Life since Covid has been different for me. We moved three hours away, back to my hometown. My kids are getting older everyday, and involved in activities now that cost money. My free time and my interests are both evolving and I feel like a different version of who I’ve been in the past. Not in a bad way…just slightly more mature and with better boundaries surrounding how I want to spend my money and time.

We are in the midst of buying a house right now (closing on Friday- eek!) and I’m so excited to make it my own. My kids are getting ready to have their own bedrooms once again, as they’ve been sharing a room for the last few years. Thinking about moving into a new space can be daunting, but I’m so excited and so ready for it. I also have a super different approach this time to how I want to spend my resources. In the past I’ve gone bananas buying all kinds of home decor to fit a new space but this time I just want to sloooooow down. I enjoy the idea of life being perfectly imperfect, and my house can slowly evolve over time as I decide where I want to put/hang/store things.

Like, for my bed…I would like a new bedspread but I want to get a NICE one. I would like to get a quilt that’s been handmade by someone. I might even want to make one myself for the bed. It would be meaningful, exactly what I want, and last longer if I was in charge of creating it with good materials and sturdy craftsmanship. Maybe I’ll thrift one? Most of my clothes in the last few years have been from the thrift store or Poshmark. Why? Because everything is so danged expensive due to inflation. And also, because I’m looking for something specific most of the time, and I feel quality has gone done significantly in big box stores.
Where I used to spend a lot of money on makeup, skincare, and products to zhuzh myself up (and blog about!) I have really streamlined what I buy now. I threw away all but one foundation, and it’s all I use now. I still have more makeup than most people, because I love it, but I’m very methodical about what I’ll add to my collection these days. I think hard about purchases before blind buying things. I spend a lot of the time I used to spend shopping and obsessing over material goods doing other things these days. Reading, walking, taking my kids to activities, and finishing up what I believe will be my last semester in school. I started back to school during Covid because I really wanted to learn more about Writing and Psychology, and it’s been very fulfilling for me.

One of my classes this semester, COMM 304, challenged us to make a google survey. Feel free to take it here if you’re interested! I asked my classmates a bunch of questions about how they spent their free time, whether they enjoyed DIY hobbies, and more. I am trying to gauge whether it is worth taking up knitting at my age of 38, with all that I have going on. It’s something I’d really like to take up, but I don’t have a ton of time. I was inspired by my classmates’ answers to one of my questions.

I used to be the type of person who would see something I wanted and need to have it in my hot little hands, instantaneously…I would buy it at full price and be so happy to just own it! But now, I see the beauty in making something by hand that wasn’t cranked out in a factory with child laborers. That I spend painstaking time creating with my own hands. I could take knitting projects with me to my subbing jobs and do it during lunch and recess and other downtimes when I don’t have the kids in the room with me. It seems like a hard thing to learn, but I know I would be so proud of myself when I figured it out and had something beautiful to show for it.
What do you think I should start with? Granny squares? A scarf? A winter hat? How do you keep up the desire to knit when it becomes summer and it’s hot out? I’m so curious! 😊 I’m glad I did this poll because it got the gears in my brain moving and now I kind of DO feel a push to start this hobby! Take my poll and be inspired that others are in the same boat, if you have these thoughts as well. Also, consider following my class hashtag #COMM304 on Twitter. I’m not really a Twitter person (ahem, Elon Musk ruins all good things) but I’m taking a crack at it for the first time in years for this class.