Who Am I?

I am many things.

I think a brief rundown of my characteristics and roles might give you a better idea of just whose life you’ve chosen to follow in reading this blog, so here’s a list of what comes to mind:

My name’s Jordan.

I am a Jesus-loving Christian and theology nerd. I believe myself to be pretty worthless outside the will of the God who created me, so I do my best to find and follow His path for me. I don’t think anyone is a good person independent of the grace of Christ, because our nature is to be terrible, selfish, nasty, base creatures, totally dead in sin and good for nothing; any goodness you may see in me is strictly a reflection of Him, and I’m gonna try to reflect a LOT of Him (but won’t always be successful).

I’m a wife to Gage, who is gone a lot due to his job as a truck driver, but who is the best husband EVER. He is imaginative and fun and balances me perfectly. We got married in 2013 after a very short courtship, and have learned to love each other along the way since. It hasn’t been easy, but the strength we have today was worth the forging by fire in our first couple of years. Admitting dysfunctionality in relationships that appear healthy on the surface (especially living on a marriage-permanence island in a culture like ours, where it’s easier to toss away a relationship than strip it to the bedrock and rebuild) is a near and dear topic to my heart, so I imagine there will be posts discussing that.

I’m a mom to Drennin (2.5 years) and Zane (9.5 months), and my world is pretty much centered around caring for my boys in creative and satisfying ways. I’m very laid-back about parenting in most areas except car seat safety, and I’m a monster about that. I’d love to talk to you about the benefits of extended rear-facing and harnessing as long as possible… but that’s another blog for another day. We do cloth diapers and Baby-Led Weaning and are avid baby-wearers, and we try our best to be gentle parents, which is usually easy because our boys are truly awesome kids. I advocate for natural childbirth and access to quality, evidence-based obstetric care, and I truly love being pregnant and giving birth. I’m a Certified Lactation Counselor, and believe breastfeeding to be among the most important things I’ve ever done. Our boys are regularly naked and dirty, and we try to let them just be little sponges, soaking up all there is to learn in the world around them.

We live with 3 dogs and an assortment of come-and-go cats on 6 acres of play space out in the country in rural Alabama, in a house we gutted and refurbished in 2016 with the extensive help of our families. The house is constantly in a state of overhaul to make something better, or safer, or more efficient or green, so I’ll probably share about projects as we learn to do more things as homeowners. We have a big vegetable garden and are hoping to add some more animals in the future.

I’m mostly a stay-at-home mom, although I struggle with the desire to work more. I’m a massage therapist by trade, and operated my own private practice for 5 years before closing its doors after the birth of my second son. I have been teaching Anatomy, Physiology, and Kinesiology to adult postsecondary students one day per week since 2013, and I really love science. I love applying the scientific method to my life, and make most of my choices in an evidence-informed way. Science matters to me, and I have a heart for demonstrating that science is for everyone–not just smart people or nerds or people with education or training or even the ability to read. I’d like to improve access to good science, especially in the areas of pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, and parenting, to mothers in our rural community.

I love to read about a ridiculous variety of subjects, when I have time, and fantasize about being able to go to Barnes and Noble and fill a basket with new books and magazines every week. I also enjoy traveling, exploring creeks and mountains, cooking, homesteading arts, painting, writing, photography, reading architecture blogs, funny TV shows, and coming up with wild ideas for stuff to entertain my kids.

I suffer from anxiety, especially after my boys were born, and sometimes I will write about ways I’m dealing with that. Mostly it’s wiping down my kitchen counters 3,763 times and reorganizing all the closets while I make a pot of soup, but you never know–I might discover a breakthrough treatment plan while I’m at it.

I’m a highly assertive ENTP, bordering on ENTJ, for all my Meyers-Briggs people, and it shows.

I’m a Voluntaryist, and I’d love to talk about how beautifully that can fit in with a devout Christian faith and principles.

I’m a proud Southern Appalachian person, learning day by day to milk the meaning from life and take joy in the mundane.

I hope you enjoy my musings!