Not Just A Mom: Introduction

I'm linking up (belatedly) with the Not Just A Mom bloggers. The first thing you should know about me is that I used to be organized but in the past few years (age? Covid? life?) I've become a little more scattered. So somehow I missed that this past Monday was actually the second Monday in January. I blame the fact that our Winter Break went long this year and I've just been back at work for a few days now.

Anyways, here's a bit about me:

I am Natasha. I live in southwestern Ontario in Canada but I grew up in the prairie province of Saskatchewan, so you will see a lot about Canada, particularly Saskatchewan and around Ontario, on the blog.

I'm married to Dave, who is Jewish. As I am Christian, and we are actively involved in both faiths, you will see a lot about interfaith life on the blog too. Yep, we celebrate all the holidays around here.

I used to be a stay-at-home/work-from-home mom but, since September of 2020, our roles have switched and now Dave is the work-from-home parent and I am the work-out-of-the-house parent. I have to be honest, I mostly love this switch :) Currently, I work as a secretary at a Grade 7 & 8 school. I don't go into a lot of specifics about my work on the blog, as I like to maintain some privacy about it. However, I am thrilled to be on (mostly) the same schedule as the kids which makes school breaks so much easier to manage.

Our kids are Sam, who is almost 14, and Rachel, who is 11 1/2. Sam is in Grade 8 and loving his blossoming independence. He is making decisions about high school for next year which kind of blows my mind.

Rachel is finishing Grade 6 and anticipating the transition to middle school. Rachel is our social butterfly. You will see a lot about our kids' activities -- dance, swimming, and tennis -- on the blog too! We have definitely entered the "taxi stage" of parenting, where we don't have to stay at the kids' activities with them, but we're still responsible for getting them there.

Our family life feels a lot like this, sometimes!

When I'm not working, or getting the kids to their activities, I love to read, do yard work, hang out my laundry, blog, walk on my favourite path in our city, attend Toronto Blue Jays' games (or really, any baseball games), spend time with my friends, explore local events and festivals, and travel. You will definitely see a mixture of all of that on the blog.

Dave and I started this blog back in June 2007 when we were preparing to move across the country so Dave could attend school. During the time of this blog, we've gotten engaged and married, had two kids, moved back across the country, travelled to twenty-two countries, met eight blog friends in person (!), and have road tripped through seven provinces and eight states. Although I am the main writer of the blog now, Dave pops in intermittently, most reliably on my birthday. And once in awhile, I pull the kids in to write a guest post or answer survey questions.

I've written "all about me" posts before so you can go here to read one I wrote a number of years ago and here to read the one Dave wrote this past year for my 50th birthday.

I'm so glad you stopped by and I'm so very thankful for all the friendships I've made through blogging.