Welcome to the P31 Project!

Welcome to The P31 Project! I’m Anna. Before I get started telling you about this blog, let me tell you a little about myself. 

I am a 29 year old wife to a wonderful husband, mother of two amazing little boys under the age of two, postpartum nurse, Christian, daughter, sister, friend, neighbor… well you get the idea. I have what feels like an impossible number of roles to keep up with and somehow, I feel like it keeps growing, as I am sure many of you can relate. So much to do so little time, am I right? I am the definition of an extrovert. I love being around people and trying new things but since I have been doing this adulting thing, I have felt so overwhelmed with trying to balance everything I have become a recluse. I don’t have friends I go do things with more than once or twice a year, I don’t do any of the hobbies I used to enjoy so much, my husband and I don’t go on dates but for our anniversary or Valentine’s Day, I don’t volunteer at church because I feel like I can’t keep up as it is, I don’t exercise and the list continues. I feel like I have lost myself in trying to manage so many other roles and responsibilities and thanks to my husband I recently came to this realization. 

 Our youngest son is 8 weeks old and my husband was feeling overwhelmed with life so I told him to do something he enjoyed to blow off some steam. He immediately knew what he was going to do. Golf. Then he went fishing the next week. I was checking in with him to see how he was feeling after getting to spend some time doing things that he loves and he was telling me how much better he felt and thanked me for allowing him the time and taking care of the kids so he could go. He then asked me what I would like to go do and he would watch the kids. I just sat there thinking, and thinking, and thinking. I couldn’t think of anything! Everything I thought of sounded so overwhelming and honestly, I just couldn’t get my To Do list out of my head. When I told him I couldn’t think of anything he said “well what do you enjoy?” I couldn’t answer that either which was both shocking and embarrassing. Am I that boring? No, I am that overwhelmed and intimidated by doing anything that is not immediately necessary for my family’s survival. And this is where the blog comes in. 😊  

 A few days before the new year, my husband and I were talking. like all the other millions of people, about our new year’s resolutions. My husband said he didn’t have a specific resolution but more a theme for the year. The year of doing. What he meant was he wanted to stop saying all the things he wanted to do or accomplish and actually make it happen. When the conversation about doing something I enjoyed came up and I realized I didn’t know what I liked anymore, my brain went back to his theme, the year of doing. So, I’m stealing it! Don’t get my wrong, I love the life my husband and I have built but I don’t want my kids to think their mom is lazy or boring or doesn’t have a life! I want them to look at me as an example of how to love life in every stage. This is going to be the year of doing and here I am doing it lol. 

 It took me several weeks to figure out what I wanted to do and a couple more to figure out how to get started. When I was looking at hobbies or things to do as a mom, I initially wrote off blogging because I hate writing with a passion. But, the more I thought about what I wanted to accomplish and what I would have to do to make that happen, I realized I would have to figure out how to find balance in my life. I started looking at ways to balance my life and I had to look at so many sources. I looked at things targeted at mom’s, at wives, at women in the workplace, but none of them were helping me figure out how to balance all those roles and it was difficult to keep going back to so many different resources. In my research, I saw that most bloggers started blogging for themselves as an outlet or a way to learn about their focus. And there the idea was born. I want to create something that not only I enjoy creating but something that can help me find balance and be an outlet. I am doing this for me and my family but my hope is that I can help others struggling with the same thing I am. 

 In this blog, I will speak from my perspective, a young woman, wife, mom, Christian and nurse but that does not mean you have to be like me to read and find balance. Yes, I will reference my faith but that does not mean that you have to share my beliefs or opinions on my faith. I want everyone to feel welcome, men, women, members of the LGBTQ+ community and people of all races and religions. I have my opinions and you have yours. I want everyone reading to know that I do not want anyone to ever feel pressured or uncomfortable because I reference my faith. I feel that in today’s society Christianity is almost taboo because people feel judged if we say something is a sin or that Christians are hypocritical. I will be the first to say that I am a sinner. My pastor recently did a sermon that touched on societies view on modern Christianity and how he responds to people that are turned off from faith saying the church is full of sinners and hypocrites. I won’t ever forget what he said. “Absolutely it is! And Jesus would be the first to tell you that.”  My God is a merciful and gracious God. We are all sinners and as hard as it is for us believe He does not look at any sin greater than another regardless of what some people might say. The Bible is where I got the name for this blog. If you are of the Christian faith and a woman, you likely have heard of the Proverbs 31 woman. It is a guide for what we are to strive to be. It is completely unattainable since she is the ideal and no one is perfect except Jesus but she is supposed to be what we work towards. In the proverb it references her roles as a wife, mother, member of society and entrepreneur of sorts. I read this proverb recently and thought to myself that she is so good at balancing all those roles and that is exactly what I am not. Hence, how I got the name for my blog. 

It will be my project to be more like the Proverbs 31 woman but to everyone reading, what I cover in my articles will be applicable to people from all walks of life. The topics of my articles will cover things like how to not just love your spouse but to stay in love with them, how to keep your children entertained, how to find time for yourself, cover recipes, how to do all those things while having a job and many more. I look forward to writing about things that I enjoy and I would love to hear your opinions, experiences and your input on topics that you would be interested in reading. I hope you continue to follow me through this journey and hopefully we learn from each other along the way!