In my inner back-and-forth concerning a job I prayed a novena to St. Joseph the Worker about it. At the end of the novena I had no clear job path or opening, however extra work at my remote job opened up, and I felt a peace with "not now" in regards to seeking a job. However, that means I need to be more financially careful for the time being.
Thinking about having to be more careful brought me back to my childhood when we lived below, at, or near the Federal Poverty Level. I reminisced how I really didn't mind too much when I was at home. When I was surrounded by my parents and siblings, we were comfortable and occupied. The finances weren't really noticed because we were all in it together.
We also had neighbors across the street who also had 5 children and who were careful with finances. We shared the culture of growing a garden, raising some livestock, cutting and heating with firewood, doing chores by hand, wearing inexpensive hand-me-downs. So we didn't feel so different.
When my husband got his new job offer, we needed to do a quick and affordable move, so we chose a mobile home park. I spent the first 6 years of my life in a mobile home park and I realized that there I didn't feel the financial burden that much, either, because everyone was living there because they were lower income. And we all lived there in dignity.
Where I did notice the difference was at school where I was excluded from so much because "we can't afford it." I couldn't join the school band and learn an instrument because it cost money to buy or rent the instrument. I couldn't play varsity volleyball because we were required to go to volleyball camp to join the team. We couldn't afford it. I hated returning to school and facing the essay, "What I did over the summer" and listening to everyone else talk about their fancy vacations and summer camps when all I did was watch PBS, play in my back yard, cut and stack firewood, and weed the garden.
My clothes were hand-me-downs while my neighbors got to circle everything they wanted for back-to-school in the JCPenney catalog. I couldn't take dance, baton, youth soccer, voice lessons, piano. I couldn't even do the local youth commission, even though it was free to attend, because that would require the little tiny bit extra for a bagged lunch and some spending money on field trips, not to mention the gas to go to and from the venue.
I didn't mind being "poor" because it opened up opportunities and creativity that kids who had everything handed to them missed out on. But, it really did isolate me from my peers and the society around me.
As my own children were growing up in a single-income household where we made sacrifices so I could stay home with them, I realized I was in the same situation.
That's when I realized that what families in situations like mine need is support! They need someone to let them know it's ok to live that way, and it's ok to form a society that lives that way. In fact, it's very needful to have that society to share money-saving ideas, and celebrate frugality and creativity.
I'm thinking I would like to start a blog ministry to do that. I want to start an "old-fashioned" blog, like we had 20 years ago, like on blogspot or WordPress. I don't want to get into the whole video or staged picture TikTok or Instagram style. I think that would take away from the feel and purpose. I have no intention of becoming an "influencer." I just want to let others coming up in my shoes know that it's ok to live simply, minimally, frugally, intelligently in order to raise your own children and care for your own home.
I want it to be Catholic-based, perhaps attached to the Catholic Land Movement, since I have a LOT of ideas on "homesteading" in restricted homes (like a mobile home park, or apartment, or townhouse).
I just don't know if I'll have time to do it, or if the need for a job will take away any time for it.
Someone on here once told me that I ought to fill in gaps in ministries that I have noticed and I'm wondering if this is one. What do you think?
