The Poor Mom Revolution

Here I am… a mom of 2 in my mid 30’s, married to my high school sweetheart and going through a crisis of finding out what makes me truly happy. Now don’t get me wrong, I love my life. It’s taken me on an incredible, yet difficult journey and I wouldn’t change a thing. I love hard and would do absolutely anything for my family and those I care about, but I’ve come to terms with the fact that I’ve never put myself at the top of that list and It sucks.

    Let me take you back to when I had my whole life figured out. I’ve always been a planner and always knew how my life was going to be. I was married to the love of my life, teaching and had a new family to focus on. Obviously I learned quickly that nothing ever goes as planned. I like to consider myself a positive person and am known for constantly smiling even when I don’t know how I can keep going on the inside. I had struggled with constantly being around negative people, whether it be at work or by choice in my daily life. They brought me down and constantly made me doubt my worth and with it my confidence. I knew I had to make a change. 

    I’ve struggled with anxiety most of my life and didn’t even know that was what it was or what I had until my late 20’s. It caused me to overthink and overanalyze every decision I made. Made me second guess my worth and made me feel as though I needed to hide it from the world. I suffered many anxiety attacks and a few panic attacks in private before realizing something had to change. From the outside I made everything seem picture perfect. I always strived for perfection and with it, felt like I was losing a part of myself. I then started this crazy self discovery journey where I dove head first into self care and self love. Taking care of myself was the number one priority and trying not to feel bad about it was the goal. I began to work out again, started to travel and brainstorm what I wanted my future to look like. Lets just say there were a lot of late nights dream building, journaling and making Pinterest boards.

     Within this self discovery journey, I struggled with finding my happy place. A place where I fit in. When starting to learn about who I was, I struggled with finding a purpose, a hobby, anything that would give me that excited feeling I needed so badly. I joined countless mom clubs and groups, tried anything from painting to boxing and yet no “aha” moment. I was a mom, a wife, a teacher and honestly that was all I had going for me. I lost who I was the moment I became a mother. My priorities drastically changed and I had no idea how to balance my needs with their own, let alone figure out how to explain this daunting cloud that hung over me.

    Ever since I was a little girl, I wanted to work with kids. I grew up being a mother’s helper, babysitter and loved it! When it came to college there was no doubt in my mind that I would be a teacher and a great one at that! I taught for 9 years before making the decision to quit. I’d like to say the main reason for quitting was that I so desperately wanted to find a positive place to thrive and I searched far and wide for it. I needed an environment that made me feel as amazing as I did in the classroom with those kids. I needed a school that was the perfect fit… but it didn’t exist. The real struggle and the final straw was learning to live paycheck to paycheck and barely making ends meet when you did all the things right. Realized after 6 years of college, 2 degrees, 4 schools and 9 school years that teaching in the classroom was no longer for me. My husband and I, and our two kids picked up our lives May of 2020 and moved to the woods to start over. We both drastically switched careers, downsized our house, turned our car lease in early, and are working on enjoying a much simpler life in the midst of all the crazy.

    This blog was created for any mom who is on a self discovery journey and has ever felt lost, confused, struggling financially and is finding their way towards happiness.