Well, Hi There

Ummm... Hi.

How have you been? Remember me?

So I took a little break. Yeah. That's it. A sabbatical. A sabbatical from an oft-neglected blog.

But I miss it. So I'm going to try again. Will you come back? I hope so.

Why did I stop in the first place? Besides my short attention span to just about anything?

Well, it's complicated.

I'm going to put it all out there for you.

First of all, I was feeling a little like the only posts I could write were the funny, poke-fun-at-myself types. I like writing those, don't get me wrong, but I'd like to write other stuff. So I'm thinking the New Adventures of Jen will be a little more well-rounded

Kind of like my arse. (Oh my god. Did I really just type that?)

The blog is going to be a little more like me. All over the place. Joking, crafting, cooking, dreaming, savoring, gossiping, bragging and maybe a little bitching.

But I can promise you one thing. It won't be about my love of sports. Well, except maybe my love of drinking beer at Hockey games. I do love that.


And then, well, there was my kids. I was finding, or maybe just feeling, that people in my local sphere were holding some of the stories against me. Kind of expecting certain behaviors from them because of the stories I write about them. My kids are unique. I'm unique. We aren't vanilla. But if you can't love us, then we don't need you around. This is something I'm working on, something I need to fully embrace, but I do believe it.

And then one of the other reasons why I stopped the blog was something a little harder to talk about. Something I'm still struggling with sharing, even as I type this. You see, well one of my girls has a touch of Autism. Just a touch. For reals. Borderline. But still so,so hard to accept. And yes, at this point, almost 2 years after the diagnosis, we are in such a better place. She is doing great. Learning and making strides. And yes, I believe soon, very soon, that it won't be her diagnosis. Or the diagnosis will change to ADHD. Or just pain-in-the-arse tween. My hopes for the blog is to share a little of what we went through, to educate other parents, provide comfort to some. But that part is going to be a challenge for me. It's one of my babies after all. Will I be doing her a disservice by telling all about her? I don't know. Perhaps I will keep it more on what I went through with the diagnosis, not so much about her. We shall see.

But come along, lets see where else my adventures take me!

Blog in Real Life

So one of the tips I read about gaining readers for your blog is to have a link to it under your signature on your email. I figured I'd try this, and it has worked, I've had quite a few people tell me that they have read my blog,and actually enjoy it (wow!)

But this has created a few issues. One being that I often forget to delete it before sending emails to people that I don't really want to read it. AWKWARD. Although, I have to say that most of those have turned out ok. I've actually found quite a few supporters that way.

But the really awkward thing is, well, to sum it up, my life is pretty lame. I don't have a whole lot to say. The things I do have to say usually end up in the blog. So then I'm out, say with the MOM's Club, and I know that several of the Mom's read my blog, or at least have perused it once or twice. So there I am rambling on as I usually do, and I realize crap, I've already said this on the blog. How lame am I? What if I tell it a little differently or something? Will they think I'm a liar? Or just a bore? Cuz like I'm sure there lives are way more exciting - you know in their little stay at home Mom worlds, right?

Then I also notice often that after I'm with people that I know read my blog, that my traffic goes up. Are people checking to see if I write about them? Maybe this is just conceited of me to think, but I know that if I knew someone in real life that blogged, I'd totally do that. In fact, I think I'm going to befriend a blogger in real life, just for that reason.

So today I went to a meeting about the really cool Charter School they are trying to open in this area. One of the men there said to the group - "Jen writes this really cool blog" (how cool was that?) and one woman asks "what is it about?" And I think, hmmm.. I barely know these people - what should I say it's about? The writings of a neurotic stay at home mom who drinks way too much coffee, does embarrassing things and really has nothing of substance to discuss? Is that what it's about? So I just said it's a "family blog". They all looked so disappointed. This probably would of been a good time for that random lieing, errr, storymaking thing I've mentioned to kick in. I could have said "Since I'm now a stay at home Mom, I'm putting my Harvard education to use by discussing the research I did on Neuroscience." Hmmmm I can't even sound intelligent if I make shit up. Oh well.

Which, while I'm on the subject of that meeting. Can I tell you it made me realize something else? I'm totally losing social skills. Just 3.5 short years ago, I could stand up in a meeting and really push to have my thoughts and opinions heard and understood. I feel like I'm reverting back to that awkward 12 year old who was afraid of her own voice. Maybe I just spend way too much time in front of the computer. Or maybe it's my constant companions are 3 and 1 1/2. Arghhh. Event's like that make me think I really need to go back to work. I swear, I contributed nothing, and when I did speak up I stuttered. What the hell?

And now since this post has lost any semblance of cohesion, I want to mention - did you see how I started this post? With the word "so". I'm thinking, I could probably start every post with this word. It's such a great opener for our generation.