I usually wait until I have lots of pictures to post, because than I don't have to think too hard about the text I'm entering--I can just explain the situation surrounding the picture and I'm done. At this stage in my life, that's highly appealing.
But there are some things that you can't take pictures of, like sudden desires to change your life's direction. How do you take a picture of that? I don't know. Anyway, these last few months have been interesting for me personally. When I presented my paper at the Life, the Universe, and Everything conference back in February, I felt rather strongly that I had completed my academic road. I don't need a doctorate, apparently. As I had been looking forward to taking that step, I was rather startled by the impression to stop. It felt like the rug had been jerked out from under me. I had wondered how I was going to juggle homeschooling and my schooling, but I always figured that the timing would be made clear to me and that I could wait until it would all work out.
So I started searching for a new goal to aim at. I love my kids and I want to be a good mother, but as I've always expressed, I believe there's more to life than motherhood. Right now, with four kids under 8, there isn't time for a whole lot more, but in my rare free moments, I feel the need to pursue activities with purpose. As much as I love reading, I need to do something *more*, something to get me out of myself and accomplishing...Something. I'm still looking, still a bit directionless, but I have an idea of what it should be: homemaking.
No, not the Relief Society meetings where you make the newest popular craft or learn how to cook your food storage beans into a chocolate mousse pie, but *making* a home. I've taken steps here and there to figure out the style of decorating I like (Eclectic Country Modern Chic...sort of), how to feed my family well yet inexpensively (I'm still refining that), and so on, but now I feel like I should kick into a higher gear. And since The Baby is my last baby (between potential health issues, a lot of prayer on my part, and just a general "I think I'm getting too old for this!" feeling), I feel like it's time to make myself into...myself. Homemaking and personal...making...seem to be tied together.
To that end, I've come across a few resources in that last couple of weeks that have helped me focus. First is this website: The Prudent Homemaker. The lady running this site is LDS and has refined her homemaking into an art! After having to live off of her food storage for more than two years, she has become an expert at inexpensive yet delicious meals, gardening, and prioritizing what should go into her pantry. While I have no desire to live to her extreme, I find the site inspiring. I've always thought that we spend way too much on food, but I've always been a bit confused as to how to fix that. Thanks to perusing her menu and recipes, I've come to the conclusion that we can have simple meals--a meat sauce over rice or pasta, accompanied by a vegetable--during the week, hamburgers on Saturdays, and a nice big meal on Sundays. My menu before was full of Sunday dinners and very few simple meals, so I'm doing my best to reverse the trend. I also hope to put in a garden very soon, but it will be small. I've got to research square foot gardening a bit more. We also purchased a membership to Sam's Club, because our family is just to that point where we need more in bulk than the local Walmart provides.
As for the personal making, I know I've documented my forays into understanding fashion and what I enjoy wearing. But this would be a touch less complicated if I could drop the weight I put on with each pregnancy. So I've downloaded the app for My Fitness Pal onto my smartphone. My goal is to lose 5-10 pounds by Thanksgiving and a total of 35 pounds by next Thanksgiving. The My Fitness Pal app is a calorie tracker/food diary/exercise diary that helps me keep track of what I eat every day and helps me know how many calories I should consume in order to achieve my goals. Since I'm very practiced at measuring out foods and counting carbs, counting calories is relatively simple. The kids have been a great help too--we've been taking walks every morning before breakfast for the past week, and The Boy will stand in front of the door and ask "Go? Go?" until we leave. He was rather miffed that we didn't go for a walk on Sunday. With exercise partners like these, how can I possibly give up? (I'm just asking for trouble there, aren't I?)
On the fashion front, well, I still wear a lot of t-shirts and jeans. If I drop 10 pounds by Thanksgiving, I think my reward will be a better fitting pair of jeans! I already own all the black t-shirts I need, so really, I'm good on that front. At least they're black, right? And I like button-down shirts, but I have no need to wear those every day, since I end up covered in small-child-produced liquids on a regular basis. But I found this awesome black fedora at Hobby Lobby (I know!) that I love. I may not wear it to church, but I feel like it really dresses up my standard outfit a bit when we go out.
All in all, I feel good about the direction my life has taken. It's not a big, "look at me" type of direction, but it's Something. And I like the results I'm seeing so far (it helps that I lost two pounds in the last week)...(yes I'm bragging a little bit). I'll be happy to keep this up for a while, I think.
