Hello Again!

Well, it has been a few years, hasn't it? A lot has happened since I posted that review of Fordlandia six years ago. I got divorced, remarried, and have had two awesome little boys, one of whom has cerebral palsy. I have a great husband and two wonderful step-kids. I do still have Stan the cat, but that is pretty much all the remains of what my life was like back in 2009. Life has gotten very full. I spent a couple of years trying to be perfect at home and perfect at work and it nearly killed me. I had clumps of my hair coming out in the shower, I got shingles, I was having panic attacks at 3 in the morning. I was pretty much a mess. I've had to readjust my expectations and priorities. I've had to let some things go. I've had to figure out that what my kids need most is to have a happy mother (note: this does not mean selfish asshole mother), it just means, when I am with them, I need to be with them, and not be worrying about twenty other things that may or may not happen. I do better at this some days than others, but it is getting better. I've also been trying to make my way back to things I used to do, reading, writing, jogging, etc. I thought, hey, I still have this blog, why not pop up there every once in a while for fun? I wrote a review of Beautiful Ruins for my ex-husband's book blog last summer, and have often thought it would be fun to bring this blog back, no one reads it but me, but the exercise of writing it is comforting. It will be different than before, not just book reviews, but some thoughts on kids, vegetarian cooking, jogging with "a soft j" like Ron Burgundy, and my attempts to have a garden survive the summer.