If Your Life Had Categories What Would They Be?

I just read this wonderful book Happy Housewives by Darla Shine and it’s truly made me feel excited to be a housewife/homemaker, so much so that I’m even thinking of writing the author to tell her how blessed I feel to have read her book 🙂

One of the things it’s prompted me to do was check out homemaking blogs & magazines to get ideas on how to make homemaking fun. Curiously though, I only related to a few items while quickly dismissing the rest. A question slowly articulated in my head: if your life was a blog, what categories would it have?

Let me be the first to answer 🙂

Since I was staring at one of those homemaking blogs, I found it easier to start with what categories it will likely not have:

THE NOT LIKELIES

I’ll never have a category on parenting. If ever it will, it will never contain advice because I am a forever-student on this topic.

I won’t have a category on intimacy with your spouse because well, that’s just too intimate to put under a microscope.

I am not homeschooling and have no plans to.

I am just not the slightest bit interested in the science of stain removal, the proper care & maintenance of clothes & linens, nor in the effective eradication of mold & mildew.

I don’t like to analyze what I cook. If it’s edible and my charges are eating it to satisfaction then I’ve hit the goal. Next!

I do like to tidy, organize and decorate but I don’t generally find these topics interesting enough to talk about in detail.

I have never needed anything more elaborate than a pen and paper for keeping track of things.

Special Note:  I do understand that this is just one side of being a SAHM/homemaker and that there are as many variants of being a SAHM as there are, well, SAHMs.

So then what would my categories be …?

Well …

THE YESSES

I am interested in personal management, the ability to regulate thoughts and feelings, to harness the amazing power of the brain to become a better version of me.

Ageing well as it relates to staying fit, remaining curious about life, and being socially engaged.

Knitting and crochet (you know I had to have these in there. LOL!).  And maybe soon macrame 😀

~~~

So what a weird blog post this is 😀 I started out saying the Happy Housewives book made me so happy only to end with the idea that I chose to focus on different things!

I guess I just wanted to clarify what truly floats my boat and, of course, ask you that question so you could have fun thinking up your own answers 🙂 And please, share them in the comments section. You know how much I love getting your comments and how much less isolated that makes me feel ❤

Have a beautiful weekend y’all!!

 

Why SAHMs Should Exercise 💃💪🏃

Several days ago I confessed to feeling bored and that, because I’m also a SAHM, this has triggered some sort of specific research into this notion  of ‘housewife boredom’.

I’ve since discovered that housewives’ schedules run the gamut from not having enough time to even comb one’s hair to just twiddling thumbs until it’s time to prepare dinner I found out as well that ‘housewife boredom’ also stems from a need to occupy time with something productive, challenging and self- nurturing ❤

Every housewife will have her own preferred solution to this predicament, but one that I (and obviously a lot of other health and wellness proponents) strongly recommend is ⭐ exercise ⭐ ❤

Exercise has given me a wealth of benefits, more so as a SAHM, and I cannot imagine life without it 😀 😀 Here are my reasons:

flaviliciousfitness.com

1. It gives you something to do ⭐

If the lack of structure and/or the abundance of idle time is the culprit, then establishing a regular exercise schedule is a life-saver.  This solution is furthermore scalable in terms of time, effort and interest required:  you can join a gym, take a walk, jump rope at home, do 15 minutes of flexibility stretches in your PJs or start with a plank for 1 minute each day if this is all you can do.

      2.  It releases feel-good endorphins ⭐

Being cooped up at home for most of the time and the lack of adult conversion can get us SAHMs into a funk We therefore need a readily available source of feel-good hormones handy – exercise!  It’s not a secret how exercise can make you feel good.  Read more about this here, here and here.

      3.  It gives you confidence ⭐

While I exercise I am constantly reminded of how awesome the human body is 🙂 I appreciate my body all the more when I notice it is responding to all that strength training I am doing (hello, toned midsection!), how much more flexible I have become and how much longer I can do dance fitness videos.

As you get better at your choice of physical activity, you come to appreciate your body more and more and cannot help but feel gratitude and pride for everything it is doing and can do for you.

At appearance level, exercise will make you walk taller and straighter as lethargy will no longer weigh you down. In its place will be ease of movement and vitality.  And that’s confidence boosting. And sexy! 😉 😉

      4.  It is self-nurturing.

Exercise time is ‘your time’.  It turns the focus back on us, we’re doing something for ourselves that will enhance the quality of our lives and by association, our family’s too.  It takes away stress and anxiety and puts sparkle and energy in its place.  That’s exciting, isn’t it? 🙂

fitbodybuzz.com

It’s actually quite easy to establish an exercise routine once you’ve set your mind to it.  My tips are – find something that you enjoy doing, start small, and do it at the same time each day.

Know that in the beginning your old self will do everything it can to stop you from doing it, and it is very good at doing so! But just remember that a few days is all it takes to change your internal dialogue and just 3 weeks to establish the habit.  Before you know it, you’ll be signing up for an organized run, or a Zumba master class! 🙂

Now log off and go! 💃❤️‍💃

Crochet Shrug Project Update: Almost There! :)

hiding granny tails

sewing for armholes

almost a complete shrug

beginning the edging

The Occasional Misgivings of A Former Career Glamazon

Last night, wondering about a recipe that just wouldn’t come out right, I texted a friend for clarification. Inevitably, as she was also a former officemate, we got to talking about my new life as a homemaker.

When I tendered my resignation everybody was flabbergasted. All of them, upon knowing I was moving to Indonesia and becoming a housewife, couldn’t stop from asking an incredulous “But what are you gonna do there?!!”. My boss especially (I miss that smart guy!), would ask a team-mate long after I left if I was really, absolutely sure of my decision. Apparently, they just hadn’t pegged me for someone who would drop a lucrative career path to become a housewife.

So anyways last night my friend asked me what sort of things I was into nowadays and I enthusiastically replied “crochet!” with a big smiley face. And to quench any further inquiry from her – a reflex reaction – I immediately texted: “How about you guys? What’re you up to?”

Within a few seconds my phone was frantic with beautiful pictures of them having a team building activity at some plush beach resort. They were doing paddleboard yoga, and they looked fantastic! I wished I were there with them. And then I didn’t.

But that evening I slept with an unsettled feeling.

This morning I realized why, I was feeling defensive about people in my past life thinking I must be bored outta my wits. Choosing the domestic life over the excitement of cross-functional projects, tight timelines and business travels? And then moving to unfamiliar shores? I must be cray, right?

Okay, truth be told, it’s this move to Indonesia that’s really testing my mettle. But thankfully I can also say that to a great degree I have already mastered my mind where boredom is concerned.

You can be bored living in the most exciting place on earth. Conversely, you can also be un-bored in the most uneventful, even confined place you can imagine. It is all in your mind.

Granted, if there’s one thing I truly miss and crave, it’s social interaction. I miss my friends. And more than that I miss the ability to make coffee dates, even being able to wander off on my own is for now but a fond memory. I miss that feeling of independence where entertaining myself socially is concerned.

But as I see it, I can either continue to feel sporadically defensive (and a host of other, unappealing and certainly un-constructive emotions) about my new life , or I can take the time to understand it, adapt to it, become enriched because of it, and definitely look good while at it 😉

The choice gets clearer to me every day.