I often tease my husband about his need to always be involved in a project. He’s always got to be working on something outside of his “day job”, whether it’s cleaning out his storage room (better known as the troll room), digitizing his parents’ slides, digitizing all of our documents, or creating the most awesome whole-house DVR system ever. Usually there are things that I’ve asked him to do that he abandons for doing his projects, which is why I feel I have license to tease him about it frequently.

The more I think about it, though, the more I realize how much he’s rubbed off on me. For the past three and a half years, there has barely been a moment when I haven’t been involved in some project or other. It started with the ALA 2005 Chicago Wiki, went on to Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki, then the book, then HigherEd BlogCon, then Five Weeks to a Social Library, then the crazy speaking schedule, then teaching at San Jose State. This summer was the first time I felt like I had time to take a breath. And it was really nice. I finally had time to get my house in order. We’ve lived here for three years and I’ve barely had a moment to get things organized how I like it. So I really focused on that and on culling my collection of junk I don’t use anymore. It was nice to focus on home and family.

My next project is one I’ve been planning on taking on for a long time, but was waiting for the right moment. While it took a lot out of me, I really enjoyed the whirlwind of the past few years and don’t regret a moment of it. I love speaking at conferences, writing, teaching, etc. and I don’t think I’ll ever stop doing those things. But I’ve gotten to the point where I’m ready to slow down. I’m at the point where the thought of speaking in far-flung places like Chile and London just don’t seem as appealing as they once did (and you don’t need to tell me I’m stupid for turning down those opportunities; I’ve already heard it). I just really like being at home.

So after ALA Annual, the time seemed right to start on our next project: a baby. And I’m happy to say that we’re right on schedule with this project, expecting a miniature version of me and Adam in early April, 2009. We couldn’t be more thrilled! And while I’m really going to miss seeing my friends at ALA Midwinter, Computers in Libraries, etc., I’m ready to make sacrifices for my little one. I may actually be at Annual since Adam’s family lives in Chicago, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned from friends who are parents, you never know what life will be like after baby, so I can’t make any promises.

If you’ve noticed that I haven’t been posting much over the past few months, this is why. I’ve been feeling pretty miserable — nauseous and exhausted beyond anything I’ve ever felt. I’m not complaining since feeling like crap in the first trimester is usually a sign of a healthy pregnancy, but it’s been difficult even to put in a full day at work, much less do anything beyond that. I’m coming out of the first trimester now, so hopefully I’ll be entering into those halcyon days of high energy, good appetite, and “glowing” (I wonder what I’ll look like when I glow). Hopefully that will lead to better posting frequency, but again, no promises. If I’m not feeling inspired, I’m not going to write “filler.”

Needless to say, the blog is going to continue. I am not leaving my job or my engagement in the professional dialogue. I’m sure I’ll be less involved for a good while, but I plan to go back to speaking and writing (though with a drastically reduced schedule) and will definitely keep up with the profession.

With my new focus on home and non-library-related projects, a brand new blog has been born. /var/log/farkas is a collaborative project between me and my husband, Adam. I’ve been bugging Adam forever to get his own blog, because he has such interesting insights on technology (he’s really the brains of this operation) and does so many cool organizational/productivity projects that others might be interested in replicating. I also have been wanting a blog to post about things that aren’t library-related but still interest me, be they technology-related or not. I don’t want to have a “baby blog” or a “mom blog”, but I wanted to have a space where I could post some news about my pregnancy and the baby so I don’t annoy the heck out of 99% of the people who read this blog. So I’d say that the blog is about everything Meredith-related other than libraries with a heapin’ helping of Adam’s absolutely frightening brilliance and great sense of humor thrown in.

It was a hard choice to decide to have a baby when I feel like I’m on an upward trajectory, career-wise. But what I realized is that there is never a perfect time for a baby, and you can spend your entire life waiting for that “just right” time to come. And when I saw the baby moving around on the ultrasound last week, it was very obvious to me that this totally beats a speaking gig in Chile, London, or even on Mars.