Tonight the kids went to bed and shortly after my husband went to bed, too. After a 3 hour nap this afternoon, I’m sitting here wide awake.
Amazingly, I got a few hours all to myself, something that rarely happens. I sat down, eager to do something I enjoy doing…and stopped.
What do I like to do?
It’s been such a long time since I’ve had the chance to do something I like to do that I don’t know what I like to do anymore. Honestly, I think I forgot how to relax!
I was stuck in a sort of ridged posture and it felt weird to curl up in front of the tv. So, I sat down and decided to blog a bit. Every topic that came to my mind was about the kids and being a mom.
Five years ago there was a lot more to me than being a mom. Not that I don’t love being a mom, I really do. I cherish all the time spent with my girls. But when I can’t set that part of my life down for even just a few minutes its a strong reminder that I need to do some personal exploring or I’m going to be in trouble.
This isn’t a mid-life crisis, it’s a mom-life crisis.
I know I’m not the only one who gets so overcome with life as a parent that I forget to be a wife, or a sister, or a friend, or even myself. Before I had kids I loved to do yoga. I loved geocaching. Cross stitch was a go to hobby, so was scrapbooking. Reading was always on my agenda and I had more focus on my personal spirituality.
There was so much I did and then I had kids and I sort of lost the time and energy to do what I loved.
Babies take a lot of time, ya know. Now, my kids are older and a bit more independent, so I really should look at taking some additional time to do the things I love. Do I run the risk of sounding too nerdy if I tell you I want to dig out my Mensa level Su-do-ku book?
In the next three weeks my husbands work schedule is changing a bit. He will be working evenings instead of days for training. This is going to be a big, welcome, change for me. Sure I miss my husband, and that’s why at night I feel guilty about going off and doing my own thing with out him. I want to spend lost time with him. Now that he’ll be working I can start looking at some of the things I used to like, try them out and see if I still like them. I can also make some room for new hobbies and interests.
Here are some things on my to do list for the next few weeks:
- Start reading books from a 1001 books I must read before I die list.
- Clear out some space in the basement and get back to scrapbooking.
- Continue writing on my novel
- Map out some geocaching locations for the next nice weekend
- Get my Su Do Ku book out
- Work on creating some crafts out of material I already have on hand
Good Luck to you! I know as a Mom we often forget about ourselves while we are taking care of everyone else. My biggest thing is I pick one book at every month and I read it, regardless of what is going on in my life. It keeps me sane and makes me remember I am human being as well as a mother.
That’s so funny! I think every mom hits that at one time or another. I know now that I am a blogger, I sit back and always wonder what I did before blogging (I’ve been a mommy now for almost 7 years so I have little to no recollection of life pre-mommy! LOL) Good luck on that list! Hopefully you’ll get some of it going! And a novel, huh? What about!?
I suppose my novel is taking me back to childhood memories, lol. The one I’m working on right now is pretty much a novel sized fairy tale. I have no idea if I have the ability to write on that magnitude, but we’re gonna find out!
I understand fully! Yesterday I had some time completely to myself, and it’s exactly what you said…what do I do now? Love this!
Good Luck. My goals are more time to knit and do craft projects that are for me.
I love your list. I wish I could suggest something to add. Mine includes travel to foreign lands. I just started compiling it earlier this year!
I would love to go places like Africa and Madagascar. My daughters favorite animal is a giraffe and we’ve already started figuring out how much money it would cost to go to Giraffe Manor in Nairobi. Let’s just say it’s going to be a while before we get there.