Hiatus

I have always been one of those people that tried to stay busy. I added more and more onto my schedule so that down time was kept to a minimum and often piled on too much. I would volunteer to do something extra or lend a helping hand, even if I didn’t need to. And I had a hard time saying “no” to a request, regardless of what else was going on.

Before Isabel was born, I went to the gym almost every morning, refereed youth soccer on Saturdays, hobbled through adult soccer on Sundays, and played ultimate frisbee during the week. And even when I started grad school, despite less time during the week, I barely cut back on the weekends.

But once she came, it all changed.

Time became more precious and unpredictable. Before Isabel, I had my weekday mornings down to a science, such that I could work out, bathe, and get out of the house in under two hours. After Isabel, each morning became another spin of the roulette wheel – would she wake up at 5am or 7am? And if she woke up early, would she let us get ready or hang onto our legs? Weekend mornings became non-negotiable family time where we could eat together without any time constraints. And evenings became a circus act of dinner, bath, 2548907 books, and bed (hopefully in that order).

But this last semester of grad school (which was also my final semester!) was nuts. I think I read and wrote more for school over those few months than I had in the previous 2.5 years combined (maybe not that much, but it felt like a ton). With school two nights a week, multiple lengthy papers, several group projects, and a four-day comprehensive final to graduate, there was little free time for anything but work, school, and family. Isabel required increasingly more attention as she became a toddler. And in addition to picking up the slack of my absence, Mrs. FWL’s job got even busier than it already was. If we were going to survive, something had to give.

I started FWL with ambitions of posting regularly. I got frustrated with myself when my posts became less frequent and more erratic. And there were times when I placed writing a post above my family’s needs. I stayed up later than I should, checked Facebook ad nausea, and got sucked into Twitter.

But this last semester I knew something had to change.

So this fall, FWL (aka Forty Weeks Later, for those of you that forgot) took a backseat to everything else. Over the span of four months, I wrote two posts, and significantly reduced my blog-related social media activity (except maybe Instagram). I stopped emailing you fine folks, and learned to be OK with not posting updates, sharing our experiences, and opining on parenthood. Honestly, it might have been a needed break; y’all don’t realize how difficult it is to consistently come up with material!

Well, I’m back, and excited for 2015. I hope you’ll join me, again. And if you haven’t connected with me on social media, or joined the email list, you can do so below.

I’ll see you on the interwebs.