It’s been almost two months since I last posted a blog. I’ve done a pretty decent job of writing most weeks since I started this project back in 2014, posting almost weekly for 8 years. But lately things have been hectic, I’ve been occupied with other hobbies and running the kids around, and I just didn’t know what to write about, so I stopped. In the meantime, several people have told me how much they enjoy reading my posts and I feel bad letting them down, so I’m pledging to get back to it now.

While I was out in Seattle a few weeks ago, my aunt told me that she was inspired by my writing. Though I don’t really do what I would consider creative writing, she was happy to see a family member writing regularly and openly while she was trying to get into writing historical fiction. I feel like that is way harder and aspirational than the simple blog posts I do, but I still felt guilty about abandoning this project for the last two months. While out there, others also mentioned reading my blog and it had become a way for people to meet and get to know me before actually meeting me in person. I don’t want to lose that.

Over the last two months I’ve been pretty busy. We took off for a week at the end of June after school ended and before summer camp started for a family vacation in Cape May. It was the first time we went this early in the year and we actually really enjoyed it. The past two years we had gone right before Labor Day and it often felt like things were already shutting down for the season. While there were plenty of other families there and tons to do, going at the start of the season this time meant we could enjoy concerts at the park, longer hours at restaurants, and the town felt more vibrant and alive. We won’t have the trip to look forward to as we cap off the summer, but it’s fine because this year we’re leaving the country for the first time as a family.

In August, we’re all flying over to Bergen, Norway, then taking a train through the mountains, forests, fjords, and lakes to Oslo, an overnight ferry to Copenhagen, and then flying to Berlin before flying back home. It will be our first international trip since the start of COVID, the first time in Oslo, Copenhagen, and Berlin for the twins, and the first time out of the country for our two year old. We’re anxious about our two year old sleeping on the overnight flight, going crazy on a train for eight hours, and sleeping on the overnight ferry, but these experiences are what make travel fun and exciting.

I also took the aforementioned trip to Seattle, actually Bellevue, for my first work trip since the start of the pandemic. I got to meet people I’ve worked with for the last two years and never seen in person, as well as spend time with them outside of the normal work interactions. It was a quick three day trip which wasn’t enough, but as a first reentry into business travel, it was perfect. I’ll definitely be looking to get back out there and perhaps to visit our team in Toronto this year too.

Even on normal weeks, we’ve been exceptionally busy. We had soccer on Saturdays until recently, then started hockey summer clinics, added hockey skating skills lessons, and registered for a full season of hockey starting in the fall. That’s all on top of the daily camp activities that keep them busy and tired. It also feels like the world has opened up quite a bit again, so every week and especially the weekends, it seems like we’re meeting up with friends and family or running to another activity. It’s greatly reduced the number of hours I’ve had for my hobbies like writing or even reading. I’ve noticed my library book consumption has dropped over the last few months as well.

I’ve also been focusing on creative pursuits around content creation. I started a Youtube channel focused on electric vehicles, our experiences as a family with our Teslas and other Evs, and learning more about how the EV industry is growing and individual stories of people moving to Evs for the first time. I’ve gone a bit overboard, but I’m enjoying creating videos and getting feedback on what works well and what doesn’t to drive interactions. I hope you will check it out if you haven’t already.

It feels like we’re in a new inflection point with COVID too. While the latest variant is seemingly going through every single person I know, including our family back in June, it’s not stopping everyone from starting to get back out into the world in a much bigger way. After two years locked up at home, people are looking to get out and experience the world again. This has major impacts on the economy, but also means for us personally, there’s much more to do outside and away from home. For the first time in what feels like forever, we’re starting to have schedules and plans that resemble our pre-pandemic ones. Lots of things have changed in the meantime, but we’re super busy and look to stay that way for quite some time. With the kids ageing up into more sports, activities, and having playdates and meetups with school friends, and the youngest one approaching the age of starting activities, it feels like we’ll be out and about more than we are sitting at home.

Even so, I would like to find more time to write. Like everything else, it’s not a question of being able to do it, but of finding the time. With so many competing options right now, it’s hard to prioritize the time for writing over anything else. But after a pause over the last two months, I’m ready to get back to it. I enjoy writing. I decided to start this blog eight years ago as a creative outlet to practice writing and make myself stick to the goal outside of the writing I often do for work. I didn’t want it to ever feel like a chore, so I need to get back to writing about the things I enjoy and the fun we’re having. With a busy schedule coming up, there should be no shortage of topics to write about.

One additional thing that kept me from writing all that often was that I had started writing more about larger things going on in the world. I think it’s important to talk about them, whether it’s about parenting, responses to the pandemic, or the big events around the world. However, this started becoming even more depressing. I thought the more I talked about and wrote about these things, the more it would help me process. But instead, it just makes me even more anxious about the world and our culture. I definitely won’t be able to stay entirely away from it, but I think I may need to focus less on these topics to keep myself motivated to write. Time will tell.

It’s unfortunate that I took a step back from my goal of writing every week recently. But I’m going to do my best to get back to it. It’s been incredible to hear from so many people about how much they enjoy this silly blog that I really just write for myself. It’s even more inspiring to hear that it makes a difference to people and serves as inspiration to them in their writing goals. I’ll try to be that role model even more going forward, in addition to using this blog as a way to share the things we’re doing and experiencing to a wide audience. Time to get back to it!