All right, I’m tentatively back.

It’s been about a year since my last piece. I have a lot going on in my personal life – two jobs, taking care of our small farm, my house which is perpetually a wreck…ok, maybe I have three jobs come to think of it, since I am a homemaker first and foremost, and homeschooling my three youngest children. My younger boys are in middle school now, and my daughter is headed into the 4th grade next year. Since I consider the years 4th thru 9th grade most important for educational achievement, I decided they needed a greater time commitment than I was giving them. Reading CS Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters made me realize that social media is a sin of pride for me, so that I’ve given up permanently. I’m working on learning to speak German, I’ve crocheted a lot of cool stuff, cooked some good food, planted some trees, spent some precious time with my kiddos, and we have a new baby calf due any minute now. (Go Ella!) Unfortunately my house is still a mess, but that’s a moving target, so.

With all that on my plate already, why am I back? Well, because there’s a LOT that’s happened in the past year, a lot of disturbing signals that I’ve received regarding the threatened status of women in American…indeed, in Western society as a whole. (PS – my return has nothing to do with Roe vs. Wade, and if anyone assumes that is my motivation because you’ve spotted the word “Feminist” in my blog name, you’re dead wrong. I loathe abortions while admitting that they may be a necessary evil at least in the first trimester, and I have a piece about that here: The Tomiknockers. That having been said, in all honesty, I’m willing to let the whole Roe v. Wade thing shake itself out; it’s not a pressing concern of mine as I find in a world with cheap birth control available at every grocery store, drugstore, and even convenience stores, not to mention phone apps that track fertility, avoiding unwanted pregnancies is far easier than people make it out to be.) At any rate, I have done some pretty major research into the origin stories of these misogynistic signals over the past year, and I feel I have an obligation to address them because as a conservative feminist I often have takes that aren’t being shared by any other source.

I have a piece that I’m polishing up right now that I’ll share soon, but in the meantime, if you missed my piece The First Wives Snub on Ordinary Times a couple months back, where I discussed how prevalent it is for famous men to openly disrespect their first wives, check it out when you have a moment to spare. In addition to being laden with juicy celebrity gossip, it’s both feminist- and conservative-themed, if that combo appeals to you.

In the meantime, for those of you who are also sick of middle aged men clutching their cravats and exclaiming quelle horreur at the temerity of women, you know, like, aging and stuff, offensively to their rheumy, saggy, dark-bagged male eyeballs, enjoy.