Transition


Second Bloom: transitions to new midlife vocations from mothering and homeschooling (a conversation series)

Second Bloom: transitions to new midlife vocations from mothering and homeschooling (a conversation series)

What can I learn from the stories of other women's journeys across the threshold of full time mother, homemaker and homeschooler into second half of life careers? What secrets might I glean? What wisdom or insight might I be able to apply to my own life and situation?

The point of processing

The point of processing

Two big things are happening in life right now, the kids are leaving childhood and I'm actively preparing to launch a second career. And my writing has been a tool to process both of those changes, to chart the landscape at the unknown edges of my map.

A late summer rain

A late summer rain

They'll choose, and are choosing, their own path as adults. But we chose their childhoods, in the same way every parent does.

Wrapping things up

Wrapping things up

On these late summer days, as blackening red drupes weigh down the chokecherry boughs and the pears hang like pendants on the neighbor's tree, everything ripening and suspended, it feels like a holding year. Waiting for next thing to start, but knowing we won't get there till we finish this first.

On her way to university

On her way to university

We didn't have an expectation that Céline would start university straight out of high school, or that she'd go to university at all. But last year she set a course for costume design programs.

Parenting through young adulthood (our version), part two

Parenting through young adulthood (our version), part two

My kids can struggle and work through the issues of their teenage and young adult years - school, friends, identity, navigating difficult choices and dilemmas - isolated from us and our support, relationally or spatially. Or they can do it with our help. I choose the latter every time.

Parenting through young adulthood (our version), part one

Parenting through young adulthood (our version), part one

We can expand and adapt to create a family community where we love and support each other through all the ages and stages of our lives. We're humans, this is what we're meant to do.