New is good and definitely different.

Well, the blog has been hanging here in limbo for a few months which just seems to happen from time to time.  I go through phases when I just can't seem to stop writing (especially when I'm told not to!) and then I abandon the written word altogether because I can't seem to get it right.  I just counted 27 unpublished blogs on my Blogger dashboard, most of which will never see the light of day.  They're either too negative.  Too personal (I know, I've talked about bikini line lasering on here so that's hard to imagine).  Or just WAY too in the past to revisit.

Life is new.  Things are incredibly different.  And it doesn't feel like a new chapter.  It's a whole other book.

My day-to-day no longer resembles that of the past 7 years.  I don't plan out 5-6 dinners a week.  I don't make sure the fridge is always stocked with Boar's Head because that's the only lunch meat my husband would eat.  I don't wake up to anyone in my bed and there is no one to yell at about the toothpaste tube being messy.  I have to drag that damned recycling bin out to the street every other Monday and bring it back in at night.  And when a pipe bursts and fries my water heater, I don't have someone to go turn off the water.  (Well, I kinda do.  I ran next door to my neighbor's house screaming like a weirdo.  After sending my best friend out to the street in the rain with a flashlight and a screwdriver...)

But this is what I DO have:

I have space, which is apparently something I needed a lot more of, but found out a little too late.
I have time, to decompress from the pressures of trying to be the everything/everywhere/all the time mom.
I manage things better.
I rediscovered my priorities.
I remembered what I love about learning and my chosen field.
I realized other people need my time and I should help every chance I get.
And ultimately, I figured out that no one in my family can be at their best unless I am too.

So here's to all of the changes 2013 is bringing.  I have so very many things in the works and all shall be revealed in the coming months.  But for now, just for tonight, I'm off to close the playroom doors and make a complete ass of myself with this:

Because I am not about to be shown up by Amanda Guillot and Jodi Barker when they come over...