Maternity Leave

Not the kind where you have a baby and are up every few hours feeding, changing and rocking that precious but exhausting newborn nugget. Nope, this is the kind of maternity leave where you realize your world is compressing again, where you shed non-essentials and focus on family. It's the end-of-the-school-year season, and these babies of mine have grown into big, walking, talking, independent creatures with lives of their own, lives that involve lots of carpooling and mommy management. 


Maybe it’s a season where I realize how quickly their youth is slipping away. Or, I’m just terrifically terrible at time management and must neglect the blog, really, the whole internet world, while I make Barbie princess cakes, cheer on my lil' basketball player, applaud band concerts, complete "room parent" duties, etc. My three little monkeys are keeping me busy.

I made it today! Don't
look too closely. Exploding
volcano cakes are my real forte.

And when they go to school and I'm not volunteering there (which seems like EVERY day lately) 
or grading student papers for my teaching job? I’m sitting on my porch double-fisting margaritas. No. Not really. Really, Mom, I’m not. 

Toe Twiddling the Day Away?
Yes. Like a year ago.

But if I were writing regular blog posts, they’d sound slurred, rant-a-vicious or non-sensical. A couple months ago my author/mentor friend gave me her first novel and some words of advice, "Write from the heart." I've lost count of how many books my friend has published, but that first novel of hers, the one based on something that really happened, the "one from the heart"? It quickly became my all-time favorite. So, I've been writing heartfelt (to me) short stories, soul-piercing attempts to make sense of enigmas from the past (Why yes, I am talking about YOU and YOU and THAT). This kind of work gets me in a mood, mostly a foul, weepy one, a mood I have to get over (via kickboxing not tequila) before I pick up the kids. This leaves little time for the sweet, encouraging, "gotta share about the best book I just read" blog posts I'd like to write. So many new good books to write about! 

My two eldest babies and friends running 

into freedom a few years ago. 

Barreling into adolescence 

full-speed these days. 

Bless you out there in the blog world. There has been good news, lots of laughs, interesting info. Glad it’s all archived (unless your best ever post was lost during yesterday's maintenance). And, yep, when I come back to regular blogging, you can assume I’m neglecting my children and have gone back to penning those non-emotionally demanding tales of the Yetti family who move in next door or the picture book about the flamingo family who are professional wrestlers. Actually, that one does make me tear up . . .