I decided to be a Stay at Home Mom just before my son’s third birthday. My part-time job was consuming more than full time hours, and I felt less than present everywhere, all the time. I missed my son, I felt my family deserved more from me, and I hadn’t had a moment to think or breathe or exist as a person in months.

The one thing I knew (possibly the only thing!) was that I absolutely wanted to return to teaching when our family transitioned into school age years. I love teaching and will always have one foot in the field.

I did a brief stint at home before this. It was awesome… until winter came. And then, I had to return to work. After months of hibernating, I started to go a little stir crazy, and I knew my little one wasn’t getting the social experiences he needed and deserved. So, I headed back to work to give us both a little taste of sanity.

On my first day back at home, I told my husband my plan for saving our sanity. “We’ll survive winter!” I boldly declared. He paused, looked me straight in the eye, and said: You deserve more. You should not be surviving anything. You deserve to thrive. Let’s figure out how you will thrive.

And in less than 5 minutes (plus a few months!), this little corner of the internet was born.

Teaching is a lifestyle, as is being a stay at home parent. Both require planning, organization, commitment, and endless creativity and enthusiasm (at least the way we do it!). Frighteningly, my passion for both can steal my joy if I’m not careful to fuel my own tank, work with my systems, and remember that surviving is not thriving. When I’m surviving, so is my family and so are my students. It’s ok, but it’s not really fun. We live, we learn, we’re fine…

But when we’re thriving, we’re unstoppable. We create! We explore! We laugh, sing, dance, and discover everything God has provided, and we celebrate the joy in each moment. That’s not to say it’s perfect – just that we’re thriving and can easily take the setbacks in stride (sometimes with a little giggle over the craziness of it all).

I hope this is a place where you can be refreshed and rejuvenated. My goal is to provide resources that help us all thrive, as well as experience acceptance, love, and grace for the moments when we’re simply surviving.