30 Days of Gratitude Challenge - Day 14

[Granny_Weatherwax]

Happy day! It's cold and blustery here and the perfect day to sit inside and partake in an indoor hobby or two.

That's what we are showing gratitude for today - those hobbies we are able to do and enjoy. Hobbies fill us with joy, make us feel productive, give us an outlet for emotions, and, maybe, a way to bless others.

What are your hobbies? Name three ways your hobbies influence your life or the lives of others.

Action step: Clean your hobby area. Organize your supplies. Work on your hobby today. Create something for someone else and send/give it to them. Help someone with their hobby. Donate supplies to someone who could use them.

[Granny_Weatherwax]

For the last 20 years I have had stamping supplies for making cards. I so enjoyed it when it was popular. I sold most of the stamps years ago but kept some of my favorite sets, the inks and markers, and the papers.  I'm glad I kept some of it. I began creating bullet journals a couple of years ago and now make them as gifts for close friends and family. I am slow (it takes me about 40 hours per journal) but I do enjoy drawing the doodles and creating something for someone to enjoy throughout the year. Using some of the stamps for the artistic pages allows me a bit of freedom for what I can do.

I also created my Christmas cards this year. My goal was to use supplies I had on hand and save the money for postage. I like my design and am pleased with what I created.

My other hobby/activities are walking/hiking/riding my bike and training my puppy. I'll work on teaching him a new trick today. I'm hoping the wind dies down and we can enjoy a nice walk through the park later on.

3 ways my hobby has influenced me or others:
1- gave me a creative outlet when I didn't think I was creative

2- I enjoy tracking my yearly and monthly challenges and enjoy creating spreads in my journal. Adding to those spreads has been my incentive on days when I might not otherwise have done what needed to be done

3 - I hope my journals make the recipients happy and feel loved.

[Hannah]

The journal is so pretty Granny_Weatherwax!

The hobby I've done the most consistently in the last 10 years is researching the genealogy of my and dh's families. 

My father was born in WWII and he did not know his father or anything about his heritage as his father died when he was only four month's old and his mother did not keep up contact with her in-laws as she was a foreigner and not really welcomed by her mother-in-law.  After the war she returned to her home country and from there emigrated to South Africa with her two young children.  Her brother had come before her. 

I found my grandfather's entry on a war memorials website in reference to a plaque in Plymouth and from there the hobby has kept me busy.  Besides a brick wall on one branch,  I've gone back 8 generations of all sides of both dh and my families.  It turned out that my grandfather had also lost his father in World War I, even before he was born, so two generations grew up without their father.   

As to how it has influenced me, I think knowing where you came from does give one a place of belonging in the world.  For my father I think it filled in some gaps in his sense of self and identity.  I really enjoy the sleuthing and fact-finding and have had some great interactions with distant cousins, especially one 5th cousin living in New York - we've never met, but have been emailing on and off for the last 8 years and have had some great conversations when one of us finds something new or interesting.

I'm grateful to all of the volunteer indexers who spend hours transcribing records that make it possible to find so much valuable information online.  It would not have been possible to find out as much as I have even a decade ago without loads of money to travel to archives.

 

Edited November 14, 2021 by Hannah

[Granny_Weatherwax]

@Hannah- your hobby is wonderful. I love that you were able to trace it for 8 generations and make new family connections. That truly is a blessing.

[ScoutTN]

@Granny_WeatherwaxYour journal is beautiful. @HannahYour research is amazing. I have always wanted to go down the genealogy rabbit hole, but have never made the time.

I don’t really have any hobbies besides reading at this point in my life. I don’t create anything. 

I used to garden and also to enjoy cooking as a hobby, but there is no margin of time or energy for those now.

I do love, love to read and I participate in several book groups, irl and online. I share this love with my Dd, who is also a reader. She and I have overlapping circles of friends who enjoy talking about stories and sharing literature-formed thoughts. Reading and discussing books (and poetry, plays, and connected movies) helps me see a bigger picture and to decompress in this very intense, difficult time in my life.

I hope to some day get back to gardening, to cooking for fun, and to add in some birdwatching, hiking, and other outdoor adventures that work for a middle aged, not super athletic, woman with a tight budget. 

 

[WildflowerMom]

My hobby has been painting.  Now my joints hurt far too much to keep that up.  Reading maybe?   I love learning new things and reading is my way to do that.  I love, love, love soaking up knowledge, so I almost exclusively read nonfiction.   

[DreamerGirl]

Reading and Music are my lifelong hobbies.

It has led me down some interesting side paths. I used to love Lonely Planet travel books when I did not expect to travel. It planted a seed and a love for travel.

This has dovetailed into wanting to see the world which is not always possible. So it has become more of learn about the world.

In the case of reading, it is read around the world which led to wanting to read in many languages so that led to learning languages as a hobby.

I listen to music around the world.

Cooking is a skill I picked up as an adult. The hobby part of it has been cooking around the world.

These three especially have brought a lot of richness into my life.

Fitness started as a hobby but it has become a habit and diversifying has made me try dance and martial art.

Pandemic hobbies are a new hobby in itself I suppose.

Bird watching, gardening, picking up embroidery and hand sewing, learning machine sewing. All have various levels of success and some have been spectacular failures as well. But I still plod on.

I would love to learn to knit and draw better. Some day perhaps when I get the time I would like a class.  

I am not always successful but I have consistently derived joy from my hobbies and it has helped me pass on some to my kids as well.

@Hannah geneology is such an amazing hobby and it is lovely to read about your success and connections formed.

[mom31257]

I've never had any one consistent hobby. I think I would like one, but I'm not sure just what it would be. 

Before Covid, I homeschooled so many years, was involved in church, and directed and taught in homeschool co-ops. I didn't have much time for anything else.  

During Covid, I did try some drawing. I found pencil drawings online and did them freehand. I did a good job with it, so I think I have an eye for it. I just need training. I also got a bird feeder and enjoyed watching the birds come. We did not have squirrels to deal with. I haven't gotten a feeder here because squirrels will be an issue. I'm not sure if I want to feed them, too. 

I am not much of a reader, but I do love children's and young teen novels. 

Maybe I should look for art classes and read more books. I've felt a little lost with this move and being an empty nester, like I need to reinvent myself. 

I am grateful that I have joy and feel productive, even without a hobby. I am grateful that my future holds the possibility of new adventures and skills. As I contemplate a possible new hobby, I like the idea of using it to bless others. 

[Melissa Louise]

Ooh, hobbies are such a happy, uncomplicated aspect of life!

Mine are sashiko, reading crime fiction, and reading academic papers for fun. Love to go down a rabbit hole! 

[SKL]

I used to have hobbies.  They have dropped out of my life one by one.  I would like to get some of them back ... which ones depends on what day you ask.  😛  They are, in reverse order of the last time I did them:  reading, traveling, playing music, studying languages, writing (prose and poetry), drawing, painting, needlework....

I'm grateful for the time and talents I was given to be able to play with these different things.  I'm grateful for the reasons why I have less time now ... it means I have people who need my other abilities.  🙂

3 ways my hobbies influence(d) me or others:

• Being somewhat knowledgeable about these things helps me to be a more interesting person to talk to ... and I need all the help I can get ....
• I think some of my hobby background encouraged my kids to develop their interests and talents.
• As a young person, drawing and writing were good emotional outlets and confidence builders.  Music also, well into my adult years.

To some extent, organizing is a hobby of mine, though it may look more like housework or client work.  😛  Today I have been doing some things to improve organization in our laundry room, among other things.  I was also hoping to do a little mending.  I think that's the closest I'm going to get to nurturing hobbies today.  😛  As for my kids, well, yesterday I ordered some things for Christmas that should nurture their hobbies, so I'm going to call that good.  🙂

[Granny_Weatherwax]

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