Jennifer Stewart (jennifer titus)

I am 38 years old and the mother of three great kids. Two are teenagers, and one is soon to be. I have too many interests and a dog and a cat. To summarize it all:

In the past . . .

Before I was a mom, I was a religious zealout, and a health food freak. I am still a bit of a health food freak. That's about all I can say about my pre-mother years since I got married very young - I was only 20 years old, and 22 when I had my first.

The present . . .

Currently I am a very mushy, gushy mom over my kids (and my dog, but not really with the cat, sorry). I cook most of our meals and snacks from scratch and I rarely use the dishwasher. Our dryer broke a year or two ago so I hang everything out to dry. I don't mind this situation. I relish motherhood, for the most part, but I also look forward to doing my own thing again someday. I try to say "yes" to my kids as much as possible. For example, my 11 year old has almost dyed black hair (it's dark, dark brown) and big purple chunks in it. If it doesn't hurt other people or themselves, and I can make the time and have the money, then ok. If you disagree with my parenting style keep in mind that my 16 year old tells me everything, including the stuff that her friends keep secret from their parents. I acknowledge the humanity of my kids and the reality of what it is to exist in the 21st century, and proceed. If she is keeping any secrets, that's ok, I think it's normal too, as long as she is happy and safe, and even then maybe sometimes she won't be happy and safe but . . . well, I don't think one person can ever fully control another without resorting to corrupt practices. It's my philosophy and I apply it to my kids just as much as I would anyone else.

We go camping for our vacations, tent camping at that! Camping is affordable and my favorite thing to do. Especially next to a lake.

I run my own green housekeeping service. I am really good at cleaning houses and I put my heart and soul into it. I prefer cleaning lived in houses, but will clean a business or an empty house from time to time, for certain individuals. I would rather advertise that I am a mindful housekeeper, rather than a green housekeeper, but where I live, the latter is probably a better choice and green falls under the umbrella of mindfulness anyway. Sometimes I employ help and sometimes I work alone.

Each year, I try to reduce the size of my lawn that is around my little house in the city, and increase the size of my gardens. This year I got a lot of weeds, but I like to call them wild life refuge gardens, not just weeds:). I am growing flowers and vegetables in hay bales, and it's working, but next year it will work better if I can manage to procure alfalfa bales instead.

I attend yoga classes and am trying to establish a regular sitting practice - but good habits are very hard for me to accomplish. I managed to quit losing my keys everyday, and so I know anything is possible.

If I had to choose a political party, I would probably pick libertarian, but that's only if you held a gun to my head, because I love Ralph Nader and agree with him on most issues, so maybe I am really just an independent. I think that Republicans and Democrats are more alike than different.

I have kept my kids far away from churches of any type, but now that they are older I would not mind if they wanted to visit them. I would be glad to take them to the Zen Center in town, should they ever express an interest to go with me. I am not a Buddhist but I love modern Buddhism. If any of my extended family reads this (they probably won't) they will be even more heart broken than they already are, since they know that I don't practice Christianity anymore, but they don't know about my love for Buddhism. I am a pastor's grandkid, and my Dad lives for the Christian Church.

I love writing about my thoughts and the things I know about, so maybe this forum will sustain me untill (if) I finish college to become a teacher someday! Until now, the only writing I have done is in my daily journal except for a few blogs on my business web site about housekeeping. I used to blog on myspace back in the day, about lots of stuff. Those were fun times:)

I have been part of a book club for a little over a year but we are often split over what kind of books we want to read, so we read anything from trashy smut to classical novels. I prefer non-fiction, any kind of non-fiction, but am loving our current read: Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. My favorite author is Pema Chodron (non-fiction, in my opinion).

I love movies.

In the future . . .

Someday, when my kids are moved out and happy and adjusted (crossing my fingers), I would love to try small scale farming and homesteading, and finish my college education to become a teacher. I would love to teach English or Social Studies, but since those subjects are relatively saturated as far as teaching is concerned, I will probably choose science. Science is beautiful and under appreciated; thanks to Dr. Neil Degrasse Tyson, I know this to be true. What age to teach? That's a good question! Probably middle school on up to community college.

Anthropology is my very favorite subject (the science, not the store, although the store is pretty awesome too). This is my favorite subject in life in general, not just in school.

I will probably change my mind 10 times about what I want to do when my kids move out, but maybe not, I change my mind a lot less often than I used to. This stuff I'm writing about now seems to be sticking.

Thank you for reading this. Thank you very much!

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