Coming up for air…and taking a break

Well hello there. As you may have guessed, I got sucked back into the undertow of grad school and thus had to desert this space for a while.

Since we last talked, I made it through yet another insanely busy quarter (just two more left!) and then promptly went on vacation to Hawaii. It was glorious (the vacation, that is).

After Hawaii we celebrated the holidays quietly, here at home in Seattle. It was just the two of us and our pet family.

And of course I cooked. And baked. And then cooked some more – making up for the kitchen-time deprivation of the months while school was in session. We had a delicious vegetarian Christmas dinner. I made my first soufflé (and it worked!) For dessert, a rich and intense old-fashioned Gingerbread Cake that we ate off of for the better part of a week.

I made Christmas cookies, Sweet Potato Cornmeal Bread, and also various soups and stews to nourish and balance us in between and after the big meals. Our celebrations continued into last week too, with David’s birthday on Friday. I even had the time to make him a cake – yellow buttermilk cake with fudge frosting.

It has been lovely. And delicious.

It has also been a time for reflection. When I first came up for air in early December, after classes were over but before we left on our trip, I realized a couple things.

The 1-year anniversary of BookLoverCook came and went while I was absent. This realization was bittersweet. On the one hand it is an exciting milestone to reach, but on the other hand it came with the recognition that I have not been able to devote the necessary time to make this blog what I hoped it would be when I started out over a year ago. Of course, that itself is not entirely a bad thing since the time has been wholly devoted to something else very important to me – my future career as a librarian.

Thus, the second realization: until I am done with grad school, I need to set this blog aside. I was able to (mostly) keep up with it last year, but this second year of my program is simply too demanding to allow me time for blogging. This has meant that over the past few months BookLoverCook has turned into just one more thing for me to stress out about, and to feel guilty about since I wasn’t posting. More stress is something I do not need – grad school is stressful enough! So, I have to give myself permission to take a break.

I promise that I will be back. I love this blog, and am very grateful that you have taken the time to read – and eat – along with me.

Take care! ♥