Shortly after acquiring Blue Bear Aware, it quickly hit me how much I had taken on myself. I realized that I didn't necessarily want to give any of it up as a whole, but the easiest way for me to continue writing, food allergy support, advocacy, running BlueBearAware.com, working Full Time outside the home, raising two children, keeping house and try (I do try) to be a good wife, yada yada yada... was to simplify areas of my life. If you know me, then you know how incredibly difficult that is for me to do but I knew I needed to do that and it would require some hard decisions.
One of the first decisions that I made to start simplifying was to significantly reduce the number of support groups I lead or played admin for. I began by turning over the Ann Arbor No Nuts Moms Support Group Leadership to three awesome ladies. I'm so glad they stepped up to take the group on because these three have proven to be an incredible team dedicated to connecting with and helping the food allergy community in Ann Arbor, MI. I also stepped away from my admin role on several Facebook support groups. The only group I do still admin for is the Chinese Herbs for Allergies Group. My son is a patient of Dr Xiu-Min Li, the amazing physician researcher who the group focuses on.
After the support groups, the next decision was the hardest. It involved one of my real passions: writing. I let go of FoodAllergyFamilies.com. (Seriously. I let the whole thing go so if you're interested in that domain it is up for grabs now! Lol.) Truth be told, I never did have the time to put into it and there were so many resources available on sites like FAACT, FARE, and the many fantastic, blogger sites, that it just kept being postponed. In hindsight, it was rather impulsive of me to have even started that project. But I've never been one to sit around and wait for things to happen.
Once the support groups were limited and one website to maintain was removed, it hit me pretty hard how I could still accomplish those same goals with more focus and dedication. Allowing myself a few minutes to breathe again, I realized that I should and could instead put that same heart into one outlet. Everything that I did as a support group lead and blogger in multiple groups and sites, I could do in one place now: the Blue Bear Aware Blog.
So what can you expect from the Blue Bear Aware Blog going forward? Yes. BlueBearAware.com will continue to be business, but the Blog? That's a different thing all together. It will not be strictly product related and certainly not limited to products that we sell. My goals are to support, inspire and empower those in my asthma, eczema, allergy, and food allergy community. Doing this provides a focus but certainly doesn't limit us. Sharing personal stories, Guest stories, Helpful tips, Recipes,... They are all part of the future of the blog. If you've been following the blog for a while now, then you may be thinking "So what's different?". Well. Not much. I'm just one to be very open and honest. I want it to be clear that the blog post topics will be many. If you're following strictly for one thing, labels are going to be your best friend. If that's not your bag and you prefer variety, then hang tight. That's exactly what you'll be getting from us. I hope you like it.
Jennifer Burch
Owner and Chief Aware Bear
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