Ho, hey. My name is Rhonda and I’m excited to be the Blogger of the Month at Arkansas Women Bloggers.

I’m an educator, wife to a pilot, mom to three lively boys, and a home operations specialist (fancy term, accurate description).

In a previous life season, I was a special education teacher—teaching children at a school housed in the midtown district and Mexican community of Wichita, Kansas. I worked with a wonderful principal and a team of dedicated, passionate teachers. It was my dream job.

In 2002, I left the dream job to marry my Arkansas flyboy and move to The Natural State. For a few years I drove to homes in three counties working with infants, toddlers, and families as part of the federal Early Intervention program for children with special needs. Those journeys on back roads and busy streets were my ticket to learning the lay of the land in northwest Arkansas. The job took me to huge, high-dollar houses of prominent people in the community, and to humble homes way, way off the beaten path. I met and worked with lots of neat families and children.

A few months before my own child was born, I handed over the teaching responsibility and started my work as mom and manager of All Things Domestic. My husband and I moved outside of town to a neighborhood with an acre of land, woods to roam, and a few unwelcome snakes.

Back in high school and college, I was the weird student who liked essay tests and writing research papers. Writing at home in this season for no one in particular turned into writing for publication after attending a workshop by the Writers’ Guild of Arkansas. Freelance Writing Gigs published my first online piece, “Confessions of a Coffee House Writer” about seven years ago. After a hilarious attempt to complete a yoga workout with my then 10-month-old in the room, I wrote a first draft about the experience. Many revisions later, and with the help of the Guild (who became my critique group), “Yoga Night” published in the local Peekaboo family magazine and in Chicken Soup for the Soul for New Moms.

I was hooked, and freelance work followed (so did more children). I wrote for and worked as the managing editor of Parenting Squad and sold education and parenting articles to regional magazines around the country. My work has been published in Arkansas Gardener, American Saver newsletter, and on Proctor and Gamble’s P&G Everyday site.

Last year, I heeded the call from The Park Wife to come aboard with The Women Bloggers. Girl Friday: that’s me. I am loving the opportunity to learn from and work with bloggers and take on new responsibilities.

Most of what I do—in addition to raising boys and cooking double batches of everything—I do from home. This allows me to live and work on a flexible routine, a priority for me with my husband’s inconsistent, unpredictable, last-minute job schedule. I started writing about the dynamics of working around (and working with) an on-call, traveling parent and the idea of Captain Mom was born. I switched my blog over to the new name earlier this year, drafted a sketchy flight plan, and took off on the journey.

I really like:

• long walks & hiking

• simple pleasures & adventures

• swimming laps

• music

• bookstores

• popcorn

• eggs

• Jesus

• my boys’ big smiles and belly laughs

• the Oxford comma

• punctuality

I really don’t like:

• seafood

• spiders

• rudeness

• green beans (don’t tell my kids)

• horror films

 

You can find me:

• on Facebook as myself

• on Facebook as Captain Mom

• at my Captain Mom blog

• chirping on Twitter

• playing around on Pinterest