From Left to Right: October, November, December

So, it’s been awhile since I”ve been in this space. And I’m truly sorry for that.

When I last wrote here (August 19-ish), I was 32 weeks pregnant and 7 weeks from giving birth to my daughter Nora. I hadn’t intended to abruptly leave this blog, but life took over. At the end of August, I was writing the apology/hiatus post in my head, but I never had time to post it. In September, I was too tired of being pregnant and too busy preparing for my maternity leave to work on it. Plus, it felt weird, to post anything at all after the awkward extended silence. Then, October rolled around and I was suddenly a new mom. I was learning all of the things that new moms need to learn immediately and I was doing it on barely any sleep. There was no way that I could blog then.

This is how blogs get neglected.

Around the middle of November, I wanted to return to blogging, but I had a dilemma. Should I return to this blog, my blog of over two years, or start over at a brand new blog? It didn’t feel right staying here, considering I had a whole new subject area to explore. To be honest, when I was pregnant, I felt weird blogging about my pregnancy in this space. This space was intended as a record of my creative process. Even though pregnancy by its very nature is creative, it didn’t feel right. I didn’t want to turn off any readers that came here for poetry and got stories about my growing belly instead. So, I didn’t write at all. I have very little record of my pregnancy from my internal perspective, which I am starting to regret. Now that I am a mother, I feel like I needed a new space to write new stories about my very new life.

From that point, I started making that new space, where I could explore my birth and my new motherhood comfortably. Along with a good friend of mine who recently had an adorable son, I created the blog We Are New. This blog will follow me and my friend as we learn to be new alongside our babies, becoming partners in their learning and growth. If you want to catch up on what I’ve been up to, I have:

• Given birth to my daughter, Nora;
• Had a really long, but not long enough, maternity leave;
• Begun setting goals for my new year; and
• Started keeping monthly records of my new family’s life together

As you can, I’ve got a few posts up now and I finally feel like it’s my new blogging home. I hope that you’ll join me there, if there are any of you still out there.

This space will remain, but not as a blog any longer. I’m going to keep up the information about my book and my writing. If you want to stay in touch, but don’t want to read all about my new life as a mama, I hope that you’ll seek me out on Facebook. I’ve become Twitter-less, just as a way to consolidate my free time.

Thanks so much for sticking around and for making my writing life so fun these past couple of years!

Taken with my  Droid X camera. Fixed in Picasa.

***

This photo is part of the August Break, hosted by Susannah Conway. During the month of August, participants post a minimum of one photograph per day. No rules!

Taken with my JVC HD Video Camera/Camera. Fixed and collaged in Picasa.

***

This photo is part of the August Break, hosted by Susannah Conway. During the month of August, participants post a minimum of one photograph per day. No rules!

Taken with my Droid X Camera. Fixed in Picasa.

***

This photo is part of the August Break, hosted by Susannah Conway. During the month of August, participants post a minimum of one photograph per day. No rules!

Taken with my Droid X Camera. Fixed in Picasa.

***

This photo is part of the August Break, hosted by Susannah Conway. During the month of August, participants post a minimum of one photograph per day. No rules!

Taken with my Droid X camera app. Fixed and bordered in Picasa.

***

This photo is part of the August Break, hosted by Susannah Conway. During the month of August, participants post a minimum of one photograph per day. No rules!

Taken with my Vignette camera app on my Droid X. Fixed and collaged in Picasa.

***

This photo is part of the August Break, hosted by Susannah Conway. During the month of August, participants post a minimum of one photograph per day. No rules!

Taken with my Droid X camera app. Fixed and collaged in Picasa.

***

This photo is part of the August Break, hosted by Susannah Conway. During the month of August, participants post a minimum of one photograph per day. No rules!

Taken with my Droid X Camera app. Cropped in Picasa.

My husband had my laptop last night at work, so I couldn’t post until this morning.

***

This photo is part of the August Break, hosted by Susannah Conway. During the month of August, participants post a minimum of one photograph per day. No rules!

I took two days off due to a cold, but I’m back in the action. Hopefully, I won’t have any more breaks.

***

This photo is part of the August Break, hosted by Susannah Conway. During the month of August, participants post a minimum of one photograph per day. No rules!