Personal Validation (Mom's 30 Minute Blog Challenge)

Being a stay at home mom can get lonely and rather dull some days. There is a list of chores that need to get done every day, often multiple times I might add. Often the lack of appreciation for the things that we do each day makes us feel very ‘un-validated’ in our work. I try to keep myself busy and find new things to do and new skills to learn. I really enjoy cooking, menu planning, and getting a good bargain. Some of the times just the personal satisfaction I get from accomplishing these things helps me feel good. Other times I find that yeah I’m doing interesting things, but I don’t have any one around during the day to share these things with. I’m not overly social and don’t see myself as a ‘lady who lunches’ kind of gal. But I often find that I end up either talking to myself or searching out friends online via Facebook or a variety of special interest forums.

I just started volunteering in my daughter’s class this morning. My son is in preschool and the timeframe works out just right. I’m looking forward to interacting with the kids, helping the teacher out with clerical tasks and just having somewhere I need to go every Wednesday morning. Even though it’s an assignment I took on as part of contributing to my daughter’s classroom experience it is also something personally validating.

Blogging for me is probably the thing that is most personally validating – sometimes to the point of selfishness I might say. I’ve always loved writing and taking pictures. My content is comprised of things that are very important to me: my family, my home, food, our finances and my own sanity.

I’m hoping this winter to find snippets of time to actually explore more things that I want to do. I’d love to put a little more effort into decorating my home, give scrapbooking a try, resume exercising regularly, and of course spend more time writing. I love being home with my kids, love having the time and flexibility to care for my family, to cook good meals, to shop for bargains and really ‘make’ our home. But I know that I need to fill that out with a few more things that are a little more focused on Dawn and not just mommy

This post was written as my contribution to Steady Mom’s 30 Minute Blog Post challenge.  Click here to

check out this week's 30 Minute blog post on Steady Mom's Morning Routine as well as links to other posts in the 30 Minute Blog Post challenge.

Ok I'm going to admit the longest part of writing this post was trying to find a picture of myself to share.   Not only do I detest most pictures of myself...there just aren't that many as I'm always behind the camera instead of in front of it!