And So It Begins...

 If you are just now meeting me, I'm thrilled you've found me!

I want to begin by giving a somewhat brief introduction and background on myself so you understand some of the whys behind what I'm doing.

To begin, I grew up in a small Indiana town out in the country.  My parents raised me and my siblings to be pretty self-sufficient. I got to help fix things around the house, learned how to paint rooms, strip furniture, garden (not my favorite), help can and freeze produce, cut grass, cut firewood, Mom taught me how to sew early, Dad even let me tag along when he worked under the hood of whatever car we had at the time, I was also able to help in whatever home maintenance was going on at any given time.  

I wish I had paid more attention in those days! But I'm always willing to try something new and even rope my husband into my crazy ideas - one of the biggest reasons he loves me. *I'm also a bit sarcastic...*

After meeting my husband in college, getting married and getting our first jobs, life started happening quickly.  Our first move was about a year after getting married and then the first house was soon purchased. Baby #1 was born less than a year later. Move #2 was 9 months after that. From there we added 4 more babies and several more moves to our history. We've lived in 5 states (2 of them twice) one province and have permanently and happily settled into a small town in Missouri. 

With 5 kids there's always something going on, so life is rarely boring around here. And as the kids get older, I'm finding I have weird combination of more time on my hands and being busier than ever: it's just a different kind of busy. I still need to be available for the kids and everything around the house, I just don't have to be available 24/7 like I used to be. 

So, what's going on now to occupy my time? 

Kids:

Our oldest just finished cosmetology school and is getting married in just a few short months. I had NO IDEA how much went into all that! I'll be sharing some of the things we've learned there.  Next child has started college- so different than when I went. The next three kids are still at home, in school and keeping us company and busy.

Home:

We're in the middle of a complete first floor remodel.  This has been exciting, overwhelming, exhausting, frustrating, and in the end a huge blessing. As mentioned above, we are no strangers to a DIY project. This level of project was just way out of our wheelhouse, though.  The time it would have taken for us to complete this everything we wanted done would have been ridiculous and the added stress would have been our undoing. In the end we would have had to hire someone, so we just started by hiring a contractor to get it all done right and faster than we ever could have accomplished.   

Work:

Um.  I'm working on that...

All in, I constantly have something going on that I can share with anyone and everyone who would like to learn from my experiences and some possible mistakes.

So, I'll be rolling out my words of wisdom or caution from now on.

Until next time....