Begin again...

Brevity has never been my strong suit.
You ask me what time it is and I'll tell you how to build a clock.

So, as the weeks and then months and then nearly a year passed - I really wasn't sure how I could come back here without writing nothing short of a novel. I'll try to be brief, but that isn't easy for me.

To say a lot has changed in the past year would be a drastic understatement. Here's a short list.

- I got promoted and became the head of my department making many dreams come true and giving me the opportunity to do even more of what I love to do so much.

- We decided to put our house on the market. While some of our neighbors were truly the best people we've never known, we knew that with The Incredible Hulk starting Kindergarten in the fall and being hesitant about the school he was slated to attend, we needed to make a change and began the arduous process of preparing our dream home to be put up for sale.

- We went to Disney World for the first time as a family. (Not that important, just part of what we've been spending our time doing and important for a future post I hope to write.)

- We started showing our house. It was on the market for around 45 days. In the first week we had 9 showings. It was not an easy time in our lives.

- I got in a car accident. The other driver was texting when she hit me. It wasn't bad, but it totaled my vehicle. And so, in the same week we put our house on the market, we were in the market for a new car. I got another minivan. Hell didn't freeze over.

- My team put on our second musical with the students at our school. Oh, and it was on the news. NBD.

- I got promoted...again. This time to a job I've been spending my career working toward with a team of professionals I respect so much. It was a bit ground-breaking to tell the truth. It meant stepping away from being solely a music therapist (I haven't touched a guitar in three months) - and now instead using those skills to oversee an educational team. More dreams coming true.

- We took a another trip to our happy place. Michigan in the summer will officially be a tradition for our family as long as they'll allow it. This time we were hosted by some of the best friends in the world and if there was any reason we were able to get through this stressful year in one piece, it's because of them.

- Our house sold...and we hadn't yet found a place to live. So we started that process. Which had its heartbreaking moments. Lots of beautiful homes that didn't work out...

- ...but, with two days to spare before TIH started Kindergarten, we moved into our new home. We love our neighborhood, we love how much closer we are to our family here. We love his school. We have LOTS of work to do on the new home and we love that too. We're starting our first official project today...which brings me to the final bit of news...

Photo credit: Rosser Photography

I was finally ready to begin again. It took me awhile to get there. And then it took us even longer to respect God's timeline. But, on the day that I drove home from the musical at my school, still giddy from the success of another year, something told me to stop and get a test.

So I did.
And I was.

This pregnancy began much like the first - being bowled over my nausea from around week 6 to week 16. And then smooth sailing.

Oh...and it's another boy.

When I started this blog (5 years ago next week), I always imagined that I would chronicle my second pregnancy week by week. Share every detail. Every funny story. Every way that this pregnancy is all at once totally different than my first, and in some ways completely the same.

Instead, I've been reveling in the here and now a bit. Without putting words to it. I know this is likely the last round for us. So, I've just been enjoying the journey and not wondering what is going to happen next.

There's been enough change for one year. I'm happy to revel in the simplicity of stasis.

Brevity has never been my strong suit.
I'm always afraid I'll leave out some detail that will bring everything together for the reader.
But, at some point, I just had to start somewhere simple.
Simple is good.

Photo credit: Rosser Photography

Let's see how far we've come...

When I had The Incredible Hulk three years ago, I used to spend a lot of time questioning myself and everything I did with him.  Given that I was breastfeeding and that he was...well, The Incredible Hulk...I found myself confined to a chair most hours of the day with nothing but my Blackberry to entertain me.  I would think of questions that I had about breastfeeding, diapering, bathing, sleeping, postpartum depression, and whatever else you can name and would wait until I was back in my trusty rocking chair to go to Google with all of my queries.

As you can imagine, this didn't help answer most of my questions.  Instead, I found myself often more confused, more anxious, and mostly just SO frustrated.  After awhile, I learned to avoid mom forums which would often turn into virtual battlefields of moms not only contradicting each other, but actually judging one another's choices.  I couldn't believe in the state I was in that there was any one out there that was so sure of their own decisions that they could possibly judge those of another.  In my state, I was pretty sure I was screwing up everything I did in my first few weeks as a New Mom, so I couldn't imagine finding myself in the self righteous place so many of these moms with computers appeared to be.

TIH about to be discharged.  I think he knew something I didn't.

I remember thinking that someone should come up with a site specifically for New Moms.  One where they could ask questions and instead of receiving 1800 answers, they would just receive a balanced, educated, and above all, empowering response to anything.

I didn't know it at the time, but I was hatching the idea for New Mom on the Blog.
And just a few short months later, I published my first blog post.

That was three years ago today.  And though the vision for New Mom on the Blog has obviously changed (I initially did not see as many posts about meal planning), the message remains the same - You're a mom and it's scary, but you're doing a better job than you think.

I'm always been glad that my blog anniversary falls around the same time as Thanksgiving because it is one of the outlets in my life that I have been so, SO thankful for.   This year I'm thankful for more opportunities and inspiration to post.  This year, like every year, I fell short of what I had hoped to accomplish on the blog (I had hoped to roll out a new look for the site, write more, and maybe even register an actual URL.)

The biggest accomplishment on the blog this year was finally finding the courage to post about my struggles in my first few months of being a New Mom - and to give people hope that it does get better.

So, thank you again for another great year with New Mom on the Blog.
And, if you happen to be new and have stumbled upon this blog during a crazed, scared, Google search - I'm glad you found us.  It's going to be okay.

photo credit: Rosser Photography