And So It Begins (Again)

I have thought about blogging a lot over the past seven months. Nearly every day something niggles at the back of my mind to make me think I should just sit down and type it out - but always, up until this point, I've shoved it away - not wanting to spend the time. I haven't even read more than a handful of blogs in that time. I've missed my friends, my outlet and my 10-minute break from reality.

A lot has changed in seven months:

• We're buying a house - a very grown-up (and totally out of character for me) thing to do - and a statement, I suppose, that means that we're really here for awhile, no matter what.
• Buying a house and leaving the neighborhood we've inhabited for the past 4.5 years has made me realize how few roots I've put down. I will miss the convenience of being so close to downtown and the canyons. I will miss Woodstock's pre-school and the convenience. But it was startling to realize I'm not really going to miss anything else. I've not fit into my neighborhood very well - "the new girl on the block" mixed in with those who are life-long residents of both The Frontier and the neighborhood. I'm excited for the new adventure - and RIDICULOUSLY excited over my new kitchen. Giddy almost. Best (and most expensive). Christmas. Present. Ever.
  
• I've taken on a very part-time gig as a college instructor (which could be my dream job if it didn't involve going back to school for a ridiculous amount of time and money)
• The Seventies Palace had a Great Flood in late summer that essentially threw the world as I know it off its axis - the mental disruption from which I'm still recovering
• Pebbles had surgery (a congenital hernia repair - relatively minor, unless you're the one in 250,000 people listed on the "what could go wrong" risks sheet that had major life-threatening complications as a result of a "relatively minor" surgery - TWICE - which essentially negates the "relatively minor" term placed in front of any medical procedure for the rest of eternity)
• Woodstock started school - a pre-school program at the local elementary that both she and I love. She loves it because she's Woodstock - insatiably curious, social and independent almost to a fault. I love it because she loves it. And because I adore her teachers.
• I ran a 12k (7.4 miles) race in September - a mere 12 weeks after being able to run no more than a mile without my asthma strangling me. It was my second-biggest personal accomplishment of 2011. Oddly, it awakened me to the realization that I love running. Unfortunately, I also realized that living in The Frontier and having asthma means running in the cold, pollution-filled air of winter is virtually impossible, and it means I've had to take up what a friend terms the "hell-iptical". Alas, far from being as satisfactory as running, but it does offer time to catch up on The Hunger Games - because true to form, I'm several years behind the rest of the world in all that is "popular."
• And my biggest accomplishment of 2011: This week I will finish the Old Testament (no small feat, given that I read it last year cover-to-cover, and so I still remembered in great detail the challenge it was to slog through Leviticus. But not only that, it marks the accomplishment of a goal I had this year - to read all of the works included in our church's canon: Old & New Testaments, Book of Mormon, Doctrine & Covenants and Pearl of Great Price - cover to cover - in 2011. I did it. (Or will - I have 38 pages left in the Old Testament, my last work in 2011). I've gained an entirely new appreciation of scripture, doctrine and the above works this year - as reading them all one after the other in succession has helped me realize how closely the are intertwined. Reading 7+ pages a day of scripture has also solidified the foundation of my faith and made me realize what a great blessing it is in my life.

2011 has been a year of incredible turmoil in the sense of "life is never ever still" - and at the same time has brought some really good things (reference the new kitchen line above). Hopefully, the very end of 2011 also brings a return to blogging. I desperately need an outlet.