After a long hiatus, I finally found my way back here. During these last couple years of silence in this space, life has been moving at warp speed. I’ve graduated my oldest daughter from our homeschool in May 2017, and that August we moved her into her dorm in Chicago. She’s already in her Junior year as she graduated with 27 credit hours (19 of which they accepted). I’m as surprised as anyone to have launched one out of the nest! We still have two daughters at home aged 16 and 11, and we still educate at home. Though our high schooler takes courses with other homeschoolers at our local co-op and online classes through our local public school system. She’s a sophomore and my youngest is in fifth grade.
Though I still create in the kitchen, I’ve also developed new interests and express my creativity in other ways these days. I still love spending time hiking and kayaking in the outdoors. My daily time in nature is how I recharge and replenish my soul. I’ve begun practicing vinyasa yoga at a local studio. It’s calming, centering, and helped me immensely in processing and grieving my dad’s death in June 2017. He battled early onset dementia for 10 years, and passed away at the young age of 64. Other than his dementia, he was totally healthy. I’ve never shared about it here in the past because I found it very painful at the time.
I’ve rediscovered reading fiction after 20 years or so of mainly reading non-fiction, children’s books and educational reading. I’ve always been an avid reader, but around the time I became a mom pleasure reading fiction for fun took a huge hit! My oldest daughter recommended I read Jane Eyre during her senior year (when she was exclusively taking all her classes at our local state college). Fully immersed in that world, I devoured Jane Eyre and moved onto Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca. An atmospheric novel full of mystery and suspense. It’s now one of my all-time favorites. I’m now updating regularly over at Good Reads again, and these last couple years I’ve read many books after discovering which genres are most interesting to me. I’d love to share many books and podcasts I love with you here in the future.
I also had some issues getting this site back up and running, and it took time to get figured out. My Instagram account where I kept up with many of you was unfortunately hacked into and stolen from me this past October. After having that account since 2012, it seems to be gone forever. If you noticed I was missing, that’s why I suddenly vanished. I was very upset, but took this as an opportunity to get started up with Bookstagram. Email me or comment below if you are interested in connecting there, and I’ll find and add you. Just leave me your username.
I miss writing and connecting with all of you! But does anyone read blogs anymore now that You Tube and Podcasts are so popular? I’d be very happy to start sharing here again fairly regularly. Leave a quick comment below if you received this update in your email (if you are a subscriber), or if you’d like to read future posts.