Long time gone....

Ok, so the title is also a song from one of my absolutely favorite bands. A group of uppity working mothers who get in trouble for their outspoken opinions and are recognized for their musical ability. I thought it was an appropriate intro for someone who's been MIA for more than an entire year. Where have I been? I've been around and I've been busy-just not busy blogging. Or gardening. Or cooking. But busy living and adding to life.

For starters, the whole family went to Tuscany for 14 days during the summer. I finally managed to make it off the North American continent and took everyone else with me. That experience was so wonderful that I'm not sure I can share it in such a public forum-even a year after. Does that seem odd? Maybe I'll be able to share with a larger audience after I go on my second international trip. For now, it seems like a wonderful dream. Part of me is afraid that we won't get to do it again despite plans shaping up now to visit Germany within the next 12 months.

Even though I was in a culinary mecca, with my husband and my son-I still managed to lose weight. How is that possible? Well, it probably had something to do with the bun in my oven. See, I was in Italy, my dream of dream vacations and I was 9 weeks pregnant! When I'm pregnant (and for several months after giving birth), I am always reminded of Flowers for Algernon. If you've read it, you get exactly what I mean here. If you haven't then you should go ask one of your early English teachers how they feel about failing you so profoundly. Anywho...a newly mothered or very pregnant me is literally incapable of cooking. The thought processes involved are too much for me. The planning and the chopping and the mechanics of the stove....well, if I do muster up the energy, the results are haphazard and sometimes dangerous. I avoid too much in depth cooking while preggers or with a small baby. Much less cooking and then writing it down and including pictures. Hah! It would take about 6 months just to get one blog post together.

Right around Christmas we became a happy family of four and I'm slowly returning to myself in the cathartic process called 'getting more sleep'. I am discovering some new traits as I become reacquinted with myself. See, when you have a baby you effectively loose yourself in the growing and care of that little person. You are so removed from the 'you' that you've created (assuming that the normal you is a showering, clean-clothing wearing, socially inclined person at all) that you can put yourself back together in new and exciting ways. Since having my daughter, I've discovered a whole new depth of femine tastes that have been latently existent within myself. I actually like (some shades of) pink now and *gasp* will put on makeup now. I have silly daydreams about shopping with my future teenage daughter for prom. I wonder if she will actually want to take dance and whether I want her to take it. (For reference, I was forced to take dance, be a cheerleader, and enter pageants at a fairly early age. I rebelled as a teenager and young adult and refused to curl my hair or wear lipstick for a decade. Not because I don't like the way I look but because I wanted to be SURE that you were my friend/spouse etc for what was inside of me instead of the outside. In short, I made myself as unattractive physically as I was able to prove a point. ) Now I feel the point is proved. I can move on. However, I wonder where this new mother daughter thing will take me as it has already reintroduced me to the joy of accessories.

Ok, so I digress. The point is that I'm back! Not with a vengeance or in fact, with a recipe. But back with a raspberry and the promise of more later.....