The long time no blog 10 things

:: Well, it's been a while. Too long really. I've not been writing my own blog but loving the blogs of others. Some favourites will appear in my blogroll eventually. New to me blogs and old blogs have been in my feed. I still love the list writer's blog and found myself looking through her archives the other evening. This simple activity reminded me of the fact that I indeed did once write my own 10 things post and that maybe I should again.

:: My major creative project of 2012 turned out to be growing baby no.2 (from here on known as LittleR). She made her appearance in mid January 10 days after her Daddy (the ABO) had broken his ankle playing 5-a-side football and 24 hours before a major dumping of snow making crutches, taxis and general getting about difficult.

:: BigR took to her immediately and LittleR reciprocated...although now even I am bored of the phrases "leave her alone" and "you're being too rough".

:: We've all spent a lot of my maternity leave in Italy as the ABO has been based there since summer 2012. It hasn't been the easiest time as he's not happy in his work there. At least this summer we've had the flexibility of being able to spend some months there as a family making his commute less arduous.

:: There is an upside. I've been here and seen this. I've also enjoyed copious amounts of gelato, the best pizza in the universe, coffee and sunshine.

:: We go again for our last trip this Friday. We'll be there for 3 weeks. when we return home I'm expecting Autumn to be in full swing. I really love this time of year. For me it is the time of freshly sharpened pencils, the time when I make resolutions, shake myself up and try out new things. So I'm trying my hand at blogging again. I'm making embroidery plans. I'm cooking and planning. All to be realised later in October.

:: I've cleared out cupboards and drawers and given a ridiculous amount of hoarded things that "I might just need that one day" to the RSPCA shop. This brings me a great sense of wellbeing and smugness. Next is to go through the loft and decide if the baby things are to go.

:: We went for a day out here. I love coming here, there's always something new to see and you can really appreciate the changing seasons. I always wish I'd brought a better camera with me than just using my phone camera. Maybe 2014 is where I should work on the photography?

:: When will I have time for photography? I'm due to return to work in January 2014. With annual leave I will have had over a year away from academia. I'm a bit nervous. One of my closest colleagues will be on maternity leave and there have been other big changes in the office which I've been (so far) able to ignore. I'm also thinking that September is too soon to be thinking about this.

:: Along side this realisation, comes the fact that the paper I was writing before BigR was born in 2009 has been rejected and is due to be worked in 2014. So, I joked that I would have 2 children before it's published and now it's a truth!!