Did you think I’d totally forgotten about this blog?  I wouldn’t blame you if you did.  Four whole months ago I made a passing comment about extending my holiday blogging break due to some craziness in my professional life, and haven’t been heard from since.  Poof!  I was gone.

I’m really sorry about that.  I have a collection of loyal readers and I know that my absence here has been disappointing to many of you.  (Some of you have even flattered me by telling me so.)  And now that I am back I feel that I should provide a bit of explanation.  As you will read below, my head has not been entirely above water these past few months, and something had to give.  Actually, a few things had to give, and blogging was one of those things.  Sometimes real life steps in and demands to be lived rather than pondered.  This was one of those times.

So here’s how it all went down…  (Because I will not try to fully recap four months in one blog post, I’m giving it to you in bullets.)

• Late November – Writing energy flags as my creativity is channeled into Christmas gift ideas, party planning, and other holiday merriment.
• Early December – ADOPTION REFERRAL!!  We were matched with a child and spent the rest of the month scrambling to file immigration documents, referral acceptance paperwork, and many other forms which we hadn’t completed since we weren’t expecting to be matched until spring or summer.
• Late December/Early January – Work demands ramp up to an incredible level.  I pull many 15+ hour days which are (if I’m being diplomatic) “unpleasant.”  Post-holiday blogging return gets postponed.
• Mid-January – The flu hits our house and fells both GAP and me in consecutive bouts over the course of about 10 days.  We concurrently pester our adoption agency about our wait time to travel to Korea.
• Late January – The mayhem of my work life continues.  I leave my job.  We continue to push our adoption agency to get our travel approval granted expeditiously.
• Early February – I kick off a massive job search with the hope of uncovering as many opportunities as possible before we bring our new son home.
• Late February – We travel to Korea for a week to get our son.  He is two years old, completely adorable, and will be known on this blog as JDP.
• March – JDP works hard to overcome jet lag, learn English, learn sign language, adapt to life with brothers, make his peace with many new foods, accept discipline as a regular part of life now, and gain his footing in a completely new existence.  I interview with several companies.
• Late March – I get a job offer!  I accept it!
• April – I try to enjoy my final month of downtime at home, continue to help JDP settle in, and tie up many loose ends before returning to work.

And that brings us to today.  I am now back at work and trying hard to resume our normal routines.  Many of those routines have changed as we adjust to being a family of five, but we’re getting there.  And part of that return to normal includes a return to blogging for me.

Now that I’ve explained the reasons for my little disappearing act, I want to say that the past four months have impressed upon me that blogging is an incredible privilege.  The time, inclination, and resources (mental, emotional, etc.) to wax philosophical about the world around me are not available to everyone.  I am lucky that nine days out of ten they are available to me.  But since the start of 2013 they have not been, and that has prompted me to appreciate more than ever that blogging is – as I might tell my kids – a special treat.

I’ve had many ideas in the past four months of things I’d like to blog about – ideas that, sadly, have come and gone.  No matter.  There will be new ideas and new blog topics.  I plan to resume my twice weekly posting on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  I hope you will come back, resume reading, and offer your thoughts on anything I write.  The dialog, after all, is much of the reason I do.

I’ve missed being here.  And I’m very happy to be back.

All work and no play makes Gale a lousy blogger.

I’d intended to get back to blogging this past week, but I’ve been drowning in work since New Year’s Eve.  I’m not sure that this week is going to be any better.  I wanted to stop by and let you know that I’m hoping to get back here soon.  Just having to delay things a bit.

Happy New Year!

At a quarter to 10:00 last night I was putting the finishing touches on today’s post.  As I went back to add a Category tag I noticed that my Categories box wasn’t there.  I clicked out of my post so that I could click back in, thinking the window hadn’t loaded properly.  When I went to re-enter my post it was gone.

WordPress ate my post.

I couldn’t believe it.  I had no intentions of starting over at that hour, and so here I am with nothing to offer but this “the dog at my homework” explanation.  This is not at all how I’d planned to return from my two-week blogging break.  The only silver lining is that I now have an excuse to participate in the McKayla Maroney is Not Impressed meme, which I’ve been thoroughly enjoying for the past several days.

At any rate, I’m sorry about this.  I will rewrite the post for Thursday, this time in Word since WordPress hasn’t earned my trust back yet.  I hope you had a wonderful time watching the Olympics.  I know I did.  It’s nice to be back, although not as nice as I’d hoped.  See you Thursday!

We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming to glue ourselves to the Olympic Games for the next two weeks.  We will see you back here on August 14th.

***

I’m struggling with some things this week, and before I go down the rabbit hole I thought I owed you all fair warning.  I try not to get too opinionated or political on this blog because I want there to be room for everyone here.  I want you to feel welcome, whether or not you agree with me.  And the best way for me to make you feel welcome is to keep the conversation interesting, but polite. 

Nevertheless, I have a point of view.  I have strong feelings about many things.  And much as I try to keep an open mind, I have very concrete opinions about a couple of topics making national headlines this week.  Namely the Penn State sanctions and James Holmes’ cache of weapons.  After some serious thought, I have decided to address each one in this week’s posts.  So I am here to tell you now that these posts will be opinionated.  But I am also here to tell you that you are free - nay welcome - to disagree with me. 

Also, I will make you a little promise.  After hanging with me through some tough posts on Tuesday and Thursday, I will post something happy, uplifting, and inspiring on Friday.  It was an idea that came to me late last week and was originally on the docket for tomorrow, but I feel compelled to address these other issues first.  It will be your reward for taking on these more difficult topics earlier in the week.

Lastly – and this is not something I often say here – it is a privilege to write this blog.  I am thankful that I have an eager mind and a platform to explore the thoughts that pass through it.  Even more-so, I am flattered and honored that you choose to read my words.  Thank you for being here, for helping me grapple with the world around me, in all of its wretchedness and all of its greatness.  It means a great deal.    

This is the finished side of our basement.  It is the place in our house where IEP did his first crawling.  The place in our house where we watch movies and ball games.  The place in our house that doubles as guest quarters when we have overnight company.  The place in our house where GAP and I have had some of our most important conversations.  It is one of the most-used rooms in our house.

And as you can plainly see it’s a disaster right now.  The original cast iron sewer pipes under our house were corroded and must be replaced.  This means that a crew of men must dig into the ground beneath our house, exhume the old pipes, and put in PVC.  This also means that everything from the basement is now strewn about the first floor of our home.  It looks like crazy hoarders live here.

So, last night as I sat and stared at my computer screen, scanned the web for blogging inspiration, and came up empty handed, I resigned myself to the fact that I just don’t have it in me this week.

I will be back next week.  In the meantime, please keep your fingers crossed that this whole operation goes smoothly!

There once was a blogger named Gale
Who posted each week without fail.*
But try as she might
she just couldn’t write;
last evening her efforts did pale.

So I come to you now with a limerick.
Please don’t think that I’m playing a trick.
For I earnestly thought,
“Make an effort, or not?”
And this is what I could pen real quick.**

But I still bring good wishes for Friday.
And I trust that big thoughts will come my way
over the weekend,
so come back here, my friend,
for something worthwhile on Monday.

Last night the creative juices just weren’t flowing.  I joined all of the boys to walk the dogs.  Then I went out for a run on my own.  Then I came home, bathed and fed SSP, ate a sandwich, watched an episode of Modern Family that was saved in our DVR, made my lunch for today, showered, and went to bed.  Blogging just didn’t figure into the mix.  I hope you’ll forgive me.

Have a happy and safe Super Bowl weekend, and I’ll see you back here next week!

————————————————————–

*I realize that this is a stretch – especially coming on the heels of my hit-and-miss posting during maternity leave – but sometimes we must sacrifice the truth to save the rhyme.

**And sometimes we must sacrifice the grammar to save the rhyme.  For all you adverb mongers (Hi Granddaddy!), I’m fully aware that this should read “really quickly.”

My dance card was full last night and today’s post will be going up a day late.  Please stop back by tomorrow for my delayed Monday thoughts!

1. Picked up IEP at the house and then went to meet GAP at our neighborhood pizza joint for supper.
2. Let IEP wipe pizza sauce all over my shirt when he wanted to snuggle during dinner.
3. Resisted the temptation to have a Coke with my dinner.
4. Sang “Wheels on the Bus” and “Old MacDonald Had a Farm” with IEP before bedtime.
5. Listened to GAP regale me with descriptions of his own happiness at the start of college football season.
6. Surfed the web for blog post inspiration while said college football season played in the background.
7. Laughed with GAP while we folded two loads worth of laundry.
8. Confronted the fact that my housekeeper didn’t show up yesterday and cleaned my bathroom myself because it had become just too gross to ignore anymore.
9. Sadly pondered the fact that with my 34th birthday in a couple of weeks I will have officially entered my “mid-30s.”
10. Wondered whether or not the colds that befell my family this week are waxing or waning.
11. Took some NyQuil (with my OB’s permission since they took the alcohol out of it!)
12. Went to bed early.

I’m taking today off from work, so I figured I’d take the day off from blogging as well.  Hope you’ve had a good week, and I’ll be back on Monday!