I promised that I’d check back in by the end of January, so here I am! I apologize for the long absence—I was finishing up my last two classes for my master’s degree, and with the start of the school year and all the craziness that accompanies getting three non-driving teenagers to their practices, rehearsals, lessons, and games I knew I wasn’t going to have any time for much else. I hope your autumns were lovely, and I hope this winter isn’t treating any of you too shabbily.
So, yeah…master’s degree officially completed, and I even have the physical diploma to prove it! I am not teaching full-time; in fact, I’m just subbing a couple times a week at my kids’ schools because the process of pursuing my master’s degree really opened my eyes to the enormity of what I do in our home each day, and how important that work is. I’ve always been a huge champion for full-time homemaking, but somewhere along the way I lost sight of my enthusiasm for the endeavor and thought my family would be better served by extra funds. Unfortunately, to have me working full-time outside the home meant a whole lot more unexpected expenses that I hadn’t thought to include in my budget workings, while at the same time cutting down on my time to provide a lot of the domestic labor and relationship-building that is the key to our family being able to survive on one income and have our children feel loved and supported. It was a very eye-opening experience and it has me scrutinizing the thought process that led me to believe that we’d be better off with me working. I’m trying to be more intentional regarding the media I consume because I was heavily influenced by various discontent voices throughout the pandemic, and I regret many of the decisions I made as a result of listening to them. It just goes to show that being an adult doesn’t mean you’ve figured everything out, eh?
So, I’m home again and trying to figure out how to go forward from here. I’d like to pivot with my master’s degree into some sort of creative education sphere, but I’m stumped as to how to make that happen. I am also eyeballs deep in parenting at the moment, so all of those aspirations might just wait until my empty nest phase, which is slated to begin in just four and a half years. Such a bittersweet milestone on the horizon! My life has been kids, kids, kids for almost twenty years now—I foresee considerable difficulties with adjusting to an empty nest existence! Goodness am I glad to have found Michael early on and dedicated everything to building our family. It’s been such a great journey.
I want to blog more because I enjoy it, it doubly serves as a record of what we’re up to throughout the years, and it’s been AMAZING to spend time in the craft room again! However, I’m incredibly without direction at the moment—my back injury improved immensely over the course of my master’s degree program due to the adoption of a yoga routine—so resuming my pre-pandemic levels of craftiness might not be feasible, as I was crafting so much back then largely because I was literally incapable of doing much else around the house due my severe muscle atrophy. Please have patience with me as I figure out healthy levels of housekeeping versus creativity! (The age-old dilemma, yes?) I wholeheartedly believe in the importance of consistently including creative endeavors in one’s schedule to maintain sanity and an enthusiasm for life, but too much of a good thing can create other problems if you’re irresponsible about it!
Happy January, and I hope you’re finding time for some creativity every day during these cold months ahead. I’m looking forward to writing more and hope to give you more posts soon!