A Perfect 10.

Ten years ago I started this journal - first as a way to record life events for myself and for family.  Over time, it evolved into a way to share and partake in a community of bloggers and, especially, women who provided the digital equivalent of an informal "salon" in the intellectual sense.

Today I am starting it anew.

Ten years ago I was a newly-wed and a new first-time mom, living in a two-bedroom apartment in suburban Northern Virginia.  Money was tight but we were young and invincible, and I was naively certain that the biggest challenges of my life (of which, to be fair, there had been several significant ones) were behind me.

Today, I am a stay-at-home mom to 4 kids - 3 boys and a very spoiled baby girl - living in suburban Denver.  Money is still tight but we are no longer so young.  In 2011 I was diagnosed with a Mood Disorder.  In 2012, my husband was diagnosed with Temporal Lobe Epilepsy.  Our eldest child continues to defy diagnosis, but has a collage of features from the Autism Spectrum and likely Mood Disorder.  The challenges we have faced in the last 10 years have been, at times, more than we thought we could survive, but I am no longer naive enough to expect that the hardest days are behind us.  I fully expect that the biggest challenges may be yet to come.  This no longer terrifies me.

In the last ten years I have learned that I have a deeper well of strength than I would ever have believed possible, and a network of friends and loved ones standing at the ready to cushion my fall.  I have learned that my marriage can survive the crucible of life; for better or for worse are no longer esoteric concepts, but the realities of a life together that we continue to build and nurture every day.  I have learned that I can be imperfect, even fractured, and still be a worthy soul.  I have learned that our imperfections are what make us real.

My name is MeL and I am a mother, a writer, an artist, a baker, a cook, a yarn geek, a great friend, a terrible dancer, a confirmed weirdo and (I hope) a pretty decent person.

Ten years is forever and a blink.  If you were with me for any of the last ten, I thank you and invite you to continue this journey with me.  If you're new here - Hello! It's lovely to meet you and you look spectacular today.