The key to my happiness

Projects! I need them. I crave them. Things to work on at home, outside, at church, in the community, and everywhere else. Not just work to do, but a focused project with a start and finish, with much to learn along the way. Without a project or two, I feel sad and listless. With a fresh project ahead of me, I feel empowered and productive.

I think this is one way to balance my planning/detail-oriented personality with the flexible/spontaneous lifestyle of parenthood. Projects are a little more flexible. There's always something productive to do in the moments when Alice requires less of my attention. Alice comes with me to work on some projects so it adds something new and fun into our day. For example, we bike down to the hardware store to pick up parts for our rain barrels. Alice enjoys the leisurely outing and I get something fun done, too. Here are few projects I'm working on now:

• Backyard veggie gardening (a job made easier by those raised beds)


• Patching mortar on our exterior brick walls (to keep the ants out)


• Building rain barrels (materials are ready, now I need to assemble)


• Planning/Directing MAM monthly meetings


• Sometimes planning the weekly dinner menu counts as a project. If I look for new recipes and try new ingredients/methods, then it's a project.

And I've got a few projects in the works for my travels out west this summer. Just a few things I will do with my mom and my sister. It's fun to work together and accomplish something significant.