how this all started

I will be turning 50 this coming winter, and I am still trying to figure out two basic questions: Who the heck am I? And what do I want to do with my life?

My husband and I have spent the past ten years slowly increasing our spending habits to provide some needed ease in raising our neurodivergent child. This was a very kind and appropriate decision given our circumstances. Then one evening in late May of this year, my husband arrived home inexplicably two hours early. Perhaps you can guess what’s coming. With this unexpected job loss, thrift became our new mode. I was wholly surprised to be having fun. I had forgotten the thrill of it. (Flashback to me dumpster diving in my early 20s!!!)

In rediscovering thrift, I felt like I revealed a little bit of my core self in the process. This isn’t the first time I have put something down for decades only to see my own reflection when I pick it up again. That feeling of “Oh, right! This is me!”

For the past twelve years, I have been a homemaker, and I have struggled mightily with this sole identity. I have enjoyed the work. I have found balance. Now if I could only ignore cultural demands and see this as enough. I then happened upon the book Radical Homemaker: Reclaiming Domesticity from a Consumer Culture by Shannon Hayes. **Fireworks!**

This blog is about my transition from homemaker to radical homemaker. In this, I hope to further embrace the thrift and makers community, increase self-sufficiency, enhance our sustainability practices, and reduce our monetary dependence. Most importantly, I hope to recognize more of myself in the person I am becoming. 

Let’s be clear, I am no superhero, nor do I aspire to don a cape and become one. There will be no canning tomatoes in lieu of sleep. My message will never be ‘do more,’ rather, ’let’s do differently.’ 

My goal here is to increase the amount of genuine satisfaction in my life. I will find what matters to me and embrace it. Minimalism is my jam, so if it’s of no use, out it goes. My life is already full as I begin this project — if something comes in, something else must go out. 

This is my one sweet life. I want to author it.