Why This Blog & Why Hats?

Hello all who read this!  My name is Kim and I have a family of 5 now!  Holy cow that seems crazy at my age.  I am a mother of three amazing children that I love dearly and I have a husband that is just as amazing.  I decided to start this blog today because I have been having the hardest time trying to figure out what to do with my life.  I mean just one thing.  Like that one job that you tell people you do.  For me, leaving my kids to go work for someone else is not an option.  Its not about needing a job because my husband has one, he's an art teacher for a public school and loves it.  His salary just barely covers our essentials, but it is all we NEED to survive.  The real reason I'm looking for something for myself has been because much of the time I feel like I am losing myself in the care of my family.  That is not healthy for anybody.  I also think it would be fun to do a lot of things.  I am an entrepreneur at heart and have a very hard time settling on just one idea.  I guess that comes from watching my Dad run a business of his own growing up.  :)  So, I have decided, to just do it all.

My husband and I started a business a few years ago doing photography, videography, VHS to DVD conversion, photo slideshows, some audio, and most projects that you could think of relating to digital media and the arts.  We have enjoyed that for quite some time.  He still had nearly 3 years of college left when we started it and so with school, our business, his kindergarten teacher aid job, and the needs our family (of 4 at the time) had all pulling on him, he was overwhelmed much of the time.  Then one day he was given a unique art assignment.  What he ended up drawing that day was amazing.  It turned out to be a self portrait of all the hats of life scattered on the floor.

He ended up using that drawing for a printmaking assignment.  It inspired him to then make a sort of series of art that he called "Man with Many Hats."  The combination of these works of art were very empowering for our family.  They made us feel strong enough to endure all the craziness that was bombarding us in life, because we knew if one more thing happened or if there was one more thing we needed to do it was just another hat.  Sometimes we even tried to look for which hats might be what things from our lives.

To make a long story shorter, this morning as I awoke, I had the thought "why don't you just do all your hats at once and put them in one place?"  Its brilliant!  I've been thinking for so long that I would have to let go of certain things I care deeply about so as to pursue something else I care about.  I really can just put all the hats I want to on though, and this can be my place of refuge that I can do that freely.

Here are my main hats that I am so excited to share!

     - Art & Design in EVERY medium.  (Photo, Video, Music, Act, Draw, Paint, Printmaking, Int. Design, Architecture, Kinetic, etc.)

     - Natural Healthcare (Natural Healing, Remineralizing, etc.)

     - Naturally Eating & Cooking (Mmmmm...never need to give up flavor for healthy if have right recipe) 

     - Birth (Natural, Pain-Free, Home-birth, &/or Hypno-Labor)

     - Family & Raising Kids (making home happier, preschool lesson ideas, etc.)

     - Financial Education & Entrepreneurship

     - Preparation & Education (continuing growing knowledge and talents is essential to happiness)

     - Spirituality (things that make me or my family feel closer to God or understand him better) 

I have business style ideas for a few of these areas, and even if I didn't do any of them, they are the areas that really make up who I am inside and what I care about.  Its about time I started sharing them somewhere.