Photo: tibchris on Flickr

Here we are at the start of a new year… a new decade… a new era… and a new blog theme.

The Olympics are coming to Vancouver; I have a brand new baby boy; I’ve just begun a year without my day job and I feel like I’m poised on the edge of a cliff, waiting in anticipation of what twists and turns 2010 will bring.

I stopped blogging for a long time. I don’t want to become a “Mommy Blogger”. I don’t believe being a mom is everything I am nor will it ever be, but certainly the past few months have left me with little else to think about. Now that mini-boy is here and mini-man is a big brother I have had some time to think more about how I’d like to take advantage of the upcoming year and the opportunity it presents.

For so long I told myself if I had another child I’d make the most of a year’s maternity leave and try and make my way as a self-employed marketing consutant/contractor with a goal of being self-sufficient and 100% self employed by the time mini-man starts full time school in September 2011. I started blogging; I connected with a host of very skilled people and thought leaders via social media in order to equip myself with the knowledge to move forward confidently; I worked my LinkedIn and Twitter connections and built Urban Shore to draw attention to myself in the local business community. I spent countless hours outside of my day job working towards this goal… it was no small investment. Just ask big-man or mini-man. They’ve both seen far more of the back of me at my computer than they ever should have had to.

Now that my second maternity leave has finally presented itself, I hesitate to keep it up.

I love what I do. I love my day job; I love solving problems; I love communicating with people; I love influencing people and I love seeing the direct results of my efforts. But this year of complete and total uncertainty presents a very special opportunity to do… well, anything.

See, not only am I home every day with my two kids, but big-man has been off work for over a year too. He’s on WorkSafe BC benefits from an injury to his arm that he sustained on the job last December. Now, after months of physiotherapy, surgery and rehabilitation, he’s been told his arm will never be fixed enough to go back in to construction so he’s negotiating for training in another field. Neither of us knows how much longer he’ll be on benefits, nor do we know what the future might have in store for him.

You might think the safe bet might be the best bet in a situation like ours… but for months now I’ve been feeling a pull towards focusing my efforts on other things. Things I’ve wanted to do for a long time. Things I think I was created to do. Things that can and will make a difference in the lives of those around me. And I really don’t care if it will never become lucrative.

I want to spend more quality time enjoying my kids. I want to spend more time enjoying my husband and, let’s face it, being a better wife. I want to spend more time investing in my friends and family… really connecting with them. I want to spend more time enjoying the outdoors, both alone and with my family. And I want to spend more time writing music.

So here’s to a new beginning… of what? I’m not sure. We’ll have to wait and see.

If you could do anything in the world and you knew you couldn’t fail and money was no object… what would you choose to do with your life?

My husband and I are expecting another addition to our family.

That, actually, is the reason for the decision to sell our home and figure out how to add another bedroom to our inventory. It’s also the reason why I haven’t written a thing – because every thought I have has to do with this new baby, my career, my home, my future, and where it’s all going to end up.

First things first: I’m 15 weeks along and doing well. I love being pregnant. I tend to be pretty healthy when I am – so far I haven’t been sick and the worst of my symptoms between this and my last pregnancy has been indigestion, fatigue and carpal tunnel (which comes later; I can already feel it coming on). I’m actually way more relaxed when I’m pregnant too – the hormones seem to agree with me and I take on a way more chilled out personality.

The bigger challenges have been keeping the secret off of Facebook – I told a few friends and my family but of course didn’t want my boss and co-workers finding out from Facebook. Not only because it’s poor form (I think, anyway) not to tell them personally, but because there are some personnel shifts going on and I had been trying to hold off while securing myself exactly what I want as a return-to-work option following my maternity leave.

I’m due January 1st, so I’ll be leaving work around Christmas time and I do plan to take a full year off. I kind of feel like I owe it to this baby to do so given that I’m entitled (thanks to our awesome maternity leave program in Canada) and I did with mini-man. That, however, is not ideal given the industry I’m in and the timing of the 2010 Winter Olympics but the good news is just about everything that needs to be planned will be planned by the time I leave… what will remain will be mostly execution.

Regardless, I couldn’t wait any longer to say anything; I’m suddenly beginning to grow out of most of my pants so I was beginning to develop a complex over everyone at work thinking I was just putting on weight. Yeah, I have some issues in that department.

So now with that out f the way, I feel like I can breathe a sigh of relief that the whole world now knows.

Life is going on as usual. Work is busy; I’ll be speaking as part of a panel on Social Media use for the resort industry for the virtual ResortXpo on July 16th. Then, the following week I’m taking the week off for my camping trip with a girlfriend to go and enjoy Creationfest Northwest at The Gorge, WA. I’m still involved in a few music groups – including a songwriting group I feel is expanding my circle of experience in this lifetime – and I am doing my best to stay active by running a couple of times a week.

All in all life is good. As usual, I’m excited to see what the future holds… I guess I’ll have to just ride it out and find out. In the meantime, I can look forward to becoming as big as a house once again.