down in my gut that we had lost our baby. I hadn’t had morning sickness for a few days, and I just felt it. Sadly, I was right, and on March 11th, 2014 I had a D&C. I’ll never forget the nurse asking my birthday and then her looking at me and saying, “Oh Honey” because it was the day before my birthday. I remember sitting in bed on my birthday eating an appalling number of Twix bars and deciding that I was still going to post my blog post. I clicked “Post Publish” with the “public” checkbox marked, shared on Facebook, and anxiously waited. Thankfully, people were incredibly supportive and a few even subscribed.

For the first bit of the blog I posted three times each week, and then cut back to two posts a week. I am extremely proud to say that in five years, no matter what we had going on surgery with babies, surgeries, career changes, and vacations I NEVER MISSED A BLOG POST! So, today I celebrate 550 posts! Woot Woot!

What’s next? So much has changed in five years, and I have gone through seasons where I can’t wait to share a blog post or beauty video on my LeahTacklesBeauty Instagram, and seasons where it feels like a chore. However, I don’t regret for a second having half a decade of writing samples, dedication, and love poured out in my keyboard. I now am working full time with my husband running our custom screen printing company The Mitten Print Shop, as a social media manager for small businesses and as a coach passionate about helping entrepreneurs with self-care and mental health. I am trying to make choices with how I spend my time based on what energizes me, and while sometimes the blog certainly hasn’t, whenever the idea of stopping the blog ran across my mind I was so sad instead of relieved. So, I have decided to cut back to one post each week so that I can give you my very best writing, time, and energy. I do not take lightly that some of you take precious time out of your life to read and engage with my content. I am SO THANKFUL and appreciate you. My gratitude for the continued support is huge. Thank you! I want to continue to give you my best work. I will be using the “extra time” to work with clients and also submit my writing for publication (read my latest published World of Walt article here), and continuing to push my career forward.

So, I’ll be back here, but instead of Wednesday it will be next Monday. Keep tackling each day. Thank you again for being here! xx

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