Sixteen months later

So, where was I?

Oh, that’s right—totally AWOL from my own blog for the past 16 months, that’s where! I’m not one for excuses or anything, but in my defense I have been busy. I mean, really busy. Like, oh, Penny and I now have a second child kind of busy. (Welcome to the blogosphere, Madeleine Skye Roberts! Readers of this blog may remember her as the fetus formerly known as “Sprout” when last I wrote.)

Anyway, yeah. Busy. Here’s what you missed.

Me and Madeleine

Kids

• Madeleine was born last summer. She’s gorgeous and goofy and, along with her big brother Ethan, absolutely the light of my life.
• Also, she never sleeps.
• Ever.

Creative Endeavors

• I finished the first draft of my young adult novel, The Witches of Coven Hill, last July. At 100,000 words, it’s the biggest thing I’ve ever finished in my life.
• I plan to start revisions later this month. Stay tuned for updates and writing samples.

House

• New kitchen! We ripped out the 1950s decor last May. It no longer even remotely resembles the hideously green-tiled locker room from my high school gym.
• So, that’s a bonus.
• New basement! We had enough of the annual spring flooding, so we put in an extensive waterproofing system and then, just to prove we’re completely crazy, decided to add 500 square feet of livable space: TV room, kids’ play room, office, bathroom, and laundry room. Should be done in the next few weeks. Pictures to come.

Work

• Still chugging along happily as managing editor of SmarterTravel, a TripAdvisor-owned travel website responsible for such phenomenally cool content as Where in the World? (a daily photo guessing game) and World’s Scariest Airports.
• Also home to the very best coworkers on the planet. True story.

You might be wondering—or not—why I’ve decided to pick this up again after 16 months. Honestly? I guess I just like being able to look back weeks, months, even years later, and remember all the cool stuff my family was up to. (Plus, little things, like the fact that Ethan used to call marshmallows “marshmuscles” until he was two. I totally would have forgotten that if I hadn’t written it down somewhere.)

So this blog is like a time capsule for my kids’ childhoods and my adventures in parenting. And writing. And home-owning. And pop culture watching. And all the other stuff that makes life interesting. Somehow, it seems more substantive than looking back over all my old Facebook updates.

Anyway, that’s 16 months in a nutshell. It feels good to be back.