A September Introduction

September 4, 2024

Every now and then I like to update the page that describes what my blog is about and introduces myself to random passersby and new readers. (Are there any new readers here? Shoot me an email and say hi, if you are so inclined.)

This summer I re-wrote that page and finally published it yesterday.

It’s shorter than any other introductory page I’ve posted in many years. I find that interesting and I think that’s because, career trajectory questions aside (you’ll read about that below), I’m at a life stage where I’m very clear on who I am and what I’m about.

I’ve always been a focused person and a direct communicator. I will share what I know and am able to articulate. But I’ve had a hard time, for many years, communicating who I am within the socially constructed boxes normally used within our culture to introduce ourselves.

What do you “do”? By which people mean “what do you do that earns you money?” “Where are you from?” By which people usually mean “where do you live” but they might also mean “where is your place of origin?” Both of which might be different than where and what the responder considers “home”.

As a homeschool mom I’ve not had the typical employment trajectory for someone of my background, intellect, and education. This sounds hoity-toity or “I’m special.” Which is not what I'm intending to communicate, nor is it my belief about myself.

However, it has been important for me to recognize that I am a deep thinker and that I have poured those energies and thoughts primarily into how I raised a family and there is little to show for that “career-wise”. It certainly doesn’t yield compensation, which is what our culture uses to quantify the importance of particular labours.

Relatedly, home and family (and the potential for these social structures and relations to create and sustain healthy human development) are my highest and core values. But identifying and then owning that in public spaces and spheres through my career years has not always been easy for me. Grad school rebuilt this passion, fire, and courage in me.

I went through a significant period of losing my confidence as several life events happened in short succession and somewhat concurrently: a midlife crisis, the deconstruction of my foundational religious beliefs, financial loss and stress, and the end-game efforts in raising and homeschooling teens. During that season it became even harder to quantify and explain myself.

In retrospect, I think I've used lots of words in my introductory pages because of everything I’ve just said.

So this is pretty funny because I’ve now added an introduction to an introduction, basically making another long introduction. 😂

Maybe I just can’t write a short introduction. Period.

Anyway, here's the update to my now page. I'm writing a post for it because I can't publish that page directly to the blog feed.

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Hi, my name is Renee Tougas. This is my variation on the Now page.

Click here for the bread crumb trail of old About & Now pages.

July 2024

I am a midlife, empty nester, veteran homeschooling mom of 3 young adults; a recent transplant to Lunenburg County, NS from Montreal, QC, where I lived with my family for the last 9 years.

I live with my husband and best friend (same person), across the driveway from more best friends and companions - my parents - with whom I share garden tools, daily texts and in-person chats, Sunday evening dinners, random pantry items, etc.

I love to read, think, and write. I love making home and especially excel at system development, management, and organization. I am fiercely loyal to my people.

I photograph beautiful things, like my garden and landscapes, and things that bring me joy or comfort. One of my deepest sources of both joy and comfort is home.

I love to travel and roadtrip, to go on adventures, especially in wild and natural places.

I’ve been blogging here for 20 years. I like having this home on the Internet and this record of my thoughts, personal growth, and family life.

Who does this anymore? Me, I guess.

My blog writing is a mash-up of spiritually-orientated, deep thinking, personal, and cultural analysis with lifestyle and memoirist storytelling. If you can identify a “niche” in this I’d love to know it so I could better keyword my essay headings and titles for SEO. (Partly joking, partly serious.)

I also have a YouTube channel and my intention is to keep things a little lighter in that format: more story, less analysis.

Since retiring from homeschooling in 2020 when our youngest started junior college (she’s now in the final year of her Bachelor’s Degree), I’ve been in grad school studying education and I’ve recently published my first article to a peer-reviewed, academic journal.

Homeschooling was a big part of my life for many years (3 kids all the way through) and education philosophies, practices, and policies are enduring interests. I hope to alchemize a career for myself from this academic interest, lived experience, and grad school education.

Similar to identifying a niche for my writing, if you have career ideas for me, shoot them my way. Please. Not joking.

Speaking of career, I work as a freelance administrative assistant in online content creation, social media marketing, membership site development and management, customer care, and general online research and problem-solving related to these things.

I’m a Jill-of-all-Trades Virtual Assistant for organic social marketing and online content. This is not a path I wish to pursue as a career but if I stay in this lane long enough, it might become one!

Except for talking about my freelance work and clients, all the above is featured on my blog.

Living in Nova Scotia; intergenerational family life; pretty photos; adventures & travels; personal, philosophical, spiritual and sociological essays; thoughts on education and homeschooling - you'll experience all of that here.

A note about the comments function.

Set up on Django seven years already, my blog is almost maintenance free but the maintenance it does need has to be done by someone with higher pay grade than myself. (Specifically, my husband.)

A few years ago I was getting a ton of spam and so we turned off commenting. I’m uncertain if I want to re-instate commenting, I really like the engagement and conversation. Or if I want to un-publish all the old comments and remove any mention of the commenting function altogether.

People said stuff back in the early days of blogging that they would no longer share publicly in this cultural climate. Plus, people change and they might not want thoughts they had 15 years ago viewable to the nowadays graceless-Internet.

I have made a conscious choice to keep my own writing from 20 years ago still accessible partly as a testament to personal growth and development. There are things written here I would never write now. There are beliefs, opinions, ideas stated (and defended) that I no longer hold. And that’s exactly why I keep them them published.

We can change our minds and our beliefs. Isn’t that a wonderful thing?

However, I don’t want to expose commenters to public scrutiny for ideas published during a softer and more forgiving time. The blood-thirsty mob vibe seems to have died down a bit, but that could just be because I don’t pay attention anymore.

Anyway, commenting remains unavailable for the foreseeable future. However, I love correspondence and hearing your experiences. Email me renee@tougas.net.

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