Anyone who knows me well knows I DON’T like to swim or like being in water that is much deeper than to my knees. I tolerate it for my children and they aren’t even fully aware of how much I don’t care for it. l don’t want my fear interfering with their experiences. I swim well enough to survive and teach the kids the basics but if I never swam again that would really be okay with me. Luckily my husband is like a fish. He loves the water and helps instill that love (with the necessary respect for it) into our children.

When I started this blog it had a couple goals connected to it.

1) I love to write and teach. It gives me a forum for that.

2) The Screwy Carpenter would love to step into a new employment of woodworking. We would like to have internet sales be part of that transition.

So, step one was to start blogging and see if it was something I enjoyed and could see keeping up with on a regular basis. There have been some glitches but overall it has been successful.

Step Number Two:  Today I changed our domain name. We are still with WordPress but no longer have that name in the domain.  That was one piece of advice that was pretty consistent in the readings I have gone through so far. If you want to be taken seriously, have your own domain name. So, if you want to visit you can simply type in ladyandthcarpenter.com and WAALAA! here we are! WooHoo!

Back to swimming…(This all relates, I promise)

When I was about 13 I visited my father for the summer and there was a pool available for the apartments. I would go and enter the pool, mostly staying in the more shallow end, but when the water was past my chest I would constantly hold onto the wall. I met  another girl there and we became friends. She knew of my fear and said “Go ahead and jump in. When you do you will touch the bottom and you just push yourself back up. It’s not a big deal. You won’t drown. Plus I am here.”

I stood at the edge of that pool for what seemed like forever. I still remember the fear and tightness in my chest. Before I could think myself out of it I just jumped. Like she said I touched the bottom, pushed myself up and popped back up to the surface. That was a life changing moment for me. I knew I could jump in and survive. I still don’t regularly jump into the deep end but I know I would be fine if I did.

The next step for our blog is kind of like walking to the deep end of the pool for me. I stand here saying in my head “AGHHHH!  The body screams “Don’t do it you may drown!” I am looking out onto this sea of information and thinking… I could sit here all safe and just go through the regular motions or I could take a chance.

I now have a lot of education in front of me and a sea of information to explore. I am sure sometimes the waves will come but here we go. I know I can swim through it (I won’t be looking like an olympian by any means). I can tread water when needed and my wonderful Carpenter, who is a wonderful swimmer, is right here with me. The nice thing about this adventure is that it isn’t a life risking adventure, but still calls for a measure of brave. Everyone needs to have times in life where they step out of comfortable and take a swim.

Jumping in,

The Frabjus Lady