right now

right now

Jan 9, 2017

I'm ready to get my feet wet again...



There is no graceful way to make a comeback, is there?

Somehow, I lost my muse.  One week turned into a month, which turned into many more.   To be honest, since the Big Military Move I felt lost about subject matter.  I had gotten way too comfortable living multiple military tours in the same home in Virginia, other than the deployments it didn't even feel like a military life because we had roots planted for so many years.


Proof of Life!

In retrospect, I think I boxed myself in by focusing too much on blogging mainly about gardening.  So much so, that when we moved and I found myself in government quarters living on base with a concrete pad for a backyard - I thought that anyone who was following me would no longer have any interest in what little ol' me was up to.

Yes, I was able to score a community garden plot on base, but that came with a host of issues that I touched on a bit in some previous posts.  The bottom line, though, is that my life completely changed. like the rug was pulled right out from under me!

New schools to deal with, little kids quickly became teenagers, new sports to travel to, higher cost of living to adjust to, and not the least of my wrenches thrown in was deciding that, after 12 years of being a stay at home mom, I would return to work.  After a few weeks of the initial shock of 50+ hour workweeks as a Navy certified childcare provider, the blog was a luxury item at the very end of a long list of "must do's".

Many things have happened, some very stressful,  some exciting.  Don't worry, I'm okay, the man is ok and the kids are great - but we are in for an eventful 2017 as well.  I will recap some of these events in future posts, but gardening in anything other than my wee raised bed in my tiny yard is a pipe dream for this year, anyway.


I still get dirty, just not as often as I'd like!

I have been wanting to post for about 2 weeks now, and really thinking about how much I miss blogging and how fulfilling it is to be able to write and connect with others in this way.  Facebook is no substitute for real journaling of what goes on in my life.  My focus will change somewhat, I expect that I will write about everything from kids to military life, paying down debt to cooking, gardening, sewing and the other things that I love to do.  Lots of photos and posts about what has transpired during my absence so these experiences can be looked back upon by my family.  I would love to document the process we go through as we deal with looming military retirement and that transition from military life to civilian life in hopes of connecting with others that may be in the same situation.  Life in general, really.  I even debated on changing the name of the blog, except that it's a nightmare to do that, and I have every intention of having my dream garden again, sooner rather than later.  We are getting very close to military retirement, which means... a "Forever Home" and all the things that come with actually being able to CHOOSE our home for once!

So, the name stays.  I hope you do, too - if any of my friends are still out there!  Even if it's just my mom reading though, I am back on the wagon!

A parting shot.... it's COLD here, 2ยบ last night!


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14 comments:

  1. Erin's back! Erin's back! Welcome back!!

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  2. What can I say other than I am absolutely THRILLED to see you blogging again! And who are those two tall men in the picture with you?? Can hardly wait for future posts. Hugs all 'round.

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    1. No kidding.... and that photo was from summer. They are both MUCH taller now!

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  3. So glad to "see" you again. I love the Feedly app, because no matter how much time has flown by since the last post, new posts pop up when written, such as this one. Sounds like you have a very full life now; looking forward to reading more about what's going on, as you have time/energy to write. One of my favorite blog posts of any I follow, was your long-ago one on organizing seed packets in a binder - brilliant!

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    1. Funny you mention that one, it is my most "recycled" post! Just a few weeks ago I found it and forwarded it to post in a local FB gardening page that was asking about ideas for storing seeds. That binder is still going! I'm ashamed to admit I fell behind in all my blogging friends' posts simply because I never moved to another feed after Google Reader went away. Took a bit of research and trial and error but I am glad I decided on Feedly, it's simple to use! thanks for hanging around!

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  4. Wait...what's your name again? ERIN! You're back! The name of your blog doesn't matter a whit. Besides, before you know it, you'll be living the homestead life. Time moves so quickly, doesn't it? And, yes, HOLEY COW! Those boys have grown!

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    1. Hi Susan! Thanks for not jumping ship on me!

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  5. Oh goodness those boys have grown up! And you look fabulous. So glad you decided to start blogging again. I don't care what you call your blog, I'm just happy to see you are all doing well.

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    1. Hi Sparkless! I plan on catching up on yours soon, I hope you are having some decent weather and not all this rain and mud I am hearing about on the west coast!

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  6. Long ago lurker popping up to say glad you're back.

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    1. Thank you Kimberly! I'm hoping to get my groove back this year :)

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  7. It is wonderful to see you back, and I'm so happy that my reader toolbar kept up with you - what a nice surprise! Never feel bad about having to deal with life. Plus, lives change, times change, things change, kids change - it's a challenge just keeping up with everything! I've always loved reading your blog, and stumbled across it because I am a gardener, but truthfully, I enjoyed ALL of the things you talked about - I'm still laughing about your comments when your son went on a weekend trip, and there was a little girl with rolling suitcase that was bigger than she was. It's all the little things in your life that connect with us, so the answer to your question is - yes - we DO want to hear about little old you, even if it isn't about gardening.

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    1. Hi Cate! Thanks for the kind words, and that memory of that summer camp made me laugh this morning!!

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  8. So glad you are back. I have enjoyed your writing in the past about everything from garden to family.

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