How do you come back from a blog break of more than a year?
I’ll tell you: tail between your legs, hand over your eyes in shame, tentatively and awkwardly. And a little clumsily, stretching those muscles you haven’t used in a while like you do after sitting on the floor doing puzzles with your kid for too long. (RIGHT? When did sitting on the floor become something that hurts?)
I’VE MISSED YOU GUYS!!!
And I’m so sorry for the crazy, excessive radio silence. I can explain.
WE MOVED TO FLORIDA!
I know. WHUT.
It kinda came out of nowhere and wasn’t on our radar. If you’d have told me last January we’d be living in a different state one year later, I would have smacked you in the face and walked away.
(Maybe not a smack… Maybe just a weird look and an awkward attempt to end the conversation, because who goes around predicting things like that?)
We kind of out-of-nowhere had a conversation with some friends about how we all work from home, and why the heck don’t we live near the beach? A month later, we went house-hunting on a whim, and a month after that, we closed on a new place near the water! Our friends joined us too and we spent the next months soaking up the sunshine and wondering why we hadn’t done that years before.
It completely changed our quality of life. We spent so much time together as a family and virtually eliminated all my “mom guilt” about how fast the years were flying by.
I thought the summer couldn’t get better, and then fall arrived and winter. We’ve literally had three days of real winter in Florida and I feel like I’m cheating at life. Are you really allowed to just skip winter like this? DO OTHER PEOPLE KNOW YOU’RE ALLOWED TO LIVE HERE?
You guys. They will allow ANYONE to live where’s it’s warm and near the ocean. There’s not even a screening process. You should probably move here too.
And what about our house in Georgia that we’d been working on and blogging about for so many years? Yall, don’t make me get emotional.
We’ve taken some time to finish the unfinished projects (the master bathroom!) and get it ready to sell. This week, we’re putting it on the market and I’m going to find a way to say goodbye to it like a grown-up who understands we still get to keep the memories even if we don’t have the walls they’re attached to. Ooorrrrr I’ll be a giant mess and will have to be pulled from it kicking and screaming.
I’ll be screening the buyers the way you do if you’re giving away a litter of kittens. “You’ll give it a good home, right? You’ll take good care of it and give it a good long life and LOVE IT JUST LIKE I WOULD?! PROVE IT TO ME.”
It’s going to be an open adoption – we’ll still keep in touch with the house and I’ll still be able to come back and visit and lovingly stroke the walls and cry about how I used to sit RIGHT IN THAT CORNER and nurse my babies and how we celebrated their first birthdays RIGHT ON THIS PATIO. It’s going to be totally normal and everyone will understand.
Our kids keep getting bigger too, even though we specifically asked them not to.
I started homeschooling them this year, even though I am NOT the endlessly patient, soft-spoken, organized and perfect mom I thought you had to be to homeschool. Turns out normal, impatient, real moms can do it too, and guys, I LOVE IT SO MUCH.
I started reluctantly because it just seemed like we were being called to do it, but I found myself really loving it. We read a lot; we play a lot; we go on field trips and my kids have the freedom to explore what they’re interested in. And there’s nothing more amazing than the feeling I had when Mila learned to read and I realized that I was the one who taught her – ME! It felt like a real-life miracle, not even kidding.
Soooo that all felt like a LOT to say and I couldn’t figure out how to tell you, so I just… said nothing… Although now that I said it all, I don’t know why it seemed so hard?
I really have missed you guys and feel like there have been so many words bottled up. Things I wanted to say that I couldn’t get out because they were stopped up by the degree of change causing a distance between us. Hopefully you’ll forgive me and we can start fresh, with everything out in the open, yeah?
What about you? Tell me the story of your life the past year. I want to know all the details.
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