Living My Life

A year ago this month, we moved to Rochester and I became a stay-at-home mom. I was so used to being identified by my job and still feel some sadness that I don't hang out with teenagers and talk about history all day. As I started staying at home, I loved - and still love - taking care of Tate Tot, watching him grow, making dinners, doing crafts, and keeping my house semi-clean. But, like Ariel of Disney fame, "I want[ed] moooooooore!"

My inspiration came from a friend of mine from our DC days, who is also a stay-at-home mom (S.D., if you are reading this -- thanks). When she was writing her family's Christmas card one year, she realized that she had accomplishments and events to write about for everyone in her family, except herself. So, she declared the following year her year of action (I think is how she termed it) and she took piano lessons and completed a triathlon. I was a working mom then, and had no time for anything extra, but I tucked her ideas away in the back of my head.

For the first six months of stay-at-home-mom-hood, I kept thinking, I should learn something, do something, blah, blah, blah. But I mostly hung out with my kid or wasted my time somehow. Then I remembered S.D.'s commitment to herself, and I decided to make just such a commitment as well. I decided to do two things that I've wanted to for a really long time:

1. Learn Adobe Illustrator and the basics of graphic design (mostly so I could make my own paper products for parties and not bug Matt!).
2. Get my certification to teach group fitness...and then get a job as an instructor.

Guess what?! I've done them both.

I took an online Illustrator class from Nicole's Classes (highly recommend the Illustrator 101) and learned all sorts of great things. I'm no artist and my skills are very rudimentary, but I can at least make an invitation or something. Below are a few of my tiny projects.



My other happy accomplishment is that I finally got my AFAA certification, something I've wanted to do every since I stopped dancing. I took the test in March, got the certification in April, and I now teach at a couple of gyms teaching strength and some cardio classes.

It feels so good to be busy again and I love that I'm learning and trying new things that still leave time for me to raise my sweet boy. Some day I'll get a Master's, go back to teaching history, tour the Silk Roads, and see the Taj Mahal, but for now -- all of my tiny dreams are coming true.


PS. None of this, by the way, could be accomplished without the encouragement and support of my darling Matt. He is such a trooper to help me with Illustrator, listen to remixed fitness music while I practice, take care of Tate Tot, and generally be awesome.