A Few Things You May Not Know About Me

Just by reading my blog you probably know that I have an 18-month-old son, live in a rural area, like to knit (okay, love to knit), enjoy partaking in seasonal activities and crafts and like to write about it all.  But it occurred to me that there are a few things you may not know about me.  Things that make me me (you know, different than you or anyone else, for that matter) and things that make me unique.  Here’s some free association I call, A Few Things You May Not Know About Me.  (Try it—it’s fun to write!)

1.  I really like the show Entourage, even though it’s a “guy” show.  I’m not sure what this says about me.

2.  Actually, I don’t care what things say about me.  I wear a pair of jeans with a big hole in the knee.  I stopped putting my contacts in every day when I left my full-time job to have Nathan (and wearing makeup and brushing my hair, now that I’m thinking about it).  I want to homestead, even though I don’t have the time or energy to do it and even though it’d be cheaper to just buy what my family needs at the store.

3.  I don’t have a lot of friends, but the friends I do have are good ones.  Like, really good ones.  They get me, and I get them.  I pick quality over quantity every day.

4.  I feel blessed to have a keen sense of who I am, where I’m going and how I’m going to get there.

5.  I think it’s important to work toward ambitious life goals and to have fun while you’re getting there.  You know the saying, It’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey?  Well, for me, it’s both.  What good is the journey if it doesn’t get you to where you wanted to go, or—worse—if it brings you back to where you started?  I think people who say things like that don’t expect much out of themselves or others, whereas I expect a lot from both.

6.  I feel a strong need to create just about every day of my life.  A need to create something, anything—like knit some socks, make something decorative or useful for the house, bake something or cook a good meal for my family.  Or blog about something that inspires me.  When I held a really stressful, stifling position at a marketing firm, it sucked the life out of me so wholly that I didn’t have an ounce of creativity left in me.  I’m so glad I got it back.

7.  And I’m so glad to be in a different place right now.  I’m the happiest I’ve ever been in my adult life, and I attribute that to how my husband and I have built up and planned our lives.  And, of course, the life-changing birth of our son.

8.  It’s not all fun and games, though.  There are days that I am ticked about all the dishes in the sink (it’s my turn to wash them again?), wished I had somewhere to go to take a break (or just the ability to take a short break from the constant duties of a mom) or wished I didn’t have to work to help support my family and save for our future.  But I get through those days and know that the good ones definitely outweigh the bad.

9.  It makes me feel somewhat terrible for feeling like I need a break from my mom duties, as if that means I don’t love my son or don’t appreciate being a mother.  I obviously love my son and appreciate being a mom, but feelings are hard to stop.  Intellectually, I know that everyone needs a break now and then and that wanting a break doesn’t make me a terrible mom.  But those feelings are still sometimes hard to navigate.

10.  Speaking of getting away, I can’t wait until the day I can ride horses again.  I wrote about why it doesn’t make sense for me to start riding again now here.  It feels like it’s many years away—probably not until our kids are in grade school or older, and we still only have one child—so it’s a ways off.  But that doesn’t stop me from thinking about riding from time to time, and doesn’t keep my heartbeat from quickening when I do.  It was my greatest passion for years, far surpassing knitting or just about any other hobby or sport I’ve done. It’s a part of who I'm meant to be.  I’d better stop thinking about it now—my heart’s beating faster again!