I am Beth aka The Con­fused Homemaker.

I’m a newly thir­tysome­thing momma to 4 rabble-rousers. In the mix are 3 boys and 1 girl; known as: Mr. J, Mr. G, Mamacita, & D-man, all were born dur­ing my grad­u­ate school experience.

I am also the wife to 1 great Hubby. He leaves his dirty socks on the liv­ing room floor on a daily basis, but is my best friend regard­less (although I wouldn’t mind if decided to pick up those socks). We have been together since 1997, we met dur­ing our fresh­man year in col­lege. I knew it was love at first sight when I saw his green hair from across the room. I can hon­estly say I never thought I’d met my hus­band at 18.

We always planned to travel, move some­where else, and explore the whole “big­ger, bet­ter” world out there. Instead, our first child came along dur­ing my Master’s pro­gram, right after I started prepar­ing appli­ca­tions for Ph.D. pro­grams out­side the great state of Michi­gan, & our plans changed. Just as they have so many times before.

Now with many polo shirts later we have set­tled into sub­ur­bia. We are still rock­ing out in Metro-Detroit and lov­ing it, even if we never did make that big move. Although we both dream of acres of beau­ti­ful land and a large farm­house. Maybe some day.

I’m a uni­ver­sity instruc­tor, I have been since 2001. The first three years I was a grad­u­ate teach­ing assis­tant teach­ing my own course for 2 of those years, I’ve been an adjunct since then. Usu­ally I teach 3 classes a semes­ter & work on var­i­ous research projects. I’m prac­ti­cally an urban leg­end as a mar­ried female aca­d­e­mic with four kids who likes to bake.

I tell you all this because it may fil­ter through in what I choose to write about & how I tend to over-think every­thing. In fact, I believe that it’s a require­ment if you want to go to grad school to be hope­lessly neu­rotic. And I am hope­lessly neurotic.

I started this blog dur­ing the sum­mer of 2009. While I was in the final throes of grad­u­ate school, writ­ing what seemed like an end­less dis­ser­ta­tion on student-mothers. Since then I’ve fin­ished my PhD in soci­ol­ogy and grad­u­ated Decem­ber 2009. I still have no idea what I want to be when I grow up.

Other things about me…

I enjoy blog­ging it’s becom­ing addic­tive, like the num­ber of degrees & kids I have, I haven’t been able to stop since I started. I love hear­ing the pitter-patter of feet, I’m los­ing the bat­tle against my wry sense of humor and believe water should never be added to whiskey.

On this blog I share my love of food, life, home-making & design, work, pop cul­ture & the media (or what I think should be pop cul­ture or media), & what­ever else moves me. It’s my take on the world. Maybe I should call it my ver­sion of social com­men­tary to sound more studious?

Either way, I hope you enjoy what you read.

–beth