After 16 Years of Blogging, I'm Bringing A Little R & R to Substack

Sometimes the wisest thing we can do is recognize when it’s time to stop fighting to keep something alive in the same way and start investing in what is growing.

For 16 years, A Little R & R has been a part of my life.

What began as a place to share my thoughts, experiences, and encouragement for Christian women grew into a library of Bible studies, articles, devotionals, and practical resources designed to help women grow in their faith and walk more closely with Jesus.

Over the years, I have poured countless hours into my little corner of the internet. I’ve written through different seasons of life, learned about blogging, navigated changing technology, and watched the online world transform around me.

A Little R & R has been more than a website. It has been a ministry, a creative outlet, and a place where I could share what God was teaching me and encourage other women with the lessons I was learning along the way.

But sometimes, even something we have faithfully nurtured for years begins to change.

And we have to decide what comes next.

When Everything Changed

Two years ago, I made the decision to pull my blog away from social media.

It was a deliberate choice. I wanted to step back from the constant demands of social platforms and focus on creating meaningful content rather than feeling as though I had to keep up with the endless cycle of posting, promoting, and trying to remain visible.

Then, in 2024, my blog traffic took a devastating hit.

I lost approximately 90% of my traffic—and with it, approximately 90% of my blogging income.

For someone who had spent 16 years building a website, creating content, and developing a business around that work, the loss was enormous.

I didn’t simply walk away.

Over the past two years, I have continued to work on my website. I’ve made changes, tried new approaches, updated content, and kept doing what bloggers are told to do when traffic declines.

I’ve been dedicated. I’ve been persistent. I’ve kept showing up.

But despite those efforts, things have continued to get worse.

And I’ve had to face a difficult reality: I can keep pouring my time and energy into trying to restore what my blog once was, or I can begin investing more fully in what is growing in front of me.

Finding My Way to Substack

In January, my friend Hey Creative Sister encouraged me to join Substack.

I began building Women Who Love Jesus, a community for women who want to grow in their faith, understand who they are in Christ, renew their minds with God’s Word, and learn to live out the truth of Scripture in their everyday lives.

What has happened here has encouraged me more than I can say.

The community continues to grow. Women are showing up. They’re reading, responding, sharing their thoughts, and engaging with the content in ways that remind me why I started creating content in the first place.

There is something special about a community of people who genuinely want to be there.

I love that Substack doesn’t place third-party advertisements on my content in the way traditional ad-supported websites do. When someone comes to read an article or an email, the focus is on the words, the message, and the relationship between the writer and the reader—not on advertisements competing for their attention.

I also love how seriously so many people here take reading, learning, and meaningful conversation.

It feels different.

And after years of working in an online environment where visibility can feel increasingly difficult to maintain, it has been refreshing to build in a place where readers can choose to receive my work directly and become part of a community around it.

Substack isn’t perfect, and I don’t believe any platform is. But I can see what is growing here, and I want to give it the attention it deserves.

Why I’m Choosing to Be Fully Here

Here’s the truth: I cannot divide my attention indefinitely between multiple places and expect to give my best to all of them.

Every article takes time. Every community requires care. Every platform has its own demands, its own learning curve, and its own expectations.

I don’t want to spend the next several years splitting my energy between trying to revive a website that continues to struggle and nurturing a community that is actively growing.

I want to be fully present where I see people gathering.

I want to write articles that encourage you in your walk with Jesus. I want to create Bible studies and practical resources that help you apply God’s Word. I want to have meaningful conversations about the things that matter to us as Christian women.

I want to invest my time in the work itself—in teaching, writing, encouraging, and building relationships—rather than continually trying to work out how to bring people back to a website that the online landscape has made increasingly difficult to sustain.

That is why I’m bringing A Little R & R to Substack.

This isn’t about abandoning the message I’ve spent 16 years sharing. It’s about choosing a new home for that message and giving it room to grow.

But Isn’t It Risky to Leave Your Own Website?

I’ve heard the arguments.

Don’t build your business on someone else’s platform.

You need to own your website.

You shouldn’t walk away from something you’ve spent years building.

I understand those concerns. There are good reasons to maintain an independent website, and I’m not suggesting that every blogger should make the same decision I am making.

But I’ve never been someone who listens too closely to the voices insisting there is only one right way to do things.

Over the years, I’ve been willing to take risks, try new approaches, and make decisions that seemed right for me and the people I serve—even when those decisions didn’t follow the conventional wisdom.

Sometimes those decisions worked beautifully. Sometimes they taught me lessons I hadn’t expected to learn.

But I’ve kept going.

And here I am, 16 years after I began blogging, still creating, still teaching, still sharing God’s Word, and still finding new ways to serve women.

I don’t believe that choosing Substack means I’ve failed at blogging. I believe it means I’m paying attention.

I’m paying attention to where my time is best invested, where my readers are gathering, and where I can continue doing the work I love without spending all my energy fighting to preserve the way I’ve always done it.

I can be grateful for everything A Little R & R has been while recognizing that the next chapter may look different.

Both things can be true.

A New Chapter, Not the End of the Story

If you’ve been reading A Little R & R for years, thank you.

It is surreal to me that I am retiring the name A Little R & R - a name I’ve had for over 16 years.

A name that was a play on my name - Rosilind - and my older son’s name, Robert, who was only 3 months old when I began blogging.

But it is time to turn a new page and move into new places where God is leading.

Thank you for reading my articles, sharing them with friends, downloading my resources, and allowing me to be a small part of your spiritual journey.

Those 16 years have meant more to me than you know.

And if you’ve found me here on Substack, I’m so glad you’re here.

My heart for this work hasn’t changed. I still want to help women understand God’s Word, grow in their identity in Christ, renew their minds, and live out their faith with greater freedom and confidence.

What is changing is where I am choosing to focus my attention.

I’m choosing to invest in this community. I’m choosing to keep creating. I’m choosing to move forward rather than spend all my energy trying to recover what was.

And I’m doing it with gratitude for the past and hope for what lies ahead.

Below, I’ve embedded a YouTube video where I share more about this transition and what it means for A Little R & R.

Thank you for being part of this journey.

After 16 years, I’m still here. I’m still writing. I’m still teaching. And I’m still excited about what God will do next.

Welcome to the next chapter of A Little R & R. I’m glad we’re here together.

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