Thanks for stopping by the Becoming Traditional digital village.
I’m Claire – a girl with a million ideas who makes tons of lists because I love to write things down. I’m also a wife & happily married to my best friend for 8 years now. Since recently transitioning from a career in biotech to a more fulfilling position as a full-time SAHM of 2 under 2, I’m also always on my toes. We operate on one income now while living in a 1-bed apartment in the middle of a high cost of living area. And since coming home full-time, I’ve been exploring my passion of learning old-fashioned skills. I’m on a mission to help my family be more self-sufficient so that one day we can trade in our pad in this concrete jungle for the wide-open spaces of a semi-country homestead. I say semi-country because I truly do love the city. BUT…while my heart loves parts of the city life, it’s draining. And it really doesn’t suit our family anymore. Our dreams have outgrown this small space.
Welcome to the Village
This is where you belong if you want to escape the city and live a freer life in a slower pace. A life where you can feel the ground beneath your feet and not worry about the traffic on the drive home from the office. But you don’t know how.
If you want to learn what it means to be a woman and the bond we share with each other, this is for you. And if you need help figuring out how to turn your home into a nest, this place is for you.
And if you love taking care of your family, find immense pleasure in crafting a beautiful home where memories and laughs abound despite fumbling through early adulthood, this village is for you.
Even if you don’t want to move out the city, there’s still room for you here. Traditional womanhood isn’t something where you have to check every box to qualify. You can live in that chic studio apartment on the Upper East Side and still be traditional. You can live in 6 different parts of the world 6 different times of the year and still be traditional. Becoming traditional is a mindset shift before anything else. Everything else will sync naturally in time.
The BT promise
You’ll find a place to hang your purse, coat or herbs to dry and join other ladies like yourself here. BT is a collective of bold women with big dreams transforming themselves, families and their homes into self-sufficient, resilient havens. And this village exists to inspire and nurture women in traditional womanhood. It will provide resources and the encouraging support of a network a woman needs.
My passion is to become all I was destined to be but I don’t have everything it takes. I don’t have all the answers, but I’d love to share what I’m learning with you as I grow! And vice versa.
The Beginning of Becoming Traditional
I’ve longed to be more traditional and have a simpler life for awhile, but it accelerated early 2022. While preparing to return from maternity leave, my employer told me I wouldn’t be able to continue working remotely as I had throughout the pandemic from early 2020 until that time. Despite having exceeded the expectations of my position while 100% remote, my role was being brought back onsite. Because my husband and I were financially disciplined early in our marriage, we were fortunate enough to trade one luxury for another. The luxury of me coming home full-time to be with our firstborn for the luxury of two incomes in a high cost of living area.
Becoming Traditional was born as a way to document a journey that previously had only been a pipe dream. Being home FT means I now have a vast amount of time to devout to our plan to leave the city. But as I sat down to do just that, I realized that I couldn’t be the only one in this same place. Women everywhere are faced with critical decisions daily. And yet they also want the freedom that comes with choices. Like me, they just don’t always know where to start.
So, start by reading this post first to learn how BT defines womanhood and the traditional woman.
Who is Claire – the creator behind this Village?
Born and raised on the East Coast of the US, I didn’t know much about any other place outside what I read about in books. The same was true of my immersion into adulthood and womanhood. I just sort of found myself on the doorstep once I arrived.
So what changed this city-life loving girl?
Honestly, not much. My husband and I are naturally private people.
We got married fresh out of college in our early 20’s, leased our first studio apartment using all our paltry savings at the time and started working our first “real jobs” in science. Living life on our own caused me to realize how unprepared I was. There was so much to absorb –
- Meal planning
- Grocery planning
- Cooking said groceries (which ought to be obvious, but….you know.)
- Housekeeping?
- Laundry routines
- Car maintenance
- Taxes (ugh…)
- Finances (savings, investing, debts)
- Church activities and serving
- Taking care of self
- Taking care of a whole husband!
- Working in corporate America
And although I had an inside look into most of these areas from growing up in a two-parent household, there was still more I needed to know that I didn’t know I needed to know. Like…
- Food preservation
- Kids…and everything they come with.
- Emergency preparedness for all areas of the home, but specifically feminine preparedness. I learned a great deal from Pam at Rose Red Homestead in this video.
- Practical traits like sewing, negotiating bills or even salary increases, conversations you’re supposed to have with your kids as they mature
- Teaching other girls and mentoring
- And much more
So now what? Where do I go from here?
Now that’s just the tip of the iceberg. There’s more I’m still learning on this journey. My husband led the traditional campaign for awhile before I joined him. Now we’re rapidly simplifying our life and making a way to finally get out the city.
If you want help transitioning all of your womanliness from where you currently are to the traditional woman, then subscribe to join the village. We both can do the things we hope to accomplish. Together we’ll blossom beautifully and right now is the perfect time to start becoming traditional. Start touring the digital village here.
