Hello Again, Blog World!

It's been so long since I've written a blog post - my last drafts that I never published were in 2020!  Shew!  Life has been so busy, often chaotic, and sometimes overwhelming, that I stopped writing in almost any form altogether for several years.  However, writing has always been therapeutic for me, so when a close friend I reconnected with last year invited me to join her writer's group, I tentatively went to my first meeting.  I didn't have a prepared piece that day, but it was so nice to get out of the house for a few hours and talk to other people who have a love and appreciation for writing that I've been to nearly every monthly meeting since.  It's my one night a month that I can get out and socialize with someone other than my family or coworkers.

I don't always have something prepared, and sometimes what I take isn't a fresh piece.  But it's felt nice to exercise that muscle again and get creativity flowing in a different way than I have been of late (crafting - specifically crocheting - still creative, but an entirely different mental/creative muscle).  

What I've noticed is that even though when I was younger, I enjoyed writing whole stories - books, even - I don't feel like I have the time or mental space to give to that right now, so often what I share are scenes or essentially journal entries that I've realized could easily be blog pieces when crafted the right way.

So here I am!  Back at the trusty old blog that I started in college.   Life looks a lot different than it did then and the subsequent years that I was writing and publishing here.  

I no longer own a horse - I gave Orion to a wonderful person who had bought a mare at our barn and was looking for a pasture mate for her for when she would eventually move her to her own land.  He will always hold a piece of my heart even though I don't go out of my way to see him anymore - just a little too painful knowing he's not mine.  But I did not have the time to dedicate to him and honestly let that go on for too long as it was.  I still hear about him sometimes, and it's a bittersweet feeling.  I'm glad he's doing well and that everyone is happy.

I am a homeowner now, for the past 9 years, and I have two kids under the age of 6.  They're 21 months apart and are amazing but definitely a handful! 

My son is 5 and is scarily smart - he's going into kindergarten this fall and was doing fourth grade level math last year in preschool and can read just about any word he sees.  He loves music and is Taylor Swift's biggest fan. We navigate dealing with big emotions daily because he feels all the emotions he experiences in a huge way and doesn't always know how to deal with them.  He's the sweetest boy though and just wants to help with and be part of everything - and also wants to share all the music facts he's ever learned with us at the same time.

My daughter just turned 4 and is also very smart but not obsessed with learning math and reading like my son - she's very play-oriented and learns that way instead.  She loves story time and animals, and she can tell you any dinosaur you put in front of her - usually even the more obscure ones.  We were doing one of the little dinosaur egg excavation kits a couple weeks ago and got a plesiosaurus.  Darryl and I said something like, "Cool, we got a swimming dinosaur!"  She was very quick to correct us and say, "No, the plesiosaurus isn't a dinosaur!  It's a swimming reptile!"  We were skeptical.  I Googled it.  She was correct.  We were blown away.  

She also loves being outside and observing every little thing about the world around her.  I've been trying to find places to hike (not hard in WV) that we can take the kids to this summer when we aren't otherwise busy and the weather is cooperating, and we've discovered that while both of them like it, baby girl loves it!  Blackwater Falls State Park has tons of trails that I've been looking at, as well as things a little closer to us.  I've downloaded the AllTrails app, and it's opened up a whole new world to explore.  We've done a few trails at Blackwater so far and loved them.  It's fun to include other family members and make it an outing all of us can enjoy together - in today's fast paced world and with everything my big family normally has going on, it's hard to find time to get everyone together.

So, I don't know exactly what this blog will entail going forward, and I'm not going to try to plan.   But you can probably expect things about family, crafting/trying to start a small business eventually, hiking/nature, motherhood, trying to get back in shape and be healthier, cooking, gardening, very amateur photography with an iPhone...all the things I'm experiencing and trying to bring into reality if I can keep up with writing about it all.  I hope those who used to be here with me will come back.  I can't wait to talk to you all again!