The Beginning...

  Hello everyone! First and foremost, my name is Misty, and I am 35 years old. I have six beautiful children, and some extras depending on which day of the week it is. I guess you could say I am that "community mom". I'm everyone's mom, or so it seems to the outsiders. I have in fact seen people actually counting my children at the grocery store. My children's ages range from 18 all the way down to 5. I'm known to give my love to kids who need "mommin", so to speak. People joke about me and my "strays". But it is what it is. All children deserve loving parents. But not all parents deserve their children. I have always been a magnet for the broken. I used to see it as a curse, but now I consider it a blessing.

  For nearly 10 years I was able to be a stay-at-home mother, my husband was able to financially provide a beautiful life for us. He is a wonderful, southern man, and when we first got married, we spoke about how we would raise our children. Bit of a backstory there- we are a Blended family. I had my two daughters young; he had his son and daughter in his early twenties, and then when we met in our late twenties, we dated and were married within 6 months and pregnant with our first child together-Bradleigh, shortly after. Three years later, surprise-came our son Major. We are pretty much, a modern-day Brady Bunch. 

  However, as we all know this past year has been a financial hardship for all. Inflation of everything possible, interest rates skyrocketing, grocery prices, gas prices, there's no need to keep going because YOU ALREADY KNOW. So, when I sent Major off to kindergarten, I started looking for ways to bring in income. It's not exactly easy finding a well-paying career when you have a large time gap on a resume. Thankfully, I'm quite clever and was able to take all of my SAHM skills and expertise, and craft them into a pretty dang impressive resume.  (I do believe I'll create a blog post all about that at some point, I'm sure there's other SAHM in the same position).

  Once I found a job that suited my needs, that's kind of when the real chaos started. I quickly realized that everyone in my home had no idea how to function without me there doing everything for them. Essentially, they were all spoiled. When I was staying at home, THAT WAS MY JOB, so I didn't expect my husband to do anything after working 40 plus hours a week. My kids were so tired after school, and after school activities, and homework, I wanted them to still be able to BE KIDS, so they didn't have chores, aside from cleaning up after themselves. I see now, that not only did I set myself up for failure, but them as well.

  So that's when I started making charts. "How to use the Dishwasher". "How to use the Washer & Dryer". Canva quickly became by best friend. I watched a few YouTube videos, and I had printables all over the house. Quick and cute little guides everywhere. I started receiving less frantic phone calls, and texts from my older kids, because my printables made things easier for them. Then I started making weekly planner pages, and meal planners, and the more you read from me...you'll see what I have come up with. If you have stuck around this long, I appreciate your patience. This is all new to me, as I am new to you. I hope we all get to know each other real well.