Look! A Blog Post!

September is my other January. It goes back to my school days, of course, when September meant new clothes, a fresh hair cut, a shiny Trapper Keeper, and the chance to start anew.

For the past few months I’ve been considering where I wanted to go with this blog or if I wanted to keep it at all. Everything I thought of writing felt too personal to share. Or too boring. When something interesting did happen, a quick Facebook or Instagram update would do the trick. But September has brought me the motivation to start writing here again.

I started this blog with the intention of putting my big rocks first — taking care of the most important things in life. That’s an ongoing process, and the big rocks can change over time. I’ve had a lot of success increasing my physical strength. I’ve lost 16 pounds, I’m now a yellow belt in Tae Kwon Do, and I’m training for a half marathon in November. I feel fantastic about that rock! I’ve been somewhat successful at emotional strength, but that is something less tangible and harder to control (in my experience).

Lately a new rock has been introduced into my jar. Self-reliance. You might also call it independence, homesteading, or survival skills. I want to know how to take care of myself in the event that my way of life becomes less than comfortable. I’m not worried about a zombie apocalypse per se, but I am worried about the state of our economy. There may come a day when I can’t afford to buy as much food, clothing, gas, or electricity as I do now, and it feels really good to learn new skills that will help my family weather a financial crisis more easily and even save money now.

So. I will be writing here again, mostly for myself. When I considered dropping this blog, I kept thinking how much I would have loved to read a journal or blog that my mom had written while she was raising me. I want to remember, and I want my children to know what it was like.

That said, I have been writing over the summer in other places. Here are some of my recent articles:

Thanks for reading and sticking with me, friends.