Social Media Monikers and Vocations

I often write my blog with the assumption that my primary readers are my parents, who know my life story. I read a lot of mommy-type blogs too that follow the day-to-day life stories of other American families (CrunchyLutheranMommy.com and CourtneyWestlake.com are two of my favorites).

If I'm on a new blog, I often don't go back to her very first post and read all the way through, and therefore have a lot of questions along the way about what the momma is referencing.  I should also assume if there is someone who doesn't know me well reads my blog, he or she doesn't know what I mean either.  So here's a quick summary of some of my vocations.

I'm a wife

On our Disney Cruise Honeymoon

My husband and I were friends in high school, dated long-distance in college, and married just after graduation. We'll be married six years this July. 

Hubster was active duty army our first four years of marriage, before switching to the Reserves to attend seminary as a chaplain candidate. He is in his second year of school, with an expected graduation in May of 2020.  I love being married, and while we've had some difficult moments he is my best friend and sounding board and support system.  I am proud of all we've accomplished so far (five moves in five years to four states and paying off $62,000 in debt come to mind) and look forward to many, many more years and adventures.

I'm a mom.

Our first parenting journey was adopting our dog Annabelle in July 2013. After keeping her alive for an entire year, our son was born in July 2014, the day after I turned 25 and three days after our third wedding anniversary.  Our daughter was born this past January 2017.  While my Hubster marvels that he's not yet 30 but has two kids, they bring us absolute joy (and at times absolute frustration) and we thank God every day for their places in our lives.

Buttercup's baptism with her two sponsors

I avoid using their real names on the internet, both for privacy's sake and so weird toddler stories don't appear on their Google results later in life.  I've called our little boy Spartacus since he was in utero.  Social media names I've tried for our little girl include Lego Annie and Hermione, as suggested by my young cousins. 

However, since several of my Facebook friends thought I did name our daughter Hermione (and I'll be honest, it is a name I've considered), I'm going to test drive Buttercup, since I do call her that sometimes as a cute baby nickname.  Since Annabelle is not on Facebook, she does not get a social media moniker and that is her real name.

Spartacus goes to daycare at a local church full time. Baby Buttercup will stay with family when I return to teaching at the end of the month, and this fall will be watched at an at-home daycare by a lady from our church.

I'm a Lutheran.

Like I said before, my husband is in grad school to become a Lutheran pastor and chaplain. I am a lifelong member of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. My father is a second-career pastor, and my younger brother is also in seminary to become a pastor.  Church and my faith have always been important parts of my life.  I do feel like a failed Christian much of the time; my Bible often gets dusty, and last week I skipped church because Hubster was out of town and it just seemed like too much work.  Still, I strive to improve my relationship with my Savior, to lead a life of example for my students and children, to devote time to prayer and the Word, and to not forget my role as a child of God.  I try to pray for my friends who are not Christians, and in my cowardice hope that someday they'll ask me about my faith, since I'm afraid of getting too preachy and scaring them away.  I value my role as a teacher at a parochial school, because with the weekly chapels and daily devotions, I am very encouraged in my faith on a daily basis.

[Tangentially related and made me laugh: Retractable Christian Fish Decal Now Available on Babylon Bee]

I'm a teacher. 

My desk in my first classroom in Texas

This school year marks my fifth year as a high school teacher. I got my license in Massachusetts during my senior year of college; my bachelor's degree was in sociology.  I student taught at a charter school in Boston before working three years at a public high school in a Texas ranching community.

Now I teach at my Lutheran high school alma mater in Fort Wayne, Indiana.  I have experience teaching freshman, sophomore, and junior grade-level English, AP English Language and Composition, sociology, and world history.  I am licensed now in Massachusetts, Texas, and Indiana in pretty much all secondary social studies and English fields. 

I'm a blogger.

My blog "profile picture" I staged

I started blogging my first year of teaching a year after I got married. I named it hELARious Lizzy because I was an ELAR teacher - English Language Arts and Reading.  My blog started out as a place to reflect on my teaching experience, and if you go back to my early posts you'll notice me complaining about students a lot.  Also, there were a lot of tears. It's really hard to be a new teacher. 

Over the past five years, my identity has developed from just a teacher to a mother and wife and homeowner, and so my blog has gone from tags about standardized testing and Shakespeare lesson plans to parenting and house renovations.  I don't know much about internet analytics and am unsure how many people get my blog emailed to them (I know at least my mom does).  I do know that my readership extends as far as Indonesia (hi Sarah!) and the UK (hi Lisa!). While I pretty much only share my posts on Facebook, I am gratified by the 21,000 page views of those reading along. Thank you, readers, for encouraging me both in my development as a writer and as a (not-so-young-anymore) adult!