Blast from the Past

I just read the one and only post I've previously made to this blog and it was like visiting an old friend or, perhaps more accurately, a crazy long-lost relative. That sad voice is ME. Reading that post, I remember how it felt "back in the day" (not even a year ago!) when la bebe was just a few weeks old. Since that posting, life, the babe, and I have all changed - and I'm going to go out on a limb here - for the better.

True to what I said, I did find some mom groups online and they were a spring board to finding other, more local playgroups. In those early months, "playgroup" meant "sanity" for me. Getting out of the house, having a destination where I knew I would find other women going through the same emotional roller coaster was huge. And then, that step out of the house led to other changes.

Elizabeth began to sleep through the night. Her feedings became more spaced out and now include consumables other than breast milk. I took on some part-time work. I learned how to bake bread. My mother-in-law moved back to PA. I started bowling again. Life has taken on a routine that is fluid, but predictable. I curl up with my husband in bed at night and feel grateful for this time with my family, knowing this past year has been the most difficult of my life but also the most rewarding.

I kind of hope that no one I know would ever read this blog. I kind of hope that everyone I know would read this blog. I find it difficult to articulate how much has happened since that November day when I sat on this same chair, typing on this same computer. Being a mother, having a baby, it changes you - DUH. But like any pain, your mind dulls the memory of it, so that you can keep going on, maybe even try again the thing that has hurt you. Hearing that little voice from my past, my voice, I want so much to tell myself - hey, you'll get through it. Here I am! Just fine (neurotic as ever, maybe more so, but fine) and proud of all that this year has wrought.

Just a brief summary of how this year has been so pivotal in the way Sam and I live our life - Elizabeth arrives and I stop working full time. We have less money as a family than we ever have. Sam begins to explore "green" options for our home. I begin to explore "frugal" options as part of my stay at home duties. We notice that green and frugal converge in many ways. Furthermore, we see that green and frugal also jive with the way we want to raise our child(ren). Then Obama arrives on the scene and shakes everything up like mad.

2008 has been a wild year for our family.

But I believe that history will look back and see it as a wild, pivotal, important moment for our country and planet as well.

Whew - from my personal journey to a statement about our global heritage. Take that, six degrees of Kevin Bacon!