Time, Sweet Time.

We need time to dream, time to remember, time to reach for the infinite. 

Time to be. 

[Gladys Taber]

One upon a time, I started a blog.

I had a brand-new husband, a silky soft golden retriever puppy, a little old house in an urban neighborhood, and an entry-level corporate PR job. We spent our limited funds on beer and wine, one-night staycations in fancy downtown hotels, and lots of dinner dates. 

It was frivolous and fun, and I was full of ideas and dreams and plans for the future.

In the three years that followed, many of those ideas took root. Lots of those dreams came true. And some of those plans became reality.

But reality these days looks very, very different from my life back then.

Now my husband and I have two golden retrievers who are adorable, but also itchy and stinky. We live in a big old house in the middle of nowhere, where seemingly everyone owns a gun and a pickup truck. My new gig doesn't exactly pay very well, though it's a lot more personally rewarding. And we spend our money on hypoallergenic dog food, area rugs, and so. many. diapers.

For lo, we love babies in this house.

The best dream of all came true when our Jack was born - although the honest truth is that it felt like a bit of a nightmare in the first few colicky months. But he blossomed into the happiest, funniest, and most beautiful chubby baby - and is now such a happy, funny, and handsome chubby toddler that we'd like another, please and thank you. In the next few weeks, actually.

And that brings me back to blogging again. I've really missed it.

My last blog, Keep Calm and Carrie On, was a way to chronicle a wonderful, mostly carefree time in my life. But things look so vastly different now, I thought it was time for a fresh start. With two kids under two, in a new town where we know exactly no one, "calm" is not a word I would associate with my life anymore.

As the new year begins and this pregnancy draws close to the end (please oh please, let it be over soon), I think a much more fitting word to describe the state of Stevenson affairs is "sweet." I don't mean that in a sugar-coating sort of way.

Frankly, it can be lonely in a new, rural area in the middle of winter. It's often tiring being the full-time caregiver of a crazy-active toddler while nine months pregnant. And it's easy to dwell on those negative thoughts and feelings after the holidays end.

But we have so much real, deep sweetness in our life, and that's what I want to focus on. That's what I want my babies to feel throughout their childhood. Warm fireplaces and stinky, lovable dogs and parents who laugh a lot. Cookies and stroller walks and endless readings of "The Three Snow Bears" and "Red Truck."

No matter where we find ourselves, I want to create a small, sweet space for our family to call our own.

So this new blog is my way of sharing the sweetness. Welcome!