Two thousand and ten.. or twenty ten..?

These are the questions that keep me up most nights.

Actually. Benjamin is what keeps me up most nights.

I'll start by apologizing for my lackluster blog activity over the past year. Trust me.. 2009 was just one of "those years". I turned 35. Nothing good can come of that.

I'll continue by withdrawing my apology. To be honest.. I didn't feel like blogging. For me, blogging is a way of working out ideas. I had no ideas in 2009. Trust me.

There were a lot of ups and downs last year. I won't bore you with the details.. it would take me days (probably months) to summarize all of the stories that I would have shared if I had felt like sharing. Those stories will probably find their way into new blog posts in one form or another. I have lots of photos that will also find their way here in one form or another.. contrary to popular belief.. a teacher has a life outside of school.. and a blogger's life goes on with or without the blog.

That said.. I miss writing. I miss making myself laugh.. yes.. I make myself laugh. I miss writing about seemingly boring and mundane aspects of my life and then looking back a year or two later and marveling at how crazy and random life can be. I will look back on 2009 and see very little.. Trust me.. it's better to run around with your eyes closed tight and your fingers jammed in your ears while singing the Alphabet Song than it is to document every second of your life.

I'm thinking positively. 2010 is a work in progress. I have lots of big things planned. Absolutely everything in my life is under construction at the moment. This blog is one of those things.. I'm not sure whether I'll post daily or monthly.. or maybe I'll change the font color of the blog daily but not actually write anything.. so many options..

It's 9:47 on a Monday night. Benjamin may be asleep. If he is asleep.. it will be a victory for Shiela.. she has taken care of bedtime duty tonight. I spent the first hour in silence watching the Food Network with the volume on the TV turned down. Then, I thought.. "hey.. I should write."

So here I am.

Last night... I had bedtime duty. I failed. Ben won. After being knocked in the head twice with a half-full sippy cup (it sounded like a cast-iron frying pan hitting my noggin).. and a few yelling and thrashing sessions (on my part).. Shiela stepped in. Both Benjamin and I had to have a time out and Ben finally dozed off while I seethed in the other room.

Of course.. the peace only lasted until about 2am.. when Ben came into our room.. climbing in between us.. very sweet.. right? That was GREAT until about 20 minutes later when Shiela had a dream about a big bug and woke up swatting at Benji.. waking him up.

It's now 9:55pm. I hear snoring. It is either Nanook... or Ben. *cross fingers* Wish us luck.. we REALLY need more sleep!