Well, it seems I have been MIA for quite a while! Life turned into pure chaos for me and I had to step away for a bit. But, I am back now and ready to catch up with everyone! Let me tell you what has been going on...

It all started with some back pain during a shopping trip with my oldest daughter. I didn't think much about it, after all, I am not a spring chicken anymore! I have this handy dandy period tracker app on my phone but, turns out it was not doing me much good because I had been too busy to stop and check it! Once I realized I had missed a cycle reality began setting in. There was still a little shimmer of hope that it could be I was getting a bit older and my cycles were simply becoming more irregular. I had a test tucked away in the cabinet and thought I would take it just for the fun of it. Let me just tell you... I wasn't even finished peeing on that little stick when the positive sign popped up. I was in shock!! I called my husband right away and he thought I was playing a joke on him. Mind you.. we had 3 kids together at this point, so a joke of this sort was just a comical thought. The first day, it took a long while for it to really settle. I cried.. ALOT!

By day 2, I was still in disbelief but was not doing so much of the uncontrollable sobbing as I was the previous day. I am one of those people that believes all things happen for a reason and there surely had to be a reason for this! Just a few short months before, my other 3 all started school and this stay at home mom had some sanity in sight! Well, that was all washed away with that positive test!

My husband, still believing this was some sort of huge joke I was playing on him, insisted that I go to the doctor and make sure the positive was really positive. I told him I would humor him and made an appointment. Sure enough.. it was true.

The next few months consisted of a lot of prepping and searching for baby stuff on my part because I have previously gotten rid of everything. My husband continued to trudge along in disbelief. Even after doctor visits with me.. he is a man after all, they tend to be a bit more stubborn.

The months seemed to fly by. With my "advanced age" as they so nicely labeled it, I had to have more testing than in my previous pregnancies. Before I knew it, it was time for her to be born. Our sweet Lilly Grace was born on March 5, 2016. She gave us quite a scare but, that is a story for another time! Stay tuned...

My Guilty Pleasure

The challenge for today, brought me to think about my guilty pleasure. I am not a materialistic person at all and rarely find myself getting anything for myself. Most of what I buy is for my kids or the house... and then it hit me! The little lightbulb lit up! My guilty pleasure is blogging. It now consumes my free (and sometimes not so free) time. I find myself sitting up late at night typing more words or doing more research.

Blogging is my "me time" in a sense. I often get completely lost in my writing and research and tend to tune out the days troubles and stress.

My words allow me to be completely myself, to say what is on my mind and in my heart. Sure, sometimes things tend to be a bit random but I tend to just let it flow as it comes to mind.

I have been on a journey to find myself again. Yes, at this point in my life I have an idea of who I am, but I have lost myself in the process of being a wife and mom. I have been trying to refocus and center myself again. Blogging has played a HUGE part in this!

So tell me, what is your guilty pleasure? What do you make time for no matter what is going on in life around you?

Finding That Balance When You Work From Home

I have been a stay at home mom for a few years now and absolutely love it. While it is the most rewarding job I have ever had, it is also the most challenging at times. At the beginning of this year, I decided to become a work at home mom. My husband owns a lawn business that he does well with but I just felt like I should contribute somehow. Having three young kids, daycare costs would be out of this world and I would strictly be working to pay day care.

While this blog is a new found love for me, I have been doing freelance writing for several months now. When I started, I became faced with a huge challenge. How was I going to find balance between work, being a mom, and being a wife. Yes, I know, people do it every day. My problem came in finding time to dedicate to work between three kids constantly needing something, etc.

While I have by no means perfected this, I have found a few things that help me to get it all done and still keep my sanity somehow!

Wake up early

Sounds crazy huh? Most moms do not get enough sleep as it is so why in the world would a mom WANT to wake up early?! For me, I have become accustomed to having very little sleep at night. I am also a morning person so I do not mind getting up early. I actually LOVE the quiet time. It gives me time to get my thoughts together and figure out what the day will hold for us. The stillness of the house before the hustle and bustle begins is priceless.

Set Goals

Goals are very important if you are going to accomplish work from home. I have goals pertaining to my blog, goals for my freelance work, goals in my family life, and goals for our home. I am a very visual person and have found that actually writing my goals now, makes me more accountable. I work harder to achieve them so that I can mark them out. Gives me an absolute sense of satisfaction.

Make a Checklist

I find that making a daily checklist of things that I want or need to accomplish, helps to keep me on track throughout my day. Some days I get to check everything off and other days, the kids simply have a different idea in mind for me. I usually take my morning quiet time to get my list together. These are sometimes simple tasks such as organize the silverware drawer. Other days it may be a bit more involved. You might find it easier to make one checklist for work and home life. I personally make a separate one for each. While my work is from home, I still try to separate the two as much as possible to help with that balance.

Involve Your Kids

I know that often times when you recruit the help of the kids (depending on age), the simplest of tasks seem to take twice as long. But, kids love to be involved. If my kids are having a hard time entertaining themselves I put them at the table with me while I am on my laptop. I give them paper, pencils and crayons and give them simple little tasks such as "draw mommy a picture of" or "write this". They feel like they are working as well and it keeps everyone in one area. My kids are fortunately still at the age that they love to help around the house as well. They have to clean their own rooms but I try to give them other tasks to make them feel involved and important as well such as, taking the clothes from the dryer and putting in the laundry basket, sweeping the floor, dusting, etc.

Multi Task

I have become a whiz at multi tasking since I became a mom! I always try to find ways that I can do a couple of things at once. I will start the washer and then sit down to write for a bit until I hear the buzzer. I always keep an extra notebook in the car so if I find myself sitting and waiting somewhere, I can pull it out and work on simple tasks such as blog ideas or article prompts. Multi tasking really helps me get more accomplished throughout the day.

Know When To Stop

One of the biggest struggles I have faced since I started working at home is knowing when to stop. For a while I was staying up super late at night trying to get a little more writing done or an extra load of laundry. Just because you work at home does not mean you have to work constantly. Learn to treat it just like a job that you would commute to. Know when to close your laptop and be done for the day. Make time to enjoy life and make memories with your family. Not only is this important for family relationships but for the sake of your sanity as well.

Hopefully these tips will help you in finding some balance with being a work at home mom. For me, it is constantly a learning experience and I have found that my "plans" are ever changing! Good luck in your journey!!

The Greatest Woman I've Ever Known

My Blog Challenge for Day 4 is my greatest childhood memory. As I was sitting and thinking about what I should write about, I was flooded with SO many memories and I had a really hard time settling on just one I should write about. The more I thought, the more I realized that one person kept flooding back into my mind in all of these memories... my Mamaw (this is what I called my grandmother).

When I think of her, the word amazing always comes to mind. She passed away 18 years ago and I would give anything to have her with me today. To meet my kids, to see the woman I have become, to be a part of our life. Growing up, I spent more time at my mamaw's house than I did my own. Anytime I didn't have school, I was there!

My sister and I used to make up dance routines. Now looking back I know that we were such a hot mess. We would then perform these routines for my mamaw and she would sit and watch every single move and tell us over and over what an amazing job we did.

She was an encourager. She always taught me to do my best no matter what the situation was, to always put my best foot forward. She was always very well put together, no matter the day of the week or if she was leaving the house or not. I do not remember her as being someone that wore alot of makeup but she always had her nails nicely filed and painted and her hair done. She could not have pierced ears (her body just rejected them) so she wore clip ons. No matter how much she loved her earrings, she always let us play dress up with them.

Still to this day, every time I eat a peppermint, I am flooded with memories of her. She had a small candy jar that was always full when we would arrive. She just left it out on the table for us to take one as we wanted. For us kids, this was a HUGE deal! 

Sunday mornings were always spent in church with her with a trip to the local burger joint afterwards, on the way home.

I can not help but think, if she were here today, life would be so different. My family would still be together. She was the glue they kept everyone involved in each others lives. Now, everyone has gone their own separate ways and barely speak at all.

While she is not here with me, she has instilled so many morals and values in me at such a young age. Characteristics I still hold on to today. That, is absolutely priceless!


Do you have someone that was a positive influence on your life? Are they still alive today?

What exactly is Random Ramblings?

So, here we are on Day 3 of this Blogging Challenge. Today is the meaning of my business name.

I am a very random person. When I decided to get back into blogging, I had a really hard time coming up with a name. I wanted something that didn't sound too cliche' but something that would also cover the wide variety of content that I knew my blog would cover.

Random Ramblings just came to mind. I jotted it down and throughout all of the other ideas I had, I kept going back to it. I decided that must be the one!

Now that I am more into the blog world, I see other titles and think WOW! I really like that. But, this was my original plan so I am going to stick to it!

Challenge Day 2: 20 Facts About Me

So here we are on day 2 of this blogging challenge. Woohoo! I am on a roll! 2 days in a row!! :) Today is 20 facts about me.. I will say, I decided to brainstorm on this one a little bit ahead of time and 20 is alot of facts to come up with when you stop and think about it....

1. I met this guy back in 2009. We met at the street races originally because we had friends in common but didn't actually speak until a few weeks later at a local tattoo shop. We starting dating and moved in together within a week. Crazy right?! But here we are 6 years and 3 kids later.

2. I have always had a crazy fear of heights. I don't know what it is about them. As I have gotten older, I have gotten better about it. I can remember as a teen I would literally have panic attacks when it came to something as simple as climbing a ladder.

3. I moved to Florida 6 years ago. Mike (my hubby) and I were laying in bed one night having pillow talk and he just randomly said "hey, let's move to Florida" Ha! Little did he know, I have said since I was a little girl that I wanted to live in Florida some day! I agreed right away. He was in shock at first but then we both knew we would make it happen. Three weeks later, we were packing everything we could fit into my truck and headed south. We never looked back.

4. As we have already established, I am a Pinterest addict! If you share the addiction, you can find me here. 

5. I am a note taker. I jot down the most random things. I have tablets and notebooks all over the house with stuff written in them.

6. I have a crazy obsession with office supplies. It makes me sooo happy to get new paper and pens or even a notebook!

7. I got married on the beach. A really simple ceremony with a few close friends and our kiddos. A friend of ours mother actually married us.

8. I have 3 dogs. Two pitbulls... a rednose and a blue brindle, and a yorkie. My pits are big babies and my yorkie is like a grouchy old man!

9. I have a really hard time trusting people, therefore my circle of friends is really small.

10. Reading is something I have a passion for. I always have. No matter the stress or troubles I am facing in life, when I get engrossed in a good book, I forget about them for that moment.

11. Music feeds my soul. I have been through some challenges in this life of mine and music has helped me through alot.

12. I have 4 tattoos (will eventually have many more). I did not get my first until I was 31 and fell in love with it. I have fallen asleep during all except one of them!

13. I have never been fortunate enough to travel outside of the Southern United States. There is so much of the world I hope to see and explore some day!

14. I love shark fishing. Yes! Sharks! There is just something about the fight of reeling in this huge fish and not knowing how big it is or what is is on the other end of your line. The biggest shark I have caught was a 10 feet long and that sucker put up a heck of a fight! yes.. I also bait my own hook :)

15. I had never had a broken bone until about 3 years ago. I tripped over a baby gate and broke my arm right by the elbow. Graceful huh?!

16. I have 4 kids. 2 boys and 2 girls. The oldest 2 are girls and they are 19 and 5. The boys are 3 and 4. Never a dull moment in our house!

17. I am a beach girl for sure! There is just something about having my toes in the sand and soaking up the sun!

18. I am a country girl. I would much rather live in the country than the city any day!

19. I was the first in my family (parents, grandparents, cousins) to graduate high school.

20. I suffer from horrible road rage. I simply do not have patience for people that think they are the only person on the road!


Whew!! I told you 20 was alot! I will admit, it took me some time to come up with 20 things that I thought were worth posting lol.

Day 1 of The Challenge

I am, without a single doubt, horribly addicted to Pinterest. Ok, it is not a horrible thing. It provides me with incredible recipes for dinner, and amazing ideas for home decor that I can actually afford! Well, in my daily pinning, I came across a 31 day blog challenge. I do after all love a challenge so, for the next 31 days, I will be posting something that is a bit more personal about myself. No worries, I will not totally bore you with random facts and tidbits about myself. I will still blog about other stuff just as I have been. This challenge is just an added bonus!

Day 1: Introduction

So, who exactly is this lady pecking away on the keyboard? I am a 37 year old wife and mother of 4. My kids are 3,4,5 & 19. Give me the toddlers over a teenager any day!! We currently live on the Southwest coast of Florida. We moved here just over 6 years ago. I was born and raised in Mississippi and one day just decided to pack all I could and head south to start over with my boyfriend at the time (he is now my husband).

I am a stay at home mom, a freelance writer, and a blogger. While I absolutely LOVE being home with my kids and being here for all of their firsts and learning experiences, it is by far, the hardest job I have ever had! They will all be in school this coming up school year and I will be at an absolute loss. My role of wife and mom are very important to me and while I cherish it, I have lost myself somewhere along the way. I forget to make time for myself and I'm really trying hard to get better at that. A bit of soul searching I guess you could say.

I decided to get back into blogging after taking a break for a couple of years. Let's face it, having 3 toddlers in the house just doesn't allow much extra time for things like blogging. But, now that they are getting a little older and starting to do more on their own, I figured it was the perfect time to get back into it. After all, my blogging is totally me... I get to be myself, speak what is on my mind, be totally random if I want, and just let it all flow.

While I am very random, I am also a bit outspoken... ok more than a bit. I am ALOT outspoken. Sometimes, too much so for my own good.

I have the need to nurture. Maybe it is because I am the oldest of 4 kids and had a mother who didn't take the responsibilty of being a mom too seriously. I had to grow up pretty darn quick and that responsibilty has just kinda stuck with me. Within our group of friends, I am the mother figure. Everyone comes to be for advice or expects me to be the voice of reason. It is a hat I wear well.

As the challenge moves on, you will see much more of who I am, who I was, and who I hope to someday become. It is sure to be a rollercoaster ride. Wanna join in the fun?