My last post was about Spring cleaning of the site. Here I am on the verge of the 4th of July, saying, “what happened?” I guess by this time people have come to expect long delays in updating on the site. We were always a bit slow, but life just seems to have gotten crazier lately. Part of that is the fact that we are struggling very hard like many people in America (and around the world). Our financial situation is still pretty dire and lots of our sparetime is devoted to trying to make money. Lotsofkids is still very dear to us and we intend to keep it going. We have made a commitment to finance it regardless of our money matters. We intend to keep updating it and adding new content and functionality. However, there are certain times when we simply have to put administration on the backburner temporarily while we focus on things that will help our family, directly or indirectly. Our recent work was showcasing Jim’s programming talent on a new personal site of ours. Script Monkeys features lots of Jim’s work. Our hopes are that if someone sees his skills is may lead to something–freelance or permanent. At the very least, it’s giving back to the online community in a different way, since we are offering free wares for other webmasters.

I am always hesitant to say things have calmed down and we are gonna get back on track with LOK (or some of our other sites). That’s usually when something hits us hard and we end up with less time than before.

That said, I have to fight with discouragement sometimes, feeling inadequate like I have let the visitors of this site down. I get emails asking if we are closing or if we are ever going to put new content up. Since Jim and I do 90% of the work on the site, it’s quite a endeavor to keep it fresh and new. When long periods go by and nothing is going up, it’s a lot of pressure. That can lead to a vicious cycle were you avoid it and hence create more guilt.

Not really a whine, but I do want to share some of my thoughts and feelings with the many visitors who come here faithfully. The future of Lotsofkids (or any website) is not set in stone. Goodness knows I have had many of my favorites who I was convinced would be around forever close in the last couple of years. We have no plans to close LOK, but we do want our visitors to know that it can be hard sometimes. Most of our members are very patient and understanding, but we still like to reiterate that we appreciate your continued support and caring during times like this.

Our lives are very simple–even moreso in the last 2 years. The fact that LOK’s 6th anniversary month just passed by quietly is really par for the course. We hope to kick some things up in July, but as to how much will depend on a lot of things. Until then, we will be finishing up our revamp of many of the sections and reopening them to visitors. Hopefully in the interim we’ll find time to get some of our new stuff up.