Where To Begin?

I've been a stay-at-home mom for over 3 1/2 years. Part of the time I was employed but did the work from home. Prior to getting pregnant my jobs were diverse & hard to classify - mostly I was in service to communities via AmeriCorps, A*VISTA, or church programs, but almost always with non-profits.

Now my kids are old enough to easily leave with babysitters, and my older one will be in preschool starting this fall. I'm settled in my new house, my neighborhood, my psyche. I'm ready to branch out and find something to engage my creativity & abilities outside of just the home & kids.

The problem is that I don't know where to begin. I've had diverse experience and I have diverse interests & abilities, so I don't know how to categorize myself or narrow the field of what I might even look for.

In no particular order, I have experience and/or a passion for the following:

• natural parenting
• cooperatives
• organic gardening/cooking/eating
• community organizing
• herbal medicine/natural health organizing as well as in practice
• customer service
• being a waitress
• being a self-driven secretary, including writing/editing a monthly newsletter
• natural pregnancy/labor/birth, including working with a midwife & doula, home birth, water birth, sharing birth stories, nurturing a community of women, dispelling fears
• making my own baby food
• knitting
• making cards
• political & social justice action
• LGBTQ advocacy
• writing, proofreading, editing
• music - anything related to piano playing, singing and choirs
• house & commercial cleaning, primarily with all natural/non-toxic cleaning products
• the world of church & organized religion, primarily with CRC in the past and UCC now
• working with/on a board of directors
  

I'm sure there are several other categories and I'm sure I'm not at all unique. Most people have diverse interests & abilities. My challenge is trying to narrow any of it into a field that I'm interested in actively looking toward for employment -- or even simply a creative engagement for myself. I don't know how to sell myself if I can't even focus on one area of my interest & ability. If I choose one field it forces me to pass by the others which I tend to be unwilling to do.

So what do YOU do? What tips do you, my friends & family, have for me? How did you narrow your field of interests & abilities to seek out something to keep you busy? Or did you wait for something to find you? I'm starting to become restless but I don't know where to begin.

Day After Inauguration

I can't help but think about W...how must it feel to be him today? What a sense of relief...and probably some depression...and anxiety...and boredom? Can you imagine the psychological, emotional, physical letdown? To be President of the USA one day and the next day...to be a former President of the USA? And one who was (and is) highly despised. I have very little, if anything, positive to say about his administration but I can't help but think that he's only human too. It's got to be hard to be hated, and bid farewell with such relief that he's gone.

Go East, Young Woman!

I get stuck in routines that I think serve me nicely...and eventually realize that I'm going stir-crazy & desperately need something to change.

I've decided (a few months early) to make some resolutions. Well, one for now anyway.

1. I resolve to learn new things.

My first challenge is with an eastern focus. I started taking belly dancing classes two weeks ago. It's hard! But it's great for my body, I love the music of the middle and far east, and I'm meeting some great women. I also love the instructor, Laura, who is a friend of mine from about 7 years ago. If anyone reading this is in the GR area and interested in dance or yoga, check out the Armenta Studio. You'll love it!

The second challenge is to begin learning Hindi. My pragmatic, realist self thinks I'm nuts. But I've been fascinated with India (specifically) for several years and find the language to be incredibly beautiful - written and spoken! I'm still looking for practical applications for this challenge. I might consider sponsoring a child from India (through Children International or something) as one. Perhaps an older child, and I can practice writing to him or her. I'm also making plans to spend the summer of 2028 in India. I think it's realistic to expect that twenty years from now I might be comfortable enough with the language to converse with the locals, be able to afford the time and cost of the adventure, and LOVE having a memorable vacation with my husband of 27 years. But tonight I took the first step - I bought "Teach Yourself Hindi" - a complete kit with a book & two CDs.

Good-bye, ruts!

Yes I Can!

My favorite moment of the day so far:

I was so nervous I'd make a stray mark...I had my baby in my left arm but tried to hold the ballot with my left hand anyway. Anson kept grabbing the sides of the little booth and trying to suck on it. I lowered my pen to fill the oval and felt my stomach simultaneously rise to my throat and sink to my gut - what butterflies! I've never, ever felt so excited & terrified about an election.

Please, God. Please, God. Please, God. Please, God. Please, God. Please God. Please.

Aahck! I Can't Take It Anymore!

It's just too much. All of it. I'm SO excited and hopeful and terrified and anxious...not only for the election TOMORROW but also because we're scheduled to close on our house this week! Bah! I'm so overwhelmed with the intensity of emotions & impacts of events that I pretty much have to try to avoid anything & everyone - just to stay in my little bubble of deliberate semi-denial. Just enough denial to stay sane...but to be honest, it's not at all working. I can't function! I'm just waiting for two of the biggest things in my current life to culminate this week. And the sheer stress of the "what if?" is killing me!

But I'll just expect that by tomorrow night we'll be certain of an Obama presidency and by Friday we'll have money in the bank and no more financial ties to New Mexico.

And I'll pray for it.

Who Messed Up?

"I love being the underdog. You know, every time that I've gotten ahead, somehow I've messed it up," the Republican candidate said. (Full article here.)

Yikes! Does that sound like something you want the next U.S. President to say? Wouldn't actually gaining the presidency be considered "getting ahead?" Seems like the kind of comment an opponent or the media might make, but anyone with any sense of the power of words wouldn't make about himself. Yikes, John.

Oooh!

I just passed a gas station with unleaded regular at $2.99 and it STILL seems expensive. But it's nice that the "2" got to come back out of the box it's been in for however long.