Good morning, all! There has been a sizeable influx of new readers here at A Warm Hearth in recent weeks- welcome, everyone!
I continue to be greatly humbled by your desire to read and support what I’ve written. Most of you have come here after reading one of my two most popular essays, both of which convey, I think, a large part of the overall flavor I’m going for here. Yet I want to take a moment and share a bit about why I started this Substack and what I mean by the titular “warm hearth”.
When I started writing on Substack, I had already been a reader for several years, mostly of just 2-3 publications I really enjoyed. (It wasn’t as easy to find new writers here as it is now) There were some topics I was passionate about which I thought might be fun and gratifying to write about - at the time, those topics primarily included children’s books, small-time homesteading, and care of small children at home. I quickly found that I had a lot more to say, and that I really liked writing! Eventually, I started my second Substack to catch the homeschooling/homesteading/book topics.
Everything I’ve written here reflects something I’ve personally struggled with or explored in-depth through direct experience. Writing is a way - for most of us, I think? - of processing our experiences, organizing our thoughts and - potentially- sharing what we’ve learned. I named my publication “A Warm Hearth” because it reflects my ultimate goal of becoming the kind of woman and mother who magnifies and projects the qualities of warmth: hospitality, serenity, creativity, flexibility, inner strength, and love. I strive to be the kind of woman who always receives unexpected visitors graciously, reacting to interruptions in her plans with positivity and patience. I desire to be a mother with a serene, happy disposition who can absorb her children’s needs and emotional storms without disrupting her own inner peace. I want to be a woman with a cultivated interior hearth filled with warmth for others. You’ll notice, I hope, that these goals of mine are ongoing works in progress and I don’t claim any sort of moral high ground or superiority. I share my goals, thoughts and feelings with you because I sense that YOU may also want similar things for similar reasons. My hope is that we may progress along our like journeys together, supporting one another and sharing what we’ve learned :)
That being said, I thought it might be a good time to open up a call for questions. An “ask me anything”, if you will. You’re welcome to introduce yourself in the comments and pose any questions you might have for me. Obviously I won’t be answering completely “anything” for personal and privacy reasons, but I’m sure there’s a lot of ground we can cover otherwise.
I will share the answers to some of the questions in essays to follow this post - maybe in a week or two? Can’t say for certain, but one thing I’ve learned in my year and a half on Substack is that I cannot rush my creative process nor fabricate more time that doesn’t exist for me to accomplish my many aims. If I need to utilize two essays to answer the questions, so be it. Who knows, maybe this will be a total flop!
So, I’m looking forward to hearing from you! Let’s start the discussion:
I'm looking forward to what you'll write! Would love to see more on how you balance writing with little ones. Right now my goal is to not abandon writing completely now that I'm a mother, but I need to shift my priorities so I focus on the baby first. I never want her to see my spending very much time on the computer (I hammered my phone before I even had children so she wouldn't see me as a zombie on a smart phone). But as she gets older her naps are shorter, which gives me less opportunity to get any writing done without her seeing. Of course, I'm resorting to mostly writing with paper and pen or getting up early in the morning while she is still sleeping.
I think a large reason I fear this is I know two famous women who are writers. They both have half a dozen children or so who are now grown with families of their own. The oldest daughters in both families have personality disorders (prob bipolar and narcissists). I think it has something to do with how the mothers have spent their whole lives writing for other women on how to be good mothers at home, but somehow neglected their own children. Those women are both very old, so a lot of their early writing was before computers. So I know it's not just the computer I have to fear but the actual act of writing, or perhaps taking the writing too seriously.
I'm curious if you've thought about this at all, and if so, how you balance your writing life with being a mother.
Hi, Emily! My name is Alexa. I love your writing and share your article on what to do with little children at home with almost every mom I meet (so good!). I have three kiddos — 8, 2 and 1. I too love to write and have been trying to figure out how to make time and space for it. Do you write around your kids or alone? If the former, how do you deal with interruptions? And if the latter, do you sacrifice time with your husband for it? God willing, I’d love to have a handful more children and would love to figure out how to carve out this time for myself. You’ve already helped me incorporate my kids into my daily work around the house so I would love to hear how you structure your creative free time! Thank you and God bless you 😘