- I don't want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career

I just love that line from the movie Say Anything. That’s me. I don’t like the pressure of selling. I am not much of a buyer. And I don’t think that I would ever be happy if I was forced to process stuff for a living. How do I make a living, you ask? I teach chemistry. It’s a great job, and it makes me happy. Not everyday, but on average it does make me happy. I wasn’t looking for a new career (it took a while to figure this out). I was looking for a part-time happiness source. Which had to loosely resemble being trapped at home after an ice storm, minus the cold. Still with me?

Knowing that I wasn’t looking for a new career took the best part of the summer, and took a huge weight off my shoulders. Or it could have been the anti-depressants kicking in, we’ll never know. Around that time, my mom’s health took a turn for the better. She was able to eat, and her mood improved. Or mine did. Again, no way to know. Searching for a hobby was a much easier thing. It didn’t involve quitting, moving, or buying land. I am pretty sure that my husband was quite relieved. If he only knew. So, what would the perfect hobby be?

I searched the Internet again. You would be surprised to see how many craft sites and message boards there are out there. I was familiar with my little scrapbooking corner of the net, but there is just so many other crafts. And there is cooking. And gardening. Organic gardening sounded good. There just wasn’t a hobby that jived with being trapped at home plus gardening plus going light on the environment (I am not sure when I decided to add that to the happiness equation, but you might as well dream big). So, like any other confused individual out there would do, I made a couple of lists.

Here is the gist of what my lists (which evolved slowly and painfully over time) had to offer.

The things I thought I wanted:

Spending time with husband and kids

Being home

Cooking

Organizing

Making cheese and butter

Baking

Knitting

Quilting

Organic gardening

Keeping chickens (just for the eggs)

Taking pictures

Scrapbooking

Sewing

Horsemanship

Decorating/remodeling

Canning and freezing

Making compost

Collecting rainwater

Living frugally, but meaningfully

Relaxing

Writing

The things I knew I didn’t want:

Waking up early

Quitting my job

Moving

Cleaning

Anything involving heavy machinery

Having more responsibility

Spending more

Stressing out

Traveling

Something was starting to take shape here. It was hard to tell what exactly that shape was.