A Return to Blogging, But How?

Well, hello everyone. It’s been a while!

I love how every time I take a break from this blog I have ridiculous expectations about when I will be able to return. In my What Month Is It post I said perhaps I would be back around Christmas.

HA.

Anyway. Happy mid-January and happy 2021. We’re off to quite the crazy start wouldn’t you say? I knew it wasn’t practical to go into 2021 thinking all our troubles from 2020 would be behind us, but I don’t think anyone expected quite the madness of the past few weeks. However, it is still a new year and while I don’t put a ton of stock in New Year’s resolutions, I do like to take a minute to reflect on the previous year and set intentions for the next one.

Of course, one of my goals for 2021 is to return to blogging. But how?

The end of 2020 brought about the birth of my daughter. She made her way earthside on November 5 via induction. While the process resulted in a healthy baby girl and a (mostly) healthy momma, I’m still not wholly comfortable talking about my birth story. I wouldn’t go so far as to say it was traumatizing, but it did have some dramatic moments.

We then entered an eight-week period filled with sleepless nights, breastfeeding struggles, and a bit of a dive into postpartum depression. Thankfully, I have the most wonderfully supportive husband in Sean and we’ve all made it through the worst of the postpartum period. I truly don’t know how I would have survived those first crazy weeks without him.

Perhaps I will share my story someday, but for now, the most important thing is we are all healthy and doing fine. She’s now nearly 11 weeks old and sleeping in longer stretches which helps my mental health tremendously. She’s also become more of a person and less of an angry fetus who was forcibly evicted from her cozy womb. The Fourth Trimester is very real. (Seriously, check out this article about how even full-term babies are born too soon. It blew my mind.) 

All that said, I’m still struggling with how much of my daughter I want to share with the internet. We’ve posted a few photos on Facebook, but I’m not planning to share her name anytime soon. I also haven’t shown her face on other social media. It’s a strange balance of trying to protect her privacy and keep everyone up to date on the latest adorable thing she’s learned. Her smiles are to die for. I’m sure my stance will evolve, but for now, we’ve decided to keep her largely off the internet.

The other issue with returning to this blog is simple: how do you have a travel blog when you can’t (or won’t) travel? Our current Foreign Serivce posting is Washington, DC so we’re just home in Maryland for the foreseeable future. Plus, the pandemic is still raging and between that and a newborn, we have no plans to go anywhere anytime soon. The only travel I can see on our horizon is a trip home to Wisconsin sometime this summer. Maybe. If the pandemic is under control.

Maybe.

Which brings me to my question: what would you like to see from this blog? I’m happy to return to some of my old series – book reviews, restaurant roundups, etc., but I’m also thinking of repackaging some of my old trips into more comprehensive guides and writing more about Maryland once spring and summer rolls around. I’m sure I will also share some silly parenting stories as Sean and I figure things out and hit different stages in her development. But if there’s something in particular you’d like me to talk about – especially travel or Georgia related – let me know in the comments.

I hope you had a lovely holiday season and are continuing to stay safe and healthy. Onward to a better 2021!