You may (or may not) have noticed that I took an unofficial blogging break this summer.

I simply have one word to describe what happened.

Burnout.

I think every blogger knows exactly what I’m talking about. When you start accepting sponsorships and getting paid to write articles, it becomes easy to slip into just producing content to keep up revenue. I felt chained to write things. Instead of being able to pour my heart out on this space, documenting life’s little journeys and DIY mishaps, I felt like I had to “perform”. Little by little, I just started dreading it.

When we left on a 3 week road trip for CA (40+ hours in the car with 2 kids!! Blog post coming soon!), I decided I would take that time as a break. When we got back, we started working hard on our backyard projects (in the Texas summer heat, oh yes we did! Heatstroke WHATTT?), and I decided to take a longer break and just focus on being with family in my spare time.

So, that is how I unintentionally took a 2.5 break from my blog! I knew it wasn’t forever, just enough to give me a rest.

I was able to re-evaluate what I actually want to write about, so I will be sticking to it for the next couple of months. We have been doing a TON of work on our backyard, so I have lots to show. Our big add-on/renovation starts in a few months, so that will also be coming up. I have worked extra hard to set up a neat Montessori home-school room, and we officially begin next week, after Labor Day. I’ve also begun working at a pregnancy care clinic, and attend an adoption training seminar this Wednesday. So much to talk about!!!

In addition, the kids and I will be traveling to SOUTH AFRICA for most of December! My navy brother is getting married to a wonderful girl from Johannesburg, so they decided to have the wedding in her home town. We will be living in an apartment for a few weeks while we see the country and get ready for the wedding (the boys and I are in it). I cannot wait to use this blog to document everything we see and do (I have to learn to drive a car on the WRONG side, while driving on the WRONG side of the road! Ah!).

Unfortunately, Jesse is unable to attend, since he has to teach for his school and attend his PhD courses up until the last minute here in Dallas. Technically, if he left after his last test, he could manage to make it. But he’d spend 40+ hours of air travel, just to be in South Africa for 2 days. And the cost of the ticket would be GINORMOUS that close to Christmas– for one ticket, it would be more than the cost of the boys and I traveling, all put together. Since we will be coming back to Dallas a few days before Christmas, we decided that we could handle a few weeks apart, since it means we will still be together for the holidays. I’m actually kind of excited about doing Christmas the old fashioned way– getting our tree and decorating it Christmas Eve night, then leaving it up until Epiphany in January!

Thank you to all of my readers out there 🙂 We will be seeing each other a lot more soon!