First there was a wish for a creative outlet. Then there was the need for a new hobby. In January of 2025, I decided to embark on a journey to find a new hobby. I would try a different one each month and document the whole process in a blog. But I needed help to decide on which hobby I would attempt the first month. I posted to my Instagram Story requesting my friends to vote on which hobby I should try first. It was between baking, knitting, and pickle-ball. My fiancé, Brett, has been trying to get me to play pickle-ball with him for months. But I have terrible hand-eye coordination and I hate running or anything similar. Secretly, I was hoping pickle-ball would win so I could get it over with, but alas… baking got the final vote!
So here is where I messed up. I decided to do this challenge for myself mid-January. Like ok yea, I can totally build a blog website and start a new hobby with only two weeks left of the month. I totally have time. Just in between my 13-year-old son’s nightly basketball practices and games, working a full-time job, cooking dinner every night, social events, family events, dog walks, gym/yoga and OCD cleaning…. Totally doable. NOT! Yeah, I might have over-committed. As usual. And then the guilt, and the over-whelming fear of failure, and every other emotion in the book took over. And I froze. I did absolutely nothing productive in regards to my hobby blog. Not a damn thing. But as January came to a close, I remembered the whole point in this activity. I wanted and needed a creative outlet, and I needed a hobby for myself! This was for me and for my well-being. I’m sure there are many parents who can relate. Always putting other’s needs above our own, especially moms.
I recently read about a new way to describe moms finding their groove again after giving birth. It’s called, “getting your pink back”. It is a nod to flamingos who lose their pink color after raising their young because all of their food, nutrients, time and energy goes to the babies. I realized we don’t experience this only once during the cycle of raising our children. At least I don’t. I’ve had cycles of “pink” and loss of color. As schedules change, our kids grow, and things change, we constantly have to adapt. In the past year, my son and I moved in with my partner, we got engaged and started planning a wedding (ooooff), and my son started going through puberty (double oooff). I found myself losing my color and passion again. This blog and journey to find a hobby isn’t for profit, and it isn’t for anyone else’ entertainment… although I do hope you’re entertained. It is for me to feel passionate about my own thing.
Robin S. Sharma says, “It doesn’t matter where you start. Only that you begin.”
Who cares that I didn’t bake in January. Maybe two people asked me if I had started yet. Most who brought it up just mentioned they voted for pickle-ball! Maybe that’ll be March’s hobby. So for the month of February, baking will be my hobby. I figure I can bake at least one thing per week. And I’ll start with a traditional Challah. Which is an egg bread that is braided before it is baked and eaten on the Jewish holiday, Shabbat. (AKA the sabbath, and takes place every Friday at sundown to Saturday at sundown.)
