Hi.

Seventeen months. 

That is how long it has been since I've touched this blog! 

I never meant to disappear.  There was a perfect storm of circumstances that lead me to walk away for awhile, and I've been pondering if, how and when to come back.  Blogging has gotten really weird, at least as a professional endeavor.  Having always looked upon this place as something to be treated professionally, and aspirationally as a source of income, the weirder things got in the blogging world, the more ambivalent I felt about Sweet Mama Jane.  I've seen bloggers really trade on their children's privacy and identity for profit, and I've seen sponsorships lead to some really bizarre bedfellows and insincere and strange posts (whole foods blogger shilling for a diet drink company, I'm looking at you).   I don't read many of the blogs I used to (or many at all any more) because the whole thing left such a bad taste in my mouth.  I was feeling like I just didn't want to be a part of the blogosphere anymore.

Then, as far is this blog in particular went, there were so many things I wanted to do -- a site overhaul, a better logo, some different navigation -- that I would get completely overwhelmed and kind of throw my hands up when I couldn't seem to make time for it all (or any of it, actually).  My little guy doesn't nap like my older dude did, and when he does I like the QT with my eldest (and the time to, you know, shower), so POOF! there went my writing time.  2013 was a pretty exhausting year, if a good one. We moved. Again.  Same town, new house, but another move nonetheless.  And just like that, a year and half went by, and this place has just simmered.  I've missed it, and pondered how to take it up again on my own terms.

Two things made me feel like I might want to start blogging again.  One is what I think is probably the best food blog around at the moment, Dash and Bella.  Phyllis Grant, the writer, has two kids and as wild a schedule as the rest of us.  She uses a completely unembellished .blogspot template -- no cute logo, no gimmicky sidebar.  She does impromptu yoga handstands against her fridge when her kids make her insane.  She drinks a lot.  She swears in her posts.  And she posts whenever the spirit moves her and she cooks something stellar -- sometimes that is every week, sometimes it is every other month -- but she keeps it going.  I love her. Reading her made me feel like it would be okay if I never got a sponsor or did anything else to make this blog pretty, or even got around to a regular posting schedule again.  If you're just doing something from the heart, it can be totally on your terms.  It is a freeing and inspiring notion.

The other thing that lit a fire under me to get back here was an amazing batch of tortilla soup + two old friends. I cooked up a delicious soup yesterday that looked particularly photogenic in the soft spring light, so I Instagrammed it before digging in.  Two great old friends, who I've felt less connected to since I stopped blogging, both commented to suggest I blog it.  So sweet.  I miss them and the readers like them and the sense of community and sharing SMJ used to bring me.  I really would like to take a stab at writing here again.

So, I'm back.  I might not write here as often as I used to or even as I'd like to, but I'm going to give it a try.  If anyone is still out there, I'd love to have you back as well.  I'm writing up the tortilla soup recipe and I can't wait to share it.  Stay tuned, friends…

Sunrise from our new house.
New beginnings all around...