I’m Amie. I am a woman, a partner, and a parent. I have five kids, three of which are step kids, which means we grapple with the unique issues that come with being a blended family. We are also a neurodivergent family. Sometimes I forget how different our household is until I spend time with the outside world and am reminded of what “normal” is. 

Like so many other families, our life looks very different than it did pre 2020. I went from working full time to being a stay at home mom. We went from having all our kids at school or daycare to having all of them home ALL THE TIME. In some ways, we’ve shifted back, but mostly our lives have stayed different. We do have a couple kids back at school, but we also have kids that are still homeschooled. I never went back to work (THAT is a loaded topic). Despite looking traditional on paper, the Trad Wife community would absolutely burn me at the stake. I feel incredibly lucky that I haven’t had to go back to work and can instead spend my time with my two youngest kids exploring the world together. 

Like many humans these days, I just feel completely overwhelmed so much of the time. The world has become very loud and demanding. Always demanding our attention. I spend more time than I’d like trying to figure out if I should try to live within the loudness or remove myself from it. I don’t want my life choices to be defined by an algorithm. I don’t want to spend more time staring at other people’s lives on a tiny screen than I spend living my own life. I am on a mission to reclaim a slower pace of life, living in actual reality rather than the reality we all see on our screens. It’s a tough thing to balance, staying aware and involved in the actual issues while also removing yourself from the internet for any length of time. 

So those are some of the things you’ll find here. Posts about being human, a parent, finding nature instead of social media. Lessons I’ve learned about being a mom, a step parent, and a stay at home mom while trying not to lose myself. Big life decisions, like getting a graduate degree and then giving up your career and trying to decide what direction to take next. Or moving across the country with five kids, two cats, and a dog.  Most of all, I hope you’ll find a place that makes you feel less alone in our very loud world.