It is with a heavy heart that I am chiming in to say that I will be stepping away from the forum. I have so enjoyed my almost 3 years here. If I'm being honest with myself, I don't have good time management skills and I'm not balancing my time here on YLF very well.

My eldest child is only one year away from starting high school and all the gains in independence that he will be making during those years. I feel the need to rediscover my family.

This past year has been difficult due to the unexpected deaths of my church pastor and his wife as well as a dear uncle (who, along with his family, opened up their home to me when I was a young adult). I kind of went into "me" mode and let my passion for all things fashion take up too much of my time, thoughts, and deeds.

Please know that I'm only speaking for myself and I'm not at all trying to imply anything about anyone reading this. Hubby and I limit our exposure to all the various media and tech enticements by choice. We don't have cable, watch only an hour of TV a day, and YLF is the only forum I participate in. I chose YLF because of how well mannered and respectful you all communicate with each other. I still believe this is the best forum out there. However, I've noticed that with the instant access of opinions and comments that a forum provides, I find myself these days too quick to internally critique everything around me and sometimes even expect praise for the everyday things I do. Yes, I know a SAHM should be receiving glad thanks every once and awhile, but I feel like I'm LOOKING for the praise...do you know what I mean? You have all spoiled me with your gracious acceptance of my style journey and it has swelled my head too much me thinks! : )

My latest "red flag" of how selfish I've become has to do with my post on starting to plan the Los Angeles YLF meet-up. One suggestion from Angie was all it took for me to start conniving on changing the location to Seattle and expecting a positive response from the group for us all to head there. The overwhelming vote to keep what we started in LA was the wake-up call that I needed. I am deeply sorry if I offended anyone with the suggestion to move the location.

Claire, Aida, Vicki, Marley, Rae, Khris, Una, and MaryK, thank you for the wonderful time I had last year and your willingness to spend a whole weekend together. Please continue on with the meet-up plans and I hope you all get a big turn-out. Since October is still a couple months away, planning, preparing and anticipating the trip will not help me with my goal of stepping down from the forum. : )

I'm not going to say that I'll never be back, but for now, and especially since I've been able to get my thoughts written down here, I feel like this is what I need to do. Of course, I'll still read Angie's blog post each morning and I'll check this post for a little bit, but that will be it.

Thanks for 3 FAB years of happy memories and wonderful friendships! Keep having fun with fashion y'all!

XOXO
AJ