Ten years ago I started my first blog as a way to record life events for myself and for family. Over time, it evolved into a way to share and partake in a community of bloggers and, especially, women who provided the digital equivalent of an informal "salon" in the intellectual sense.
Ten years ago I was a newly-wed and a new first-time mom, living in a two-bedroom apartment in suburban Northern Virginia. Money was tight but we were young and invincible, and I was naively certain that the biggest challenges of my life were behind me.
Today, I am a stay-at-home mom to 4 kids - 3 boys and a very spoiled baby girl - living in suburban Seattle. We are no longer so young. The challenges we have faced in the last 10 years have been, at times, more than we thought we could survive, but I am no longer naive enough to expect that the hardest days are behind us. I fully accept that the biggest challenges may be yet to come.
In the last ten years I have learned that I have a deeper well of strength than I would ever have believed possible, and a network of friends and loved ones standing at the ready to cushion my fall. I have learned that my marriage can survive the crucible of life; for better or for worse are no longer esoteric concepts, but the realities of a life together that we continue to build and nurture every day. I have learned that I can be imperfect, even fractured, and still be a worthy soul. I have learned that our imperfections are what make us real.
Ten years is forever and a blink.
Today I am starting again.
My name is MeL and I am a writer, an artist, a baker, a cook, a yarn geek, a great friend, a terrible dancer, a wife, a mother, a confirmed weirdo and (I hope) a pretty decent human being.
If you were with me for any of the last ten years at Stay At Aum Mom, I thank you and invite you to continue this journey with me. If you're new here: Hello! It's lovely to meet you and, my, don't you look lovely today!
