An Update

Wow. Hi. Are you guys still there? It’s been nearly a year since I’ve written anything in this space.

I’ve been busy. Mostly with writing….professionally I guess. And by that I mean, for money. I’ve been reporting and essay writing and even landed a couple copywriting gigs this year. It’s been incredibly fulfilling and so much fun.

I’ve been trying to pinpoint my favorite stories or projects from this year, but there have been so many. There’s this piece published inThe Atlantic about postpartum depression that becomes chronic — a topic with great personal meaning to me and work I’m really proud of. But then there’s my work with Rewire.News where I got to dig into so many fascinating issues, like foster care cases increasing after politicians cut welfare funding and how Medicaid work requirements would affect parents. I covered the school funding crisis in Kansas and a string of teacher strikes across the country this summer. I got to interview so many interesting people, which is one of my favorite parts of reporting. I remember getting off the phone with the main source for this story, who was so candid and personable and just a joy to talk to, and feeling so grateful that I get to do this work.

So, I haven’t been here much, because quite frankly this blog doesn’t pay the bills. I’ve also been trying to establish myself professionally and have wondered if editors might be turned off by some of the content they might find here. I started this blog as an unemployed college grad trying to figure my shit out and some of my posts are most definitely cringe-worthy.

As the years have passed, I’ve used this blog as a creative outlet —a stream of consciousness with journal-like entries about my life and my family. I’ve written a lot about my first pregnancy here and about my son. He is now almost three-years-old, and I often wrestle with whether or not I should continue blogging about him or writing about him at all. Writing has always been how I process and work through most everything in my life, so writing about parenting is something I will always do and something I need to do. But I guess I’m not sure how much of that should be public…..because it’s not just my life I’m putting on blast here. My son has a right to privacy.

But at the same time, it’s nice to chronicle things here. Funny story, I was recently looking at Promptly Journals. Have you heard of them? They are exactly as they sound — journals with prompts that help the user document certain parts of their lives. There’s one for travel, one for marriage, and of course one for kids. I investigated the childhood one. It looked really cool at first. The journal comes with sections to write about pregnancy, the child’s birth story, the first week of their life, and so on each month with places to put their favorite foods, friends, toys, etc.

Cool, right? What a sweet keepsake.

But all I could think was…..damn. That sounds like a lot of work.

Like let’s be real. I hardly have the time to manage my own shit. I am not going to record every detail of my child’s early years. Or any years. I’m just not. But there are definitely things I want to remember. So, while I want to be mindful that my son is his own person with a right to tell his own stories, I also have a right to tell mine, and he is a part of that. I have a feeling I’ll be walking this fine line for the rest of my life.

So all of that to say, I’m going to continue blogging here about me, my work and my family. I just can’t promise the updates will be regular!

This year though. Man. It flew by. I’ll probably be writing several different posts just to touch on it all. But first, some highlights:

• SO much travel. For me at least. I went on seven or eight different trips this year I think? There are a couple reasons why I intentionally traveled so much this year, and I’ll get to that. For now I’ll say it was wonderful. But also exhausting, and I plan to stick around home more in 2019.
• As previously stated, my freelance writing took off. In January, I went part-time at my job in social work at a community health center in an attempt to make more space for writing. I was nervous, and wasn’t sure I would replace my income, but I totally did and then some. I learned so many valuable lessons and have grown as a writer and as a person.
• Camden is almost three-years-old. Woo, this age y’all. There’s so much good to it, so much fun, so much I love…..and it’s so freaking exhausting. Like I need someone else to come and put him to bed every night and make him pick up his toys, because mama does not have the energy for World War III up in here. Also, I legit think it’s been a year since he last ate a vegetable.
• OH and perhaps, mostly importantly, we’re having so much fun that we decided to do this all again. Yup. We’re having another baby. Have you been wondering why? (LOL) Have you been wondering how I’m doing? Feeling? Well, I’ll have a whole post dedicated to pregnancy feelings, don’t you worry. For now I’ll tell you that how I’m feeling truly depends on the day……but so much is different. I am such a different person than I was before Camden, and am approaching this pregnancy almost completely the opposite of how I did the first time. I really can’t be sure if that’s a good or bad thing, time will tell, but I’m feeling more grounded and that can only be good. My due date is exactly two months from today, and yes, even though I am sarcastic AF and you won’t ever find me telling you motherhood is some blissful rainbow train…..I am indeed excited.

That’s all for now. To my five followers (HI MOM), more soon. Xoxoxo.