Title Change

I've been wanting to change the title of my blog for a while. All Things New was always a temporary title, except that it stuck around for a while, while I let the ideas about a more fitting title percolate in my mind. And believe me, I considered a lot of different things.

I considered something sweet about our treasured family life. Simple Gifts. No, sounds like a Hallmark movie. OK, how about a pun on our name? Ewalden Pond. Stupid and pretentious at once, an impressive feat. Where's Ewaldo?  Tempting...but no, none of us look good in stripes. Something to do with my interests? I like riding horses. Bareback Mama. No. No. Ten thousand times no.

Then I literally dreamed of a name. As in, I saw a name on a sign in my dream. Not a billboard or a street sign type of sign, more like a sign you'd hang in a nursery with your baby's name on it. The name was Stardrinker. I loved that for about five seconds until I realized it sounded like an alcoholic's blog. Then I was not living for it, so much.

Moving on.

I might have mentioned that I'm not an outdoorswoman in my last post. That is sort of true and sort of untrue. I don't like camping, it must be said, but I am actually good at fishing and riding horses, and I do like hiking.

This is a good time to tell the story of my first hike, so indulge me while I Spinderella (also a tempting alternate title and a fitting homage to Salt n Peppa...but no) for a second here. I had never been hiking in my life until I met Tim. So we move to Boston to go to graduate school together and he says "We now live in New England. We must go hiking. This weekend." and I got really excited about this prospect. So I borrowed some boots. Huge rookie mistake. (Yes, that was an alternate title for this blog too) and off we went to New Hampshire and Mount Monadnock.

I will never forget how I felt as we left the parking lot and started walking up the trail. I was so excited. The trail was wide and the incline was gentle and the aspect was invitingly tree lined. I couldn't wait to wander up to the top in a leisurely manner whilst having deep philosophical conversations about nature and civilization and everything in between.

You can imagine my surprise then, to find myself grimly grappling my way up a mountain face a mere half hour later. No trees, no wide path...indeed, there was no path at all...and certainly no gentle incline. This was thigh shriekingly shin scrapingly intense hard work, scrabbling up rocky slopes and climbing up to the top of the mountain.

I will also never forget the look on Tim's face or the sound of his laughter when I confessed to what you may have already guessed: I had no idea that hiking was far more similar to climbing than to walking. I honestly believed that hiking was just a brisk walk done on mountain side. I was seriously clueless (another alternate title).

And when we reached the summit, I was speechless. You need air to talk, and I was suckin' some serious wind. But it was amazingly beautiful. We didn't know this before we started, but Mt. Monadnock offers 360 degree views from the summit. You can see land in three states on a clear day. Despite the blisters and the sore muscles and mistaken assumptions, I was hooked.

You see, hiking is all about the journey. The view from the top means more if you worked to get there and took the time to appreciate each stage of the landscape you passed through.

Which FINALLY brings me to the new title. You had to hike through this post to get to my point. Apologies, and I hope you don't have blisters.

I like hiking, but it's hard work. In similar fashion, I love being home with my kids, but I find being a homemaker to be hard work. It's not being a mother that is hard work ...well, most of the time, anyway. It's more the cooking/cleaning/yard/crafty schtick that I suck at find challenging. But I really want to excel at it. All my life I've been ambitious. I've always wanted to be good at whatever I was doing...and I don't see why this should be any different. If I'm going to be home...and I am....then why not study the craft, practice it, and improve myself? The worst that happens is that I"ll learn something about myself, even if it is only that homemakers can only be bred and not trained.

Hence, Hiking Mount Olympus. Because I'm working my way up to domestic goddesshood and trying to savor each step of the journey.  I'm hoping to post more often, and I'm going to post about a broader variety of topics. The posts about my mishaps adventures in cooking and cleaning and crafty type things will be entitled "Domestic Goddesshood".

Grandparents, put the phone down. I promise I am still going to post about Addie and Graydon. I'll call those posts "Where We Are", as you may have already noticed.

And I'm going to post about other randomness, which I'll entitle something clever cheesy like "Musings from the Mount". Other randomness being things like books, music, spirituality, and politics. Yes, politics.

And that's really the reason for my "post titles". Because if you already know you don't like my politics, you can ignore those posts with ease. And if you CHOOSE to read them, then on your head be it. Don't be steppin' to me with your angry "why are you so ...." comments if you bring it on yourself. That's all I'm sayin'.

OK, I even type more Southern when I get fired up. You can take the girl out of the South, but you cannot make her enunciate her words (Another possible title. Too long though). Even when she's typing. Or typin'.

I've debated whether or not this is the best forum for those random topics, but I frankly don't think I'd maintain another blog often enough to justify a separate one. I'm not looking to be the next great political voice of our time, but I might post about current events from time to time.

But in truth, I still expect this blog to be mostly about the family and our journey to wherever we're going. That's what I enjoy blogging about the most. And that brings me to the final title I considered for my blog: Happy and I Know It! (No, too nursery school. Clap your hands!)