Dear Reader,
I do not quite know how to begin a post here after such a long absence. I can give no eloquent explanation for why I suddenly stopped writing blogs for over a year. I just got busy doing other things, I suppose, and was perhaps feeling a bit uninspired. But lately I have been longing to get back here and write again, so I decided to make writing regular posts (hopefully weekly!) one of my projects for 2025. I have a lot of ideas for topics, but first, I think a general life update is in order!
Six months ago, almost to the day, our family moved to Aurora, Colorado after spending the last three and half years in Bluefield, West Virginia. My husband got a new job at a Christian university nearby, and the move allowed us to be closer to my family for a change. It was a big transition, not without its challenges, but we have all adjusted pretty well at this point. Two of the hardest parts of this move were leaving our house that we had worked so hard to renovate and turn into a home we were really proud of, and leaving our amazing church family that had loved us so well in such a short amount of time. Here, we are trying to make the best of living in a rental house again, and we are still waiting for the Lord to lead us to our next church home while serving wherever we can in the mean time.
Colorado is such a contrast to West Virginia, even though both are mountain states. The weather in WV was so wet and gloomy, whereas here it is sunny and dry most of the time. I do not miss the cloudy days, although I do wish we could have a tiny bit more moisture here, too. Bluefield was a small town somewhat in decline, and living in a suburb in the Denver metro is nothing like life in WV. But it’s not the first city my husband and I have lived it, and I do enjoy having so many opportunities to enjoy the arts and culture scene that city life offers. The great thing is that Colorado has just as many (or more!) great places to hike and explore the outdoors, and the kids and I have also found a group of wonderful, likeminded homeschool friends to spend time with here.
As I look ahead to the coming year and think about what I would like to share here on the blog, some things come to the forefront of my mind right away. Our kids are older now, and they don’t require a whole lot of supervision these days. Our homeschool hours, of course, do still take up a lot of my time, but I have found a new freedom to return to creative pursuits that I haven’t had in a while. Knitting and sewing have taken the front seat in my free time lately, and I would like to share more about those pursuits here, in part to encourage me to finish projects and not just plan or cast things on. I am still a lover of all things bookish, although the past year found me struggling to stick with books I had started much of the time. I think that blogging about my reading life again will help me stay on track, and I am planning to join one small reading challenge in 2025, which I will write about some other time. Also, because our rental house has yard space but terrible soil and lots of trees to cast shade, I will be starting a container garden this spring. I might take you all along for the ride!
So that is my plan for the coming year! In addition to writing on a weekly basis, I hope to give the whole blog a facelift in the coming months, so don’t be surprised if things start looking a little different in this space soon. I look forward to sharing some of my little life with you all again, and I am energized with the idea of a fresh start.
See you next week!
Kiel
