Changing Seasons

I love Autumn in Michigan, because the sights, smells, colors, and flavors are a refreshing treat after the heat of summer starts to wear on me. My dear husband prefers the hot weather. I prefer the cold. You have to love how opposites attract.

Seasons in life change too.

I started this website almost nine years ago now (gulp).

I’ve struggled to write more and more “on topic” because the topics of my life have changed with the seasons. I’m still a mom. I still homeschool. I still work to be frugal. I still serve God. But, there’s been a shift that has shifted more and more.

To be sure, life has been so weird in the last two years, as we’ve struggled with a house in foreclosure, the insane inflation that our leaders still insist doesn’t exist, and trying to figure out where we as a family fit in all of this.

We’ve had some seriously deep discussions in our household, as we’ve moved into this new season — a season with kids who are no longer kids, a season where our oldest has graduated and works, and our next oldest is about to join her, a season where we have no clue what next year holds as we await the dreaded eviction notice and cynically wonder how much the next paycut is going to be. We hope we won’t get one of those, but it’s hard to not brace for it, since it’s happened so much.

My husband went from being very indifferent about me writing to my biggest cheerleader in these nine years, as I write here, write on a few other sites including Hub Pages, and as I create a few ebooks. He has even started to write too, on Hub Pages, through me, giving me ideas to work from. He was pointing out that part of the change has not been so much with the age of our kids, but just how much we’ve changed through parenting them. He and I were different people too.

Twelve years ago when I started writing the articles that would be on the first version of this website, I was a mom with 5 kids 7 and under. I was in a mode where I thought I knew everything (the more I learn, the more I realize I don’t know. Tis true). We lived exclusively on one income. Parenting and Homeschooling was a very hands on activity in ways that could be easily shared in the way of products and pictures.

Fast forward, and the seven year old is nineteen and works full time. My other kids, all teenagers, do quite a bit of independent work. My son takes classes online for programming. Even though I’ve become a web designer and programmer in these last 12 years, he knows more than  me. He is always off doing service projects, or working on the sound system at church, or fixing someone’s computer. One morning, I woke up to an empty house. Oldest daughter was at work. Dear son was helping someone roof their house after a storm. The younger three had been hired to paint a fence, coop, and barn for a week with two of their friends.

I’m in that spot where I find myself without a car despite our family c0llectively owning three of them. Seriously? How’s a momma supposed to go grab some milk?

Changing seasons.

I started writing while revelling in my 2600 square foot farmhouse on my 1 acre hobby farm, with chickens running around. The village has long since asked me kindly to remove my chickens (apparently only dogs running around barking at people without leashes on are allowed here…grrr.), and my garden has been left to return to it’s natural state as we await our foreclosure eviction. We’re now actively downsizing our house and belongings, looking for ways to live on less, and embrace a more minimalistic, healthy lifestyle.

Changing seasons.

I’ve tried to move with the changes by doing stupid stuff like redesigning this blog every few months (hey, I’m a web designer. it’s like therapy for me.). I’ve come instead to realize, with my husband’s help, guidance, and input, maybe we need to make a bigger change than just the look and renaming categories.I thought about this last year, when my server had a freak out moment and 8 years worth of this website vaporized, but I was more focused on just continuing on the same path. I felt God really moving on my heart, and my husband felt it too, but we both ignored it until we could no longer.

I’m not sure where this is going to lead. Because dear husband has been around a lot more, and because we’ve been more united than ever before, particularly in trying to be open to God’s leading in this time of uncertainty (which has been both frightening and exciting at the same time), we’ve thought about something that is more the domain of our whole family and not just moi. Something that reflects this crazy ADHD existence of this unconventional growing family, and on some level the joy and struggle of pursuing our little American Dream.

We’re still working on the idea and we’ve decided to make no changes until we are 100% sure, and until we are 100% prepared. If you think of it, pray for us.  We want to offer content, ideas, videos of art projects and stuff of that sort, instructions for fixing your computer, and stuff I’ve learned about being a work at home mom that all 50 of those “how to start a business from home” books I own seem to get wrong. There may eve be some origami, some steampunk, and notes on saving money too, as well as the knd of stuff on here.

In the meanwhile I’m going to keep blogging away whenever I Can, while planning on this stuff.