Confessions of a Housewife...and Secret Entrepreneur

I've been a stay-at-home-mom and "housewife" for 18 years.

Three kids and several dogs later, I've recently begun to want a bit more.

Not that being a mom and managing the household isn't enough for me, it's just that I am ready for a new phase in my life.

Two kids have graduated, and the youngest has two more years. But a seventeen-year-old is nearly a man and doesn't need "mom" for much of anything anymore.

There is the "turning 50" factor as well.

I've spent most of the past year dealing with menopause, a bit of empty nest syndrome, and more than a touch of mid-life crisis thrown in for an extra dose of entertainment.

So of course, I decided to find a new path in life, and it started at my kitchen table.

Literally.

I can see it now, from my living room couch, my kitchen table strewn with ink pads, rubber stamps, and other debris of my new trade.

From a hobby I started last year, I've grown my interest in selling my crafts and creating an income for myself.

A small business to keep me entertained and productive in my life, because there is a big empty space where a different ME used to be.

You can't be a mom when there is no one to mother.

So, I have to be something else.

After a year of honing down my interests and talents, I've taken up making handmade journals and similar paper crafts.

It has become a new, fun part of my life.

I haven't made much money from it yet, but I'm working on that. I set up an Etsy store. Nothing is in it yet, there's a bit more to these things that just setting up shop and pushing a button.

Getting a post office box, packaging materials, learning how to make YouTube videos, business licensing.

There's a whole laundry list of things to tackle before I am ready to push the button.

But I'm used to doing laundry, and this is just a better version of that!

All joking aside, I am taking my new business very seriously. As seriously as I take raising a family.

And I still manage to get everything done. The housework, the cooking and gardening, managing birthdays and holidays.

You would think there would be no time for working on a new business too, but you MAKE time.

You prioritize, make lists, create schedules.

There is less time for leisure, but my work is my leisure, my fun.

So, it all works out.

I don't neglect any important task. There is more delegation as the kids are older now. My adult daughter still lives with us, and she is expected to take on more, and so is my teenage son.

I don't feel guilty assigning chores such as checking the mail, walking the dog, taking out the trash or unloading the dishwasher.

I choose to spend more time on my crafts, and I've made that a priority.

It's a lot more about me now.

Of course, my family is important, but they don't need me as much anymore.

Not nearly as much, and I have a lot of leeway in how I spend my time.

This is a new part of my life.

It's an exciting time for me, as I pursue dreams I might have only had glimmers of interest in before, when taking time for myself wasn't really even possible.

I'm way past any unnecessary guilt I might have felt in the beginning.

I know I can break away from the old without tearing a rift in my life. It's more like a rearrangement than a separation.

It's adding instead of subtraction.

Here's to a great future, and a new path in life.