Projects I am Working on in My Non-Existent Free Time....

Free time around here only exists during nap time, which doesn't happen everyday now that my son has reached his toddler stage in life.

I am the type of person who needs to have something to do.  I like to call them "projects" because when I actually complete a task, I feel better about life.  I feel like I'm not wasting my life away because I don't have a j.o.b. and am not contributing financially to my family.  But I wrote about that situation in my previous post, so I will not dwell on that here.

I have several "projects" in the works these days and work on them when I have time to do so.  I have a lot of project ideas for the future too that I am excited about and am going to share some of them with you now.  They involve crocheting, reading, writing, paper crafts, amateur landscape photography and getting some of my papers published.

As far as crafting, I had the idea a while back to start doing paper crafts, like making my own cards and antiquing paper and making journals or cards with it.  I haven't started learning how to do that yet, because of the time crunch of being a stay-at-home mom of a 2 year old, very active little boy.  I am still very interested in learning about and doing paper crafting though, so it is on my list of projects to do in the future.

I have been doing a lot of crocheting lately and am getting better and better at it.  I still only know how to do one stitch and am not ready to learn another until I get better at the one I know.  I have made a throw blanket, two rugs and am currently working on a scarf.  All of these are gifts I have and will be giving to people.  It is something I enjoy doing and giving to others.  I had aspirations at one point to try and make some money by selling my completed projects, but I am far too slow and can only work for short periods of time before I start to have an allergic reaction to the yarn.  I tend to work on my crocheting projects during the afternoon when my son is napping and I don't have to do anything but stream tv shows and crochet.

I find that when I don't read for a while, I get cranky and actually depressed about life.  Reading allows me to use my brain and learn new things, even reading fiction.  I just finished reading Twelve Years a Slave, which everyone should read and am starting to re-read Life After Life, a fiction novel that is one of the best books I read last year, for book club.  My life is so dull without a good book in it.  I don't have much time to read during the day, so I do most of my reading before I go to bed at night.  I'll read a chapter or most of a chapter of a book or several articles from my Time Magazine before going to bed.  Reading my Time magazine during the day is easier because I can easily put it down and pick it back up again throughout the day.

And with my new-found commitment to reading, I am starting to write again too.  I am writing in a journal and blogging a couple times a week.  Writing, for me, cures the soul.  It is easier for me to blog because it is a shorter time commitment than say, writing a chapter of a novel or a non-fiction book.  So I plan to blog twice a week and would like to journal several times a week, if I have the time.  I have a great idea for a novel and several ideas for histories as far as future writing projects, but those, I shall keep to myself until I am ready to reveal them.

I have recently gotten the bug up my butt to research publishers both magazine and book publishers.  I have several papers that I would like to try and get published in an academic or some kind of magazine.  I also have two graduate theses that I would like to do something with so I am researching book publishers too.  I have found several online and am trying to figure out the best way to submit my work and have it be successfully published.  I have submitted one of my papers to a publisher already but haven't heard back.  They were quite explicit on their website that if I didn't hear back from them almost right way, I wouldn't be hearing back at all.  But that's okay, there are many more publishers to try.  My last resort would be to try doing self-publishing online.  I'm just not convinced that is the best way for me to go at this time, at least with my non-fiction work.

And just for fun, I am continuing to dabble in amateur landscape photography.  This town might be boring but the landscape around here is amazing.  I am thinking about ways to make some money by selling postcards or prints of my photographs to people.  I am having trouble figuring out copyright so no one can steal my images.  I don't want to have to start a company, but it might be worth it someday if I become more than an amateur landscape photographer.

So, as you can see, I have a lot of "projects" in the works and ideas for the future.  I find I can be overly ambitious sometimes, but when I do find the time to complete a project, it just makes life that much more awesome!  :)

Other Goings On.....

Finding things to keep myself sane in small town Montana has proved difficult recently.  I have enough time on my hand to do little things like crochet and stream tv shows on netflix and hulu plus, but I don't have enough time to sit down and start working on a writing project that has become fully developed in my head.  I have enough time to write this blog post, but not enough time to write my stories.  That's what happens during the church Lenten season; being just busy enough to not be able to do what I really want to do, but having enough time that I need to find things to fill it up with so I don't go crazy from boredom.

My son, Preston is now 20 months old.  He takes a lot of energy to watch after because he has discovered his climbing abilities, as well as curiosity about everything he sees.  I constantly have to make sure he is not getting into things he shouldn't be getting into.  It's exhausting and fun to see him learn and love learning.  He loves to read and be read to.  He's my miracle child and he's amazing.

So you may be wondering how I even have time to do anything for myself.  It's called nap time.  And he takes long naps.  Lately his naps have been anywhere from 2 1/2 to almost 4 hrs.  So while he is sleeping I have time to myself to do whatever I want to.  You may be wondering why that much time is not enough time to work on my stories, etc.... Well the best explanation is that I get preoccupied with what I am doing and forget about everything else.  So if Preston woke up from his nap in the middle of what I was working on, one of two things would happen: 1) I'd ignore it until I was at a place I felt I could stop and easily pick up where I left off; or 2) I'd go and get him and completely lose my train of thought and end up scrapping what I had been working on and feel like I wasted several hours of my life on crap.  Damn being a perfectionist!

And I've also been very homesick for my friends and family and Minnesota.  Please don't get me wrong, I wouldn't want to be anywhere, where my husband and son are not, but sometimes I sit at home and wonder what my life would be like if I lived closer to friends.  Of course, several of my favorite people are not even in Minnesota.  Some are out east, one goes back and forth between MN and Canada (that would be you VB!), one is in Washington state, a few are even in Montana.  Our friends that live the closest to us in Montana are a little over 2 hrs away so it is hard for us to get together very often.  Our other friends who live in Montana are over 4 hrs away, so we hardly ever see each other, except for at synod events.  I've made a few "friends" here in the small town we live in, but they are more acquaintances who I see every once in a while, rather than soul bearing, really love for each other friends.  But this too shall pass and I continually pray for sooner rather than later.

But every once in a while, we find something fun to go do as a family, which is what my next post will be about.  Not everything here is terrible.  The nature here is friggin' amazing as you will see. :)

The Chaotic Season and Brainstorming Ways to Stay Sane...

It is the busiest time of year at our house, Lent.  Jason has two sermons to prepare each week plus all of his usual Pastoral duties.  We still keep mostly to the same routine as far as Preston goes, except now I have to take him to two services a week instead of just service on Sunday.  We have our St. Patrick's Corned Beef and Cabbage Youth Group dinner tonight that I am involved in preparing and making sure it goes as smoothly as possible, along with another adult.

Along with church activities, I still take Preston to MOPS the 1st and 3rd Thursdays of the month and we have recently started having weekly play dates with a new family in town with a boy Preston's age, on Wednesdays.  On top of all this, we occasionally have my in-laws staying with us when my mother-in-law Sharon has early morning chemo treatments in Great Falls.  It's been an exhausting March so far and there is still a week and a day left.

There have been some really great things going on this month too though.  One I got to participate in and the other, I unfortunately was unable to attend.  It sucks living in a place that doesn't have decently priced and convenient transportation options.  Two of my favorite people in my life got married this month.  Karen was married on March 1st and I was one of her bridesmaids.  Veronica was married on March 14th and I was there in spirit.

Despite all of the ups and downs, the most emotionally, physically and mentally draining part of March has been the weather.  It gets warm, but with the warmth comes the blustering winds so we can't even go outside and enjoy the nice weather.  When it is not warm and windy, it is cold and windy, sometimes with snow too.  I'm just done with this winter.  Onto Spring and Summer please. :P

So two church services a week, play dates, weekly laundry, continuing to slowly work on my creative space, crocheting projects, reading, blogging, texting, skyping and calling friends and family have kept me sane so far during this Lenten season.  All I can say is that I've never looked forward to heading to Chico Hot Springs after Easter that I am this year.

Working on my Creative Space and crocheting....

I have been working on crocheting a throw blanket for a while now and I thought I was on the home stretch.  After looking it over, I realized that some of it was not even, so I'm contemplating undoing a chunk of it and reworking it so it is not so lopsided.  Thankfully, it will be an easy fix, but I was hoping to be done with this throw blanket and move onto another project, probably another throw blanket, but with different colors.  I'll be posting pictures once I'm finally finished.  I'm hoping to have it done before I leave for MN next Wednesday.  It probably won't happen, but that's my goal.

A while ago, I decided that I needed to create a creative space for myself in the house for me to write and do other projects as I desire.  Sitting at the dining room table with my laptop is not my idea of a creative space, so I have commandeered a room in the basement to make my creative space.  I bought a few things to hang on the walls and to decorate the room with and it is coming along slowly.  I will post pictures of different views of the room as I get further along in decorating it.

I am completely failing in the walking outside challenge.  It has either been too windy or too cold to walk outside.  It doesn't help that Fairfield doesn't believe in proper snow removal, so when the weather gets warmer, the roads are basically lakes, occasionally a small pond.  So I've been using our treadmill and finding other ways to work out on a daily basis.  I started doing yoga once a week, but I haven't been able to go the last two weeks, which I'm not thrilled with.  I'm going to make sure I get back into it when I get back from MN in March.

Preston and I are getting better after being sick most of last week, but he is still teething, which is unpleasant for everyone involved.  That's about all that's going on here.  I think today I am going to work on the throw blanket and look up some more healthy snack ideas and recipes on pinterest that Jason and I can make for meals.  I will probably read a bit too.  I only have the time when Preston is napping to do these things so I have to prioritize.  Looks like working on the throw blanket will be the priority today.  :)

Surviving Winter in a Small Town

So this winter has been off the charts crazy here in small town Montana.  One week we are in the single digits and below zero, the next week we have 40 degree temps with 60+ mph winds.  That's what we are facing here today in Fairfield, MT.  The air temperature is warm, but we can't go outside and enjoy it or we'll get blown away in the wind.

This winter has been especially hard because I have a now 17 month old to try and keep entertained daily.  I often find myself praying that he takes a long afternoon nap, so I can brainstorm ideas of how to keep him entertained in the evenings when my husband is busy at church with meetings, Confirmation or Bible study.  I've figured it out so far and way too much tv and netflix streaming is involved, but it's worked.  I started reading Preston the first Harry Potter book, mostly for my own entertainment, but he's actually starting to pay attention when I'm reading too which is fun to see.

As far as outside the home activities:  Preston goes over to the office with day most days in the morning so he has a larger space to play and run around.  I continue to take him to MOPS the 1st and 3rd Thursdays of the month, except if the weather is really really bad.  I belong to a book club which meets monthly that I love and participate in an evening Bible study which I also love.  The rest of the month, I find things to do as I long for spring and warmer weather to come.

For my own entertainment during this craptastical winter, I am reading a lot, brainstorming ideas for my creative space that I'm making for myself down in the basement, once the new carpet is put in, watching movies, and working on getting physically and emotionally healthier.  I've taken up crocheting again while Preston is napping and I marathon episodes of Ugly Betty on netflix.  Yup, I'm surviving, but I'll tell you this:  I am so looking forward to the warmer part of spring, a nice warm summer and a lovely autumn.  F*&% this winter!  We'll all make it through, just like every year and be grateful for warmer weather when it comes.