Finding a Hobby - My "Me time"

"The me behind the Mom" is a dumpster diver. Yep, you know that weird neighbor you see pulling things out of your other neighbors trash? That's me. I try to do it late at night when nobody can see me, but I feel a little less sneaky up here in Alaska where the sun never goes down!

About a year ago while looking at Pinterest I had a revelation "I want to build stuff!" My husband wasn't too sure when I told him I wanted to build furniture. To be fair, I haven't made furniture...yet. So I went on that I could make most of the decorations for our house, if only he would pretty please help me buy a miter saw. He knows a lot about tools, I don't, so I wanted his input. I think he was waiting to see if I would change my mind. I do that a lot, decide I want a hobby for about a week then change my mind. It keeps life interesting!

When I kept showing him all the cool things I was going to make, and started pulling stuff out of my neighbors trash cans and promising I could make it something awesome for our home if I just had a few specific tools, he went to Lowe's. He picked out a Miter Saw as my Anniversary gift. I don't care what anyone else says, that's Romance right there!

Isn't it pretty!?

 Fast forward a bit and now quite a few of the things in our house are handmade, or at least given a little love to make them pretty again. And you know what? It's awesome. I get a huge confidence boost when people compliment something in our home and I can say "I made that".  So far I stick to simple things: frames, signs, I'm still learning. But since my crappy Bookshelf met a fatal collision with my six year old, I want to make one of those next. One that can withstand children. Lol.

Most of my projects take me much longer than it would take someone without children. Projects that claim "It only takes a couple of hours" usually take me at least a week, sometimes a month. My kids don't nap anymore, and the weather is nice outside so most of my time is spent at the park, planting flowers, going on walks. But in those rare moments when the kids are sleeping and my husband is busy, I'm in the garage. It gives me time to do something I enjoy, forget about the dirty dishes and take time for myself.

A huge majority of my projects have something to do with the kids, framing their pictures, or this super easy planter box we made to so we could grow some wheat grass at home.

Wheat grass is so fun to grow with kids, this was just 4 days growth! it grows fast enough that they don't lose interest. My children have VERY short attention spans.

I will admit that plenty, and I mean plenty of my projects end up wrong, or even forgotten about and returned to the trash (while secretly hoping my neighbor doesn't recognize that this item used to be in THEIR trash). I really enjoy having a hobby that I can be proud of and that builds my self esteem, even if I do have to ask for my husbands help a lot of the time. :) He is very handy. I'm hoping one day our girls will be handy too, I'm trying to get them started early.

The girls building at Lowe's "Build & Grow" program. They loved it, I even bought them little hammers so they can build at home. Yes, I'm crazy, I gave my children real hammers! Even the two year old.

Being a Mom is definitely my number one endeavor, and that shapes who I am in more ways than I can imagine. But that one part of me "The Me behind the Mom" is a DIY-er. My husband may cringe at the words "Oh my gosh, did you see what our neighbors threw out!?" But hey, I secretly think he's enjoying it too. Or, at least enjoying the fact that he's gaining some pretty awesome tools for the garage. :)