Real life.

this lady is most definitely not me

I've given a lot of thought the last several weeks to what my family/work/faith/fun life would "look" like if I were a truly gifted writer, not so prone to emotional outbursts, but only quick witted and coherent. I'm not sure I'll ever be a brilliant writer, but I care less about that than I once did. I do care about writing honestly, though, and I've discovered that I cannot keep the things that are important to me conveniently compartmentalized and accomplish much of anything. I have been mulling over for months now how I would be able to manage multiple blogs (ha) with any sort of content integrity.

Guess what?

I can't.

I am a Christian, a new Catholic in fact, a wife, a mother, a believer in complementarian marriage, a designer of a sort, a neo-trad, a champion of good food, a home-schooler, a horse-person, a wanna-be agrarian and a wanna-be writer who feels like she's been asked by all the right people to all the right places. I cannot pull one thing out and set it aside, like a pick-up stick - the rest always, predictably, shifts and crashes down. It's all or nothing.

I have a confession: I've been embarrassed to reveal some of the attitudes I hold, concerned that I might appear uncool or unenlightened. I have determined two things: one, on closer examination, some of what I believe is very unpopular, but I am pretty tame compared to a lot of people, and two, that passion is not anything to be embarrassed about, as long as perspective is maintained and the intrinsic value of each person is recognized. I esteem creative people who do things with originality, who manage to operate within the boundaries of respecting others, but who defy destructiveness rather than just going along, and will not be shoe-horned into the mainstream if it means setting aside their core values. I want to be like that. At forty three years old, it would seem it is high time.

Here's a run down on what that will look like going forward:

1) This blog will wind down, and merge with my "real' blog as a heading for home schooling and other child-related topics

2) my business will be part of the new site, because it's part of who I am. I integrated my work life and my home life for very specific reasons. Our home is my work place. If you do not like monetized blogs you will not like this one.

3) I am lucky to have been included among the contributors to a favorite site of mine, Traditional Christianity, and once a week-ish I'll have an article there.

I'm attempting a schedule yet again, something along these lines:

SUNDAY: Salt and Light - reflections on faith and spirituality
MONDAY: food, recipes, menus, politics of food, homemaking topics
TUESDAY: The Cottage Child - children/school related
WEDNESDAY: article at Traditional Christianity
THURSDAY: Design related, projects, etc.
FRIDAY: Seven Quick Takes at Conversion Diary
SATURDAY: Wild card - favorite links? book review? politics? laundry report?

So, there it is. Agree or disagree with my unorthodox orthodoxy, I hope we can still be friends.