And just like that...she's back.

I figured taking a nine month break from blogging would make me appear mysterious. Who was that blogging lady with the kids? Where did she go? Did she vanish? I miss her sleepy, tired eyes.
Don't worry. You can still your beating hearts. I'm still here.

I must mention that a dear friend passed away this week. I was her visiting teach for as long as I can remember. I grew to love her. My week has been sad. I find myself puttering about the house finding ways to deal with my sadness. To keep my mind occupied. I made a long, complicated dinner (Sean liked it), placed an Amazon order for books, ate some chocolate chips.

I'm hoping to use my sadness as a reminder that life is fragile, to be grateful, and  enjoy each day.

Below is a brief summary of the past little while. Most of my photos are hanging out on my phone, but I found some of the good ones. 

Jared's first day of preschool.

Gracie realized everyone was wearing the same color. This was terribly exciting and required a picture.

Gracie's first day of first grade. Notice her pose. Knee turned in, toe pointed, hand flexed. She's good at stuff like that.

Rory thinking her mom has officially lost her mind.

This might just be my favorite picture of all time. It pretty much sums up my feelings about competitive sports. The apple didn't fall far from the tree, my friends. Wouldn't we all rather be home eating a fruit snack and watching Star Wars? Needless to say, Jared wasn't on the most winning team.

The thing is...

I haven't posted since, oh the end of February. I did a little family update, fully expecting to do another one. But then I didn't. And I didn't really want to. Not sure what happened. Maybe I felt overwhelmed by the millions and billions of voices already on the Internet. Surely, mine wasn't important and no one cared. Maybe it was because motherhood was taking every ounce of spare energy I had, because it was. Or maybe I was simply over blogging.

Also, I'm a very private person. I keep most of my opinions to myself. I find I would much rather listen to someone and get their opinions then make sure mine are heard. I've always been that way. I find it serves me well. I can leave a conversation knowing  a lot about a new friend. But when I blog I have to talk about myself and my family and I find I'm not good at it.

But then, my cute sister asked me to blog again. She likes what I have to say. Even if it's usually about my kids. Because they are always on my mind.

So, here I am, because someone asked. Maybe that's all I needed, or maybe I needed a break. Don't we all need breaks?

I'm horrible at taking and posting pictures.

And I spend all my free time either working on my novels or stitching. So that might be a bore as well. But I am going to start trying to keep those who care up to date about the comings and going of my tiny world.

So, I will now post pictures of my darling kiddos. They have grown quite a bit. :)
Um...turns out, all our best photos are still hanging out on our phones. Better not lose those!

Until next time - Autumn