Starting Over

It's been a long, long time since I've even thought about blogging, but things have changed so much (and then again, so little) in our lives lately that I feel like I'm at a place where I'm really excited about and ready to commit to this whole blogging thing again  (cue the chorus of Foreigner's "Feels Like the First Time"). 

I find myself with much, much more free time now that I'm not teaching and my eldest is in school all day.  So much time!  What to do? For starters, I've found myself falling in love all over again with another old flame: books.  I've been reading voraciously.  I've read more in the past two months since we moved to Evanston than I probably did in the 1-2 years that preceded our move (not counting things I had assigned for my classes, of course), maybe even in the five+ years since my first child was born. There are so many wonderful books out there. It is truly lovely to actually have the time to enjoy them. After several trips to the local new and used bookstores I quickly realized I needed to cut back on my book expenditures (seeing as how I'm not working more than very part-time at one of said local bookstore), which allowed me to rediscover the wonders of the library system.  So many books just begging to be taken home.  The kids and I spent some time there yesterday, and left with a huge bag full of books for them and for me.  It was lovely.  I'm already halfway through one of the five books I picked up for myself, and it's wonderful. 

I've also decided to try to teach myself how to do some things I've been wanting to learn but haven't had the time to until now.  For starters, I've decided to teach myself how to use the manual settings on my camera.  I'm inspired by my good friend, Erin, who's self-taught and takes the most amazing pictures. If I can be half or even just a quarter as good as her, I'll consider it a success. Maybe I'll teach myself web design.  The sky's the limit (although it does not extent to learning physics. Since I'm married to a physicist I'll just let him be the one in our family to be knowledgeable about the subject).  I'm excited to actually have the time to start to be able to do things and learn things that are just for me. 

I imagine this blog will morph into an amalgam of several things: some book reviews of the things I read on here, updates on my "do-it-yourself" projects, as well as my random musings about my life, the world, and motherhood. I hope you enjoy what follows.