Get a blog, they said.

Hi! I’m Elka, and this is the beginning of my blog life.

A blog has always been a good fit for me, but I’ve been in denial/too busy having children the last few years to make it happen.  I’ve always loved writing – there’s a deep dresser drawer at my parents place packed with my journals from high school, possibly moth eaten and moldy by now …

My dearest husband, Haakon, and I divide our time between my home town of Bega, NSW, Australia and his hometown of Troy/Yaak, Montana, USA.

So we’re Aussiemerican. Or Ameristralian.

We’ve spent ten years spending anywhere between four months to three years in each place, and not in a glamorous we-make-money-online and go back and forth whenever way.

More in a we do whatever we can to earn money way – odd and temporary jobs like working in stores – we don’t have careers, or the associated income.

But it’s worth it.

Our double life means we can have our two kids – Atticus, 6 and Callie, almost 3, grow up in both countries. Atty started kindergarten this year in the states, and we’ve always figured our kids will have to adjust to regular moves from one familiar place to another.

Atty remembers things about Australia, like finding quatz  in the driveway, fish and chips with my mum at the beach and the gumnuts he teethed on. But Cal was six months old when we arrived in the states this last time, so though she copies her brother and talks about ‘Stralia,’ I’m curious what she will think of our move back to my home in September.

[as I’m editing this, Callie jumps onto my lap, squeezing me passionately around the neck. As she pulls away, I see she has two long, thick ribbons of green snot flowing from her nose to her lip. So you know it’s all over my shirt!]

A brief stint writing for local newspapers here in Montana last year gave me time to realize how much I liked writing – and how out of practice I am. Like everything, we have to do something a lot to be good at it.

So blogging – as I ponder going back to uni to study journalism, as I prepare for our next big move and look towards another long summer in Montana, I’m going to write again.

Probably about politics, people, parenting, finally having an asparagus patch, homesickness, love. All the stuff everyone blogs about.

I appreciate you following along.

XXXX