Less than a month ago, I wouldn’t have guessed this blog would exist. I wouldn’t have guessed I would be trying “trad life” right now. I hadn’t even HEARD of “trad life” until preparing this blog! And a few years ago? Learning traditional skills was nowhere near my radar!
Hi, my name is Kendrick. When I was younger, I envied those who knew how to sew, knit, garden, etc., but I didn’t view those as necessary skills in our modern age. I thought about trying some as hobbies, but never felt I had the time. I’ll admit I’m a workaholic. But what I’ve realized bit by bit? That I don’t love the hustle as much as a peaceful house and time with my family and friends. I’ve also realized that those “unnecessary” skills could be very valuable.
Maybe we all took a step in this direction after the lockdowns started. Like many, I slowed down a bit and started spending time outside again. Ironically, the lockdowns drew me towards more involvement with my community – outside!
But my journey of peace started long before 2020, and I’m sure I’ll have plenty to say on that in future posts. Why am I writing this blog anyway? This is my project to slow down and challenge myself to those “unnecessary” and “unmodern” skills. I see many blogs and websites out there about different pieces of traditional life, but I haven’t seen one about starting with no “trad” skills! So feel free to join me on my journey. I’ll be using this blog as a place to organize my thoughts, my goals, projects, learning new skills, etc.
Are we over-hustling and over-specializing?
I devour history lectures and audiobooks; studying history gives me perspective I wouldn’t have otherwise. It allows me to see the good and the bad of how far we’ve come. It allows me to appreciate (VERY MUCH) being a woman now rather than pretty much any other time and place in the past. In fact, it allows me to appreciate being a HUMAN – woman or man – now rather than pretty much any time in the past. We have so much at our fingertips, and studying history helps me to appreciate more, take advantage less. However, while we have so much at our fingertips, it also seems to have led us into lives of only specialization and hustle.
I’ll speak on both of those points personally: I certainly felt like my life was turning into a whirlwind from the hustle. Most of my life, whether as a student or a professional, I’ve had a general rule of thumb to take up whatever opportunity comes my way. These have been wonderful opportunities, and I don’t regret any of them. In fact, I’m very appreciative for all of them. They’ve helped me build a wonderful life. But that doesn’t negate that by late 2022, I felt like I had been swept up in a years-long whirlwind. I don’t mind hustling, but I do mind when the hustle loses its purpose, particularly losing focus on those in my life for whom I’m hustling.
As for my over-specialization claim, while I do personally believe this has become a widespread phenomenon, of course I can only speak for myself. After studying history for years, I felt woefully inept in practical skills, comparing myself to the average woman
throughout history. I always rationalized it, though: I have other skills that make me money, and I don’t need those practical skills when I can buy the resulting products and services.
I’ve become much more acutely aware of the practical skills I lack. I’m a quick learner, so I don’t doubt I could be good at them – it’s just a matter of learning and practicing. But the need to learn has grown more urgent! I may sound like a prepper, but I’m painfully aware that if some castastrophe fell upon us, I would not be prepared with the proper skills to help get our family through it. I know that sounds crazy, but it’s something I think about!
Prioritizing peace
Between feeling over-hustled and lacking practical home ec skills, whenever I studied simpler, more agricultural times/places, I felt a tug yearning for a simpler life. As a Christian, as well, I think I’ve felt that a simpler life would lead to more peace, because I’ll be less distracted by the whirlwind and able to better focus on God. I’ve been blessed with a natural peacefulness throughout life, but the whirlwind feeling started to impact that peace over the last year or so. Something felt off. If I boil it down to these two points, I’ve been drawn to a more traditional life in order to become more handy and to be better at stopping and smelling the roses through life. These are my next steps to prioritize peace.
So here I am: I’ve been able to make a change in my career to accommodate living a more traditional life. I work in a career where I control my own book of business, and fortunately my husband has a similar job where we get to work side-by-side pretty often. I really enjoy working with my husband and his colleagues, so I have repositioned my own business to focus on tangent work with them. Most importantly, I’m also reprioritizing my schedule so that I can be a part-time homemaker and allow myself the time to learn and/or practice the traditional skills I’ve been lacking.
I understand there is a “trad life” movement on the rise, and I wonder how many of its participants are like me and taking on trad life to become more handy and to stop and smell the roses. I see some crazy and bigoted things on the internet! I saw one social media post about “maintenance spanking” – WTF?!
Surely though, the crazies can’t be the majority of “trad life” partakers. I’m going to believe that, and hopefully writing this blog can help add one more sane voice to the trad life movement. This is not a blog of an unquestioning, submissive “trad wife”. This blog will certainly celebrate femininity! I love aprons. I love providing my husband with a clean house and a delicious meal. But this blog will be less often about those values and more often a place to organize my thoughts, goals and projects that will improve those practical skills. Proverbs 31 is an inspiration to me. The woman described is strong and in control of her household, not meek and purely submissive. She’s her husband’s helper, but an equal helper.
First steps
So here is my first organization of these practical goals. Step one is to get used to working a new daily routine with my true priorities:
- Devotional/quiet time with God
- Making sure my husband and dogs get more time with me than they used to
- Keep homemaking priorities in check (clean house, finances on track, meals ready)
- Doing what I can to keep our businesses running well (including my own work and helping my husband’s business)
- Then in my free time learning and practicing more traditional skills (baking, sewing, knitting, gardening, etc.) Having this blog will help me carve out time to
build those traditional skills!
Wish me luck, and if you want to read along and see the journey, feel free to follow and comment!
