A quick rundown of who I am, my background, and what brought me to this point…
I was born and raised in rural Pennsylvania and am now raising my own family here. I met my husband, Mark, in 1997 while finishing our degrees at Penn State and then married 2 years later. We moved away while he continued post-graduate studies to become a Physician Assistant and I began my career as a Social Worker. We were 24 years-old, had tons of hopes and dreams, were so in love and dead broke! We made it work, though, and sure had a great time along the way!
2001 was a big year for us. I got pregnant, Mark graduated from his post-graduate studies, we moved back to my hometown where he actually landed his first/current job and our first daughter was born in December! We had a lot of changes and stress on our shoulders, but I was able to get through it with only a few meltdowns and a lot of full-blown breakdowns!
Flash Back to My Childhood Real Quick…
I have been a writer ever since I learned to spell and by this, I mean that I was always writing poems and letters to friends and family. I would write any chance I got during free time at school and also alone in my bedroom at home. As I got older, I had a few teachers secretly enter things that I had written into contests, but I also entered others myself…oftentimes, winning! I have just always had the knack for writing and being able to express myself in a deep and thought-provoking way. (Or so I think).
I have mentioned this before when my readers asked why I ended up going to college for social work if I loved to write so much and that was because I knew that I could already write, so why not study the second thing I loved and that was children and family dynamics. This ultimately gave me two specialties to have under my belt.
Back to 2001…
Once our daughter was born in December, I immediately knew that I wasn’t going back to work. I just wanted to be with her 24/7 and Mark’s job afforded us that opportunity. At the time, I had never even heard of blogging yet, but was on the computer a lot emailing friends and family daily pictures and updates of her. This went on for a few years and slowly led to me finding little writing assignments here and there and more contests to enter. My main topic was obviously parenting and right from the start, I began writing openly and honestly about the trials and tribulations I was experiencing in every facet of my life. This stemmed from my years of being a family therapist and also by realizing that I was not going to be able to help anyone through my writing if I wasn’t brave enough to speak the truth and be 100% transparent in what my life was really like.
2004 to the Present…
We had our second daughter in 2004 and in 2006, I actually did go back to work part-time as a mobile crisis counselor at night because I was really starting to miss work, but I was laid-off because the department was terminated. I didn’t enjoy going back to work, but it did make me feel a little better about myself and made me feel as if I was really using my head again! In 2007, I was actually approached about a new position opening up at the same agency that would include travel counseling in the schools during the same hours (a position I held before), so I jumped right on it! By the time I started, though, I was pregnant with our son.
I continued to work throughout the pregnancy, but this time, it was much harder juggling the two girls with elementary school, preschool, their little parties and shows, and nightly activities—not to mention when one or both of them were sick. I was left scrambling to find a sitter or having to call off of work to stay home. I just couldn’t handle the pressure. Although it was great having an “outside” life, I decided to leave that position and return to the stay-at-home kingdom when our third baby was born in 2008.
This is when my writing career really took off! I decided that I was going to kick-up my writing up a notch and start making money with it! I started this blog and at the same time, applied to as many writing sites as I could. I was immediately accepted into all of them as a high-level writer and from there, I gained enough samples and clips to begin working for myself, advertising my writing services, increasing my rates, and ditched the middlemen that were taking a percentage of my earnings.
Currently, I have more writing work than I can handle, which also includes many volunteer projects I do for my children’s schools, sports teams, and other community projects. If you would like to see where I have written and what keeps me busy, you can browse through my professional site HERE. I am also trying to finish my first parenting book, but these darn kids won’t leave me alone!
Why I am Telling You All of This…
It’s because I want you to know that I have “been there” and “done that” and regardless of whether you are at stay-at-home mom, working mom, or a work-from-home mom, I have done it all and can empathize with the joys and struggles that each title brings. The bottom line is that parenting is hard and it’s definitely not what most books, movies, and TV shows portray it to be. It takes work, it feels unrewarding at times, it never ends, and it will drive you crazy!
We all love our kids immensely, want the best for them, and know what a blessing each and every one of them are, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be open and honest about how super hard it is to raise them, too!
