I started blogging in 2008, a miserably pregnant 25-year-old, trying to pass the time before our son was born.  It was the hottest June I can recall and my ankles were easily three times their normal size. I wrote my first post entitled 100% Pregnant on June 26th and he was born a day later.   

Blogging was fairly new then, and it was a fun way for me to share our lives and my love of writing with the six or so people who mostly just came for pictures of Becks (hi, mom!).    

Babbling Abby became my little online home, and I posted quite regularly for the first few years, telling stories of my adventures in motherhood and marriage, posting pictures and updates as we remodeled our little Cape Cod, and sharing small bits from my teaching experience.  With each passing post, though, the content became more driven by my passion for education and sharing out what I was doing in my classroom.  I decided in the winter of 2011 that I needed to extend my teacher-related blogging to entirely new space, and I created The Inspired Apple.  

Life became busier, I began teaching full time, and Babbling Abby was severely neglected while I focused most of my attention over here.  I tried for a long time to keep my random-musings separate from this teacher blog, but maintaining two blogs suddenly felt burdensome and unnecessary, so I quit writing about anything non-teaching related entirely.  I’d post occasionally on Babbling Abby with promises to do better and blog more.  It didn’t happen. 

Looking back on that season of life, I’m not surprised I didn’t blog about more personal things.  I think I would’ve done a lot of complaining, actually.  Working full time was exhausting, I missed being at home with Beckham, my marriage wasn’t its strongest, we were struggling with infertility, and my faith was superficial.  

However, the seasons have changed – as they always do – and life seems a little more manageable again, even though it’s more full than it’s ever been.  I still love to teach, I still love to decorate, I still love to take pictures of my kids, I still love to share and inspire, and I still love to write.  So, rather than neglect all of that, I’ve decided to breathe new life into The Inspired Apple and make it a catch-all for my passions, though they may change from day to day.  

And, though I feel a little silly making a big-to-do about this, Babbling Abby holds a special place in my heart because it eventually led to this blog which eventually led to friends across the country and opportunities and experiences I never imagined. I’ve decided to delete Babbling Abby at the end of the year, after having its posts bound into a book as a keepsake for our family.  

As I’m sure you can tell, the overall feel of the blog has already changed with an amazing new design by Smitten Blog Designs {I *highly* recommend them!} and teaching posts will now be mingled in with whatever I feel like writing about!   Just don’t be surprised when you read a post about this week’s lesson plans followed by a post about how banana sludge turns to glue on high chair trays.  (For real, it really does.  And, it’s equally as disgusting as it is hard to remove.  Babies are messy little people.  Or, perhaps I shouldn’t get distracted by replacing pictures in frames after lunchtime and clean the tray in a timely manner. #momprobs)

The picture menu across the top will help you navigate to specific posts, so if you’re just here for teaching-related posts click ‘teach’ and you’ll be taken to recent posts about teaching.  The sidebar also contains Archives and tags beneath Find it Fast if you’re looking for something specific.  There’s a Search box, too.  However, if you don’t mind reading the occasional post about banana sludge and the like, just scroll on through 🙂

Happy Tuesday!