Reinventing Oneself

Welcome to my blog. This is a place for me to come and share all I’m learning and exploring in the world of writing, creating, even homemaking, because homemaking is something I hold very dear. Homemaking is creating a sanctuary for my family and myself so we can thrive and create art, stories, healing, and community.

I have plenty to share, so where to begin. Some of you who come here will already know me and my family. Some of you will be new.

Let’s start with a brief introduction that won’t bore you into a snooze.

I’m a mother first, and writer second. Both children and writing are my loves. My hobby is homemaking. It’s strange to describe a job that way, but, as Confucius said, “Choose a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life”. I love homemaking. I used to have doll houses as a child and I would make outdoor homes and tents, I would decorate and nest in my rooms, I decorated every apartment and studio I ever had. I always did it on a small budget so I got pretty good at foraging and hunting down free goodies and thrift sales.

I’ve always loved writing, movies, theater, and reading novels, sometimes reading the same ones over and over. I now love to watch certain movies that inspire me over and over. I learn and heal through books and movies. I heal and expand through my writing.

I’ve been on a mission to unplug and get back to a slower more 1970’s style life. In saying a 1970’s style, I mean to return to the days when the phone was attached to the wall and not the palm of our hands and we made do with and took care of what we had, there was no Amazon to meet every sudden urge or want. Back when you had limited channels, often working with an antenna on the roof and three channels and we made most of our meals at home from simple ingredients.

It’s not easy to go all the way back but I have unplugged and changed many things in our household over the last couple years. I will share this in further blogs.

I’ve also recently taken a break from a YouTube channel to focus on family and my writing. I’m in a sort of Monk Mode. I’m isolating a little bit to reinvent myself and my writing.

In so doing, we have reduced the monthly income and I am pulling out all my tricks of frugality and spending some extra energy foraging for things we want or need on free sites, free things I find on the street, and thrift stores. I have learned to work with everything we already own to beautify our home and taken up a plant based diet for our health and to save money and the planet.

There is a time to decide what we love and believe in the most and let everything else fall away. This goes for jobs, hustles, people, relationships, schedules, furniture, paper work, junk…even cleaning out our cell phones and email boxes. I have been downsizing and clearing out everything that is not beautiful and purposeful, putting my attention on the main priorities; children and writing.

It is not easy to shift from one way of being to rebuilding yourself anew, but it is fun and creative. It just takes time to stop missing what we know and embrace the new and enjoy the process of rebuilding a life that meets you where you are now.

I hope you join me.