Why "Lana y lino?"

Hi!  I'm Molly.  Thanks for reading my very first blog post here.  You might be wondering why I titled my blog "Lana y lino."  Well, "lana y lino" translates into Spanish as "wool and flax."  Proverbs 31 in the Bible says of excellence in women, "She selects wool and flax, and works with eager hands."  Clearly I'm not about to go gather wool and flax to make clothing for my family, but in the past two years I've been mentally and actually transitioning from one work to another.  My "wool and flax," so to speak, in college and for six years afterwards, has been the teaching of Spanish.  Now, as a stay at home mom, my "wool and flax" is my home and family, and primarily, taking care of my nine month old son.

Isn't he cute?

I've been a stay at home mom for a year now, but during my most recent year of teaching I knew that it was coming - when my husband and I married in March of 2012, we knew that we wanted to have kids quickly, and once kids were in the picture, it was our mutual desire to have one stay at home parent.  As an engineer, my husband, making more money, was the easy pick to be the breadwinner.  As a soon to be mom, I, planning to breastfeed for at least one full year if able to and have kids close together if possible, was the easy pick to be at home.  So I find myself here now, alternately enjoying the time with my kiddo and missing being out in the world with other adults.  To make sure that I have "adult time" I've strived to build friendships with other stay at home moms and seek out activities that challenge me intellectually like teaching did, but it's not always enough - so I am prompted to begin this blog after a friend posted a lovely little entry suggesting that blogging is a good way to stay accountable to others and to yourself.  Hi Jenny!  I've been meaning to blog for awhile, and why wait?  I get an extra benefit from blogging, because for years it's been a dream of mine to have my "wool and flax" be writing.  According to this entry, blogging can make you rich.  Maybe one day I'll be a professional blogger. ;)

More likely, though, I'll return to teaching.  I'm surely not done yet.  I purposefully said my most recent year of teaching in the previous paragraph instead of my last year teaching because I have no intention of staying out of the workforce forever.  Teaching is an excellent profession to pair with raising a family.  Schedules line up and mindsets line up.  The kiddos are in a stage of growth, and the teachers work to help them grow.  When my children (hopefully, more will come to add to the one we have now) are beginning school I will be delighted to return to teaching.  I miss it.  It's August and my teacher friends are posting to Facebook about the beginning of the school year.  When they go back, I'll still be here.  I feel it as something of a loss still, even after a year at home, even though what I gave it up for is precious beyond words.

Seriously, isn't he adorable?

Precious though he may be, he hasn't taken out of me the desire to be in a classroom.  I love the opportunity to share what I know and have experienced with students.  I love engaging with them, learning from them and changing what I did from day to day based on what they needed.  I love trying to figure out the best way to present an idea so that it would be understood as well as possible by as many as possible.  I love encouraging kids to think about things from a perspective different from the one they grew up with, and hearing them speak a language that can open up a whole new people to them.  I have something of an engineer in me - I even love the system of Spanish grammar (although my students did not love that I loved that).  Aside from my loves, some of those things I was even good at.  I'm good at organizing information, and I love to do it.  So maybe I'll be good at and enjoy blogging.  We'll give it a try.

This blog is about my "wool and flax."  It's about my life's work - my service to my family and my service to others.  My life's work is a dynamic thing.  It was teaching.  Now it's my husband and my son.  One day, it will likely be both.  I am hoping to use this blog as a way to reflect on what I'm learning about being a mom, and practice skills that will be helpful to me in my future teaching.  I think that this blog will be part "mom blog" and part something else.  

These are just a few things that you may see in this blog.  This list is for you, to decide if you want to follow me, but it's also for me, to give me direction.

Stuff you may see here:

• Reflections on important moments as a mom (my birth story, reflections on my son's milestones, important life events)
• Random Spanish lessons to satiate some of my teaching desire (may share .pdf files if I can figure out how - if you are a teacher you are welcome to use them), and reflections on what I can learn about parenting from my teaching experience
• My favorites from social media - especially recipes or home organization tips (hey, something's gotta hold me accountable for not overusing Pinterest ... what if I only pinned things that I actually planned to do???)
• Book reviews - especially parenting books, maybe other books
• Reflections on our family's choices as a parent (feeding, diapering, sleeping, playing, learning)

That's it for now!  Thank you so much for reading my first blog entry.  It's a window into my soul.  You honor me by stopping by.  I appreciate it.  I'd love if you left a comment.  Share your blog link, if you blog!