Welcome back!

Hello! I'm back from a three-week blogging break, which was by far the longest break that I've taken since starting Cup of Jo seven years ago. Thanks for coming back! How are you? It was a rare treat to be able to step back and think in an overarching way about the site, and I'm excited to be rolling out a few changes. Here's the plan...

This past fall, I was feeling pretty burned out. Part of that was postpartum depression (quite similar to what happened after Toby was born—more on that later—and I'm so thankful to have come out the other side). But part of it was that I was so swamped by day-to-day work and upkeep that I didn’t have enough time to write as many longer, more thoughtful posts or produce the types of original series I wanted to. I felt a little like I was on a treadmill!

When we were in California for the holidays, I realized that it might help a lot to bring on a few awesome, likeminded contributors. That way, they can contribute great posts, and I will have more time to write longer posts myself. Overall, the blog will keep the same tone and feel—including family anecdotes and personal posts—but there will also be more original content and series that I hope you'll really enjoy. We're just taking it up a notch, basically!

It will be a very slow and careful process, so everything will look the same for now. My hope is to slowly roll out new elements throughout the year. Please let me know what you think as things move forward! Obviously I want you to be happy and enjoy the site even more.

Meanwhile, I'd love to know: What are you up to these days? What’s on your mind? What are you excited or worried about in your life right now? What would you like to talk about or read about or discuss with other readers? Any topics you'd love to have covered? Or questions you have?

Anyway, I've missed you! And I have so much to share now after being off the internet for three weeks, holy smokes. It was awesome to get a break, but I’m happy to be back! Hope you're having a wonderful month. xoxo

P.S. Blogging as a career.
P.P.S. Thank you so much for the amazing job applications! I'll be reading through them this month and will get back to those of you asap.

(Photo by Kari Herer)