Welcome

Welcome to my blog! I have blogged before and stopped over time for one reason or another.  I could pick up writing at my previous blog, but I’ve decided that this blog needs a fresh start.  This blog is meant to be a blog about parenthood and self-improvement, with a heavy dose of anxiety, autism and love.

About the characters 

I am a quasi-crunchy, anxiety-filled, stay-at-home mom to two kids.  Ryan (age 6) is about to finish first grade.  He is autistic, happy, and just an all around awesome kid.  Saoirse (age 2 months) is our newest addition.  She is a happy little baby who likes bouncing on exercise balls and listening to Johnny Cash.  I have a wonderfully supportive partner named Cal.  He is a great hands-on dad and a wonderful partner, but he also travels for work a lot.  We all live in a small, Norman-Rockwell-esque town in New Hampshire.

Why blog?

The main reason that I am blogging is because I love to write.  It is something that I find soothing and that gives me a small sense of accomplishment.  However, I haven’t made time to write in a long time, so I am going to try to commit to blogging regularly as a form of self-care.

I also see blogging as a way to commit myself to self-improvement.  By writing about my goals and progress, I am more likely to continue working toward them.  Finally, I intend to write about my experiences with anxiety.  This is a first for me.  I am hoping that the experience will be freeing.  I also hope that talking openly about my experiences with anxiety as a mom, will be helpful to other moms who are dealing with similar struggles.

What can you expect to read about on this blog?

Dealing with anxiety as a parent.  Life in small town New Hampshire.  My experiences being a stay-at-home mom to a baby and autistic grade schooler.  My quasi-crunchy parenting style.  My attempts to better my life – become more fit, more organized, and million other ways I want to slowly improve myself while writing this blog.

What makes this blog different than every other mommy blog?

Anxiety is a filter through which I experience my life and process those experiences.  I plan to be painfully honest about my experiences and my anxiety on this blog.  I hope that writing openly about my anxiety, will help reduce the stigma for other moms dealing with anxiety.

Am I really about to write about my mental health on the internet?

I guess so, I am nervous about this, but I think that it is the right decision.  Originally I planned to just write a regular mommy blog, but I realized that omitting my anxiety is cutting out a huge part of my life and who I am.  It felt disingenuous.  I don’t yet know whether this is a blog that I will share with friends and family, or something I will leave to float anonymously on the internet.  Talking about my anxiety is a big step for me.  Other than my partner and a few close family members, it is something that I have never talked about.

Why Plaid Polka Dots?

When I was trying to come up with a name for this blog, Polka Dots and Plaid just randomly popped into my head.  Ryan is absolutely in love with the pattern plaid.  It has been his favorite pattern ever since he discovered it, and he owns pretty much whatever he can get in plaid.  When I was pregnant with Saoirse, he told me that the baby would need her own pattern and thought that she should have polka dots.  So in that way, polka dots and plaid represent my kids.  Polka dots and plaid can also represent the playful and more serious aspects of life, and the way in which the patterns clash could represent my anxiety.  Overall, it seemed a fitting enough name for my blog and it was the best that I could think of at the time.

How often will I blog?

Hopefully, I can follow through with writing a blog post at least four days a week.  I think that this feels like a reasonable goal for me.  With a new baby at home though, I know that my writing schedule may be a bit unpredictable for me.  Once I get in the groove of blogging again, I think that I can get onto a more regular schedule.  For now, I am seizing every opportunity I have to write something.  Even if I only have 20 minutes, I am committed to getting something out there. I don’t know if I will have time for planning and editing all of my posts, but regardless, I will try to post something.

I hope you enjoy!