It’s been a week since I posted. Sheesh. I did write a post for a different blog though. It’s part of my ‘reaching out’. You see, with my 3 ring circus and how the winter has been, I’m feeling the pinch of being a stay at home mom right now. Because I’m really staying at home, forced to by weather, or fear of road conditions, or tiny baby, or a combo of all of the above, and it’s been that way for 2 months. Eek!
- ring 1, ring 3, ring 2
So, I’m reaching out. I’m hearing calls where they appear. If it turns out not to be something I want to do, then I’ll stop. I’ll say no, I’ll move on. I realized that I’m an adult and I can say no and not feel bad. Even if I’ve already said yes. I can always change my mind if it’s not working. That? SO LIBERATING!
So I have my blog here (not much content when you’re stuck inside, sorry!), and I’m writing for the CDW (see my published tab for cloth diaper articles I’ve written!) about once a month. I’ve always gotten 100 points in my account there (those go towards gift certificates to the store (aff link) for future addiction purposes when one is published. See anything remotely cloth diaper related I’ve written if you’re curious about that ;-). For a long time I resisted, but I do have an affiliate account now, with a link that I share very rarely. I did get a few people to use my link to make purchases last year so I have a few dollars in my account. Pretty neat. In doing so, I’ve had to reach out. Talk to people. Encourage them. Share a little bit about my story. Engage. Kind of nice when you’re stuck inside ;-). I’ve tried to do a few more things with my own blog, like tutorials and pinterest pins and whatnot. I hope they’re helpful. If not, well then I tried. My invisible friend Mindy has been a real inspiration. She encourages me to try new things. It makes me happy, this space….so I may as well do something new and see how it works!
Our church has experienced some stagnation as of late. The weather has been terrible. The economy is bad. People are feeling hurt or left out. Some details that had happened before just kind of disappeared over the last year or two. Whoever was doing things stopped. I guess that has made it less friendly somehow. Little things you don’t notice are gone until you NOTICE! So when we chatted in a group about a sign up sheet to go around to fill in the gaps, and it came around, I signed us up for nearly everything. Ring 1 will be reading scripture on Sunday. Unless she freaks out, but she loves being center of attention, so we’ll see how it goes. I got the text today and asked about the ‘hard’ word which was a town name I think so I’ll be helping her with that. If she decides she doesn’t want to, then I’ll do it, but I think she will enjoy it. We’ll be ushering one month, and greeting another, and serving communion. We’ll do that about 3 or 4 times in the coming year. It will force me to do MORE reaching out in my church community. I need that. Everyone who has been there forever knows our names but I’ve forgotten some people or haven’t been introduced to others. It’s a small congregation, but with always a kid or two on the loose, we’re pulled in different directions. I had already started moving around during ‘passing of the peace’ which is really huge in our church, apparently. We love to chat. Chatting = meeting people and coming out of my shell. Something I recognized I needed. Go to other people instead of them coming to me. So with these other things, I’ll be talking to people, serving the church, and so on. It will be good for me.
One of the things, incidentally was also being a social media coordinator, so I’m posting items for the church on their site, Facebook, etc. I used to do some minor website work for a college when I worked as a secretary (talk about being underpaid)–so it was nice to dig my digits into that again. A bonus is getting to use my brain for something other than housework and kid care. Ha! Also, do you believe a church trusts me with their website? 😉
Summer is coming, and so we’ll be branching out again towards library times. I had not even set foot in the library since October. We ALL went in the other day to show off Casey (that’s ring 3 if you’re new here) and do a book drop off/pick up. They acted like I’d come back from the dead. I guess it HAD been a while. Then I got a mailing from them saying they were starting up a ‘Friends of the Library’ group. Hearing a call, reaching out when reached out to. I’ll do my best to make the meeting. Maybe I’ll meet other people that enjoy the library and want to do volunteer work. You know, people like ME. How awesome would that be?!? So yeah. Reaching out. I’ll be dragging the kids to one or both local libraries for summer programs. It will keep them busy, and that is always good! Plus I get to see other people and practice being an adult. That’s good, right?
Then… the big one. School is around the corner. Eep! We’ll be meeting new people I’m sure. It will be a whole new world. I need to psych myself up for this. Because other grown ups are kind of scary. Introducing our hugely smart 5 year old to her peers and teachers? Yeah. Big deal. Plus if we want her to be advanced to the next grade (which we do) – we need to be making big strides in communication. I need a lot of practice with real life communication that doesn’t happen with a computer screen in between me and the other person. *sigh*
So…I’m reaching out. Preparing for the future. Not stagnant. Eventually the kids (however many we have) will all be in school. I’ll need something else to do. I’ll need to springboard to something, volunteer work, regular work, or something. Of course my stay at homeness has made me think that working FROM home would be awesome. No driving in the snow. So I’ll be keeping my eyes open for opportunities. For the first time in a long time, I’m really looking forward. Reaching out. Doing something ‘real’ outside of my own little brain.
It’s pretty awesome. (Pats self on back). So that’s where I am. Volunteering in different ways. Joining up. Reaching out.
Good for you!!!! In so many ways…
I did much the same thing a few years ago. I was always busy, but didn’t seem to accomplish much. About that time, my son was having some troubles with school and making friends and I decided it was time to drag him to church (which worked wonders for me when I was a kid). Not only did he get a boost from going to church and joining the youth group, but I did too. There’s hardly a Sunday where all I do is go and be in the congregation. I’m either Lector, Usher, Greeter, Children’s Church Teacher or providing goodies for Social Minute (after church) or cooking for the youth group’s meeting Sunday evening. As busy as those things (and more) keep me, I rarely think “it’s too much”. It’s done wonders for me and it’ll do wonders for you too!
I am being driven crazy by being stuck at home too. We’re trying to save up for another car right now, which would be awesome so I could take the kids out to different activities rather than be stuck at home all the time. We just started going back to the library too. I would really love to be more involved in the community, but it’s hard to muster up much enthusiasm when there’s only one car and in order to use it you have to get the young ones up and out of bed and into the car to take daddy to work. 😛 Here’s to hoping we get a new car so we can get active!
The biggest reason I try to stay at home often is so I don’t go shopping and spend money. That, plus I NEED to clean and prepare for Baby #2’s arrival.