If you’ve been checking in at my blog recently, and are a very keen and observant reader, you may have noticed an ever-so-slight drop-off in the number and frequency of postings. There is a reason for this, and at the moment he is rolling around on the floor shouting “Da-Da” and attempting to gnaw on the computer’s electrical cords.
We won’t even go into what my garden looks like, except to say that the Interior Department is thinking of designating it as a protected wilderness area. Sometimes when I step out the door I think I hear banjos…
Having a baby and a full-time job doesn’t leave a whole lot of time for a garden or a garden blog, so I’ve been thinking of letting one of those four items go.
My son makes me smile and laugh more than I ever did before, so I think I’ll keep him.
My garden I’ll keep because it’s there more than anywhere else that I can sort of hear the voice of God. Plus it has lots of cool snakes and many excellent bugs.
My blog gives me an excuse to write about my mental illness, neighbors who throw dead squirrels into my yard, Bobby Earl (my redneck alter ego), and to confess to the larceny of leaves from my neighbors’ trash piles. So the blog is too much fun to give up.
I have this job, though, which I started about a year ago. It’s fine in most all respects, except for the fact that I am expected to be in a chair, in an office, early in the morning when the dewdrops are glistening in the sunlight and the birds are chanting their morning carols. 
I am expected to remain there throughout the morning, when my mind is the most creative. That would be all right because I have a desk and computer, but there are so many other duties to attend to that I have not had time to compose a single blog post at work the entire time I have been there. (I complained to my boss about this but have yet to see a reduction in my workload.)
I do get a break for lunch, when I often go to a picnic table in the woods beside a small stream, but…and you are not going to believe this…I am expected to go BACK to my office after lunch and continue to work. Meanwhile, the sun is getting lower and lower in the sky and weeds are not getting pulled, daylilies are not getting divided, and mulch is not getting spread.
This is going to be the easiest decision I’ve ever made.
Hm. I am interested in what you mean by this all.
I found that one day, my old blog didn’t fit me anymore, but I loved the medium to give up. So I started a new one!
I hope you continue to write in some form or another.
Hi Katie,
Just a little humor post about how work has a way of interfering with the things I really want to do. I’ll be keeping the blog (and baby!)
Some days, I’m glad I work outside. Don’t ask me in February.
Glad to hear I’m not the only one! I had these wonderful fantasies about my (spring) maternity leave, that the baby would sleep for 2-3 hours at a time, my garden would look amazing and I’d get to curl up with all the books I’d been longing to read…
Instead, my best crop is weeds — of all shapes, colors and heights. My dog has turned into a lioness stealthily creeping through the “savannah grass” stalking her prey. Oh well. She’ll get one year to enjoy it before I’m back on top of it all.
I abhor having office hours on campus when it’s nice out, then no students come by. At least I have a window for the first time in 10 years! Can you imagine? I could leap out from teh 3rd floor at any moment and fly with the birds, embrace the maple’s limbs, sing live live live…. (do you have a window nearby at least?)
I have missed your writing! Glad to hear from you today. Your baby is adorable BTW.
As you can see, I don’t check in every day! He’s a beautiful baby, and he deserves more of your attention than your blog does. That being said, I’ll keep checking back from time to time just to see how you and he are doing. Maybe a slight shift during the winter months into “how does your baby grow” instead of “how does your garden grow” might be in order? I’ll keep checking back.