MY START
I was born and raised in Minnesota and have lived here all my life. I grew up on a dairy farm and absolutely loved it. After my parents sold the farm, I switched my major from dairy science to my other passion, cooking. I went to culinary school and have worked in a food service related position since. I met my husband, Matt, just over four years ago we moved back to our home town in Fall 2020. After we got settled in our new home, we found out we were pregnant and our baby boy, Franklin, joined our family in July 2021. I always knew I wanted to be a mom but never in a million years would have dreamed to be doing this during a pandemic! This last year has been the hardest yet most rewarding time of my life. After a few weeks of being home with my new baby, I knew I needed to find a way to stay home with him. This led me down the crazy path of “work from home” jobs, which I am sure many people are very familiar with…
MOM GUILT – ALREADY?
Parents, particularly moms, have a hard time juggling work and kids. I am no different. It’s super frustrating because it seems like all moms are instantly judged by how they raise their kids. Bed-sharing or crib? Formula or breastmilk? Stay at home mom or working mom? Well, like most Millennial parents, staying home and not contributing to the household finances, simply isn’t an option. However, the idea of going to work 40 plus hours a week and the additional 10 hours of commuting (with no traffic or snow) was crippling. You know what else is difficult about this decision? Feeling like I am screwing up what working moms before me have fought so hard for. Am I really going to be the person who quits their job after their baby is born? (Spoiler alert- yes I am).
MY HANNAH MONTANA “YOU GET THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS” MOMENT
My husband consoled me through my tears and told me we would “figure it out”. Side note; he’s the “glass half full” person in our relationship. The more I thought about going back to work, the more I resented my job and the post-partum anxiety and depression worsened. One day I just thought “Hey, why can’t I stay home with Franklin and work”? At minimum I just needed to be able to cover the remainder of my paychecks after taking out full-time day care costs each month. After lots of research, I started to dive deeper into being a freelance virtual assistant. I have had years of admin work under my belt and like most people, I had experience working from home during the last two years.
#MOMLIFE
Currently, my life consists of staying home with Franklin while simultaneously working my full-time job (from home during what should be my maternity leave- topic for another post), keeping up with household chores, and working on launching my business. Not to mention pumping every three hours or so… Life has been crazy but even more rewarding. I truly believe that moms can do almost anything they set their mind to. Lately, Franklin and I have been diving into all things Pinterest, Tailwind, Canva, and more. I swear this kid will be ready to start his own Pinterest course soon, maybe after he manages rolling over????
WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU ARE EXPECTING TO READ MY BLOG
I am so excited to start this adventure and plan on my “official” launch to be in January 2022. I’m so privileged to have a supportive husband, family and friends, as well as a baby who is a good sleeper (most of the time). People keep asking me “Hey, what is your blog going to be about”? Honestly, at this point, whatever I feel like. I have a lot of topics that I can cover; motherhood, marriage, working from home, starting my own business, becoming a virtual assistant, Pinterest Support and maybe even a few recipes (I am a trained chef after all). If you are wanting to follow the journey of a real life work from home, yoga pant-wearing mama, I’m your girl!
Thanks for reading!