World of Work (& Writing)
This page of resources belongs to the Wife Mother Writer Resource Library.
When I graduated from university at the age of 23 I had been married for three years and I just given birth to our first child. I didn't start a career as a public school teacher, as I had been trained for in earning my degree in Education, I started my career as a stay-at-home mother and homemaker, and a few years later I added homeschooler to that list of vocations.
As my children grew, my own interests expanded and flourished into various realms. I learned photography, I started blogging. After a life-changing move I launched into homeschool coaching, freelance writing and e-book publishing, professional blogging and working with my husband in our online ventures and projects, which included producing a video series of our family thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail.
After an (early) mid-life crisis I stopped all that and turned heart and head back to home for a season of healing.
Now, as I homeschool my children through high school, nearing the end of this first vocation of mine, I am dreaming and planning about what my next career will look like. I don't have a vision for it yet but I'm certain it build upon the key skills and strengths I've developed in the last twenty years of managing our home, homeschooling our children and discovering and developing myself as a writer.
The posts below tell parts of this story.
- The year I find my fire - The year I come into my power and purpose through unexpected means.
- Going to grad school - About 2 years ago, 18 months before the end of our family's homeschool journey, I started to get serious about figuring out what I would do when I retired from homeschooling.
- What I love most about Second Bloom - The wisdom, vulnerability, insight, grit and joy, of the women I interviewed for Second Bloom exceeded my expectations for this project, and they have become inspiring examples, beacons of light, helping guide the way in my own journey.
- Working part-time, throwing another ball in the air -
- Working for the B-RAD podcast - My work as a content writer, podcast production assistant, social media and marketing manager for the B-RAD Podcast with Brad Toews.
- Getting a job - My goal was to find a part-time job, something that paid better than minimum wage, used my skills and experience and also helped me grow new skills and experience for future work potential, and ideally, could be flexible around my family obligations and ro
- A Path to Employment ~ Series introduction - I was never sure exactly how to move forward on the paid-work path and I had no long term vision for my own work.
- Wholehearted writing (and depression on the Appalachian Trail) - We go through experiences that wear us down to our core, and break our shell, and expose what's operating below the surface of our lives.
- Missive from the edge - My ambition is to give expression and bring to the light in writing the meeting place of stories of the heart and ideas of the mind.
- Doing the next Big Thing - The path for me, in this particular season, is to walk in the confidence of who I am and whose I am, even though I don't have a Big Vision for my post-homeschooling vocation.
- Searching for vision in my vocation - I didn't have a clear vision but maybe vision is overrated, and it was more important to just "do stuff", or maybe I would find one through bumbling around.
- A glossary of terms - I've been working at these definitions because I like clarity and well-defined ideas but also to help me understand where I fit in the world of income-earning jobs, careers, and vocations.
- Vocation, Marriage, and Work: An introduction - I have a small obsession with understanding the definition of work and vocation and finding clarity around this in my own life.
- A Personal Retreat Day for Life Assessment and Planning - I use my Personal Retreat Day as a personal growth and development day, with a current focus on creative, intellectual, and spiritual development.
- On becoming a relationship-focused professional blogger - I can be a professional blogger rooted in beauty, relationship, creativity, adventure, health and family.
- Making peace with my personality ~ Workin' for the man - I didn't need to go looking for meaningful work online, the opportunity was right in front of me.
- Minimalist footwear changed our lives - Announcing the upgrade and re-launch of our minimalist footwear blog Toe Salad.
- Our Work Goals & Vision - Our dreams and plans to do more than just put food on the table.
- Evolution of a Writer - Here on the internet were mothers, homemakers and homeschoolers (like me) who were sharing their lives, their ideas, their selves - from home and making money doing so.
