I am soooooo excited to announce that I am working with Mila Rae Boutique.(https://milaraeboutique.com)  You can use my code: SouthernMama20 at check out for 20% off of your order!!!

This super cute family owned boutique is out of Texas.  Their customer service has been amazing.  I first placed an order with them a few months back. When I emailed them to let them know I forgot to change the email on the order from Raymond’s to mine they fixed it right away.  I soon got e-mail from them apologizing that one of the tops I ordered had become backordered.  Once it was in the sent out another e-mail letting me know it was on its way and for the hold up they had added a gift to my package for having to wait longer then normal.  See you guys awesome customer service.  

I was so excited when I got to work with them.  Y’all this is my first discount code for a clothing company.  The quality of the items I have received from them is amazing.  The prices are very reasonable.  They get new arrivals all the time!! 

So go check them out and shop.  Use my code: SouthernMama20  You can see how I styled and why I love these tops saved in my Highlights on my Instagram. You can find a link to my Instagram linked on the home page! Find them on Instagram and Facebook to keep up with their new arrivals and how others style their clothes from them.  

My plan after finding out I was pregnant was to not go back to work at all. I was all about being a stay at home mom.  When I told my bosses the good news, they said “well we have 9 months to find and train your replacement.”  I worked until the beginning of September, because it was my due month.  I am lucky enough that we could afford for me to stay home with Connor.  I was fully wrapped up in being a mom.  Let’s be honest being a new mom is a FULL time job, being a mom in general is a full time job.  With Connor being streaky breastfeed, I was getting very little sleep and time alone.  Even though I have an amazing husband that would fully take on all things baby, but feedings, when he was home. It was only a few days at a time.  Raymond would come home for 2-3 days then it was back to work for 7-10 days at a time.  His first night home every time was the hardest because he himself was running on very little sleep from the job they were on at the time. Even with all of that I still had no plans on going back to work. I was going to be that mom.  I wanted to be that mom that helped out at all of the school events.  The mom that drives all of the team to and from games.  Yes, I had big plans for being a stay at home mom.

When Connor was around 6 months old, he finally took a bottle. The trick was it had to be fresh and I couldn’t be in the room at all.  It was nice to just be able to go to Wal-Mart by myself. So, when Connor was about 7 months old, I went in to work for a day while my bosses went to a school. What made it possible for me to be okay with me leaving him for a day was that I knew he was in good hands with his Nanny. (A Nanny is what we in the south call our Godmothers.) I must have texted her every 10 minutes to check on him. I’m pretty sure I didn’t get that much work done. After that they asked me if I wanted to come back to work part time. Raymond and I talked about it.  Connor would learn some social skills, learn how to feed without me, I would get some adult time, I had someone I trusted to watch him, and the extra money would be great to have again.  I’ve always worked.  My paycheck was our extra play money.  It’s what we would go out to eat with, put gas in the boat with, and just spend on extra stuff we may have wanted.  So that little extra money would be nice to have again.  Me going back to work was something I wanted to do but was also scared to do. It started out just 2 days a week for just a few hours a day. I think I cried the whole first week and checked on him 100 times a day.  By summer I was working 4 days a week still just a few hours a day.  Connor’s Nanny would keep him when Raymond was on the boat.  She is a stay at home mom herself and she enjoyed the time with him and the extra money too.  Yes, I paid her.  She was taking time out of her day and away from her kids to help take care of mine.  I know he was in very good hands with her, she loved him as if he was hers.  Raymond would keep him the weeks he was home.  It quickly became their time.  It was our routine and it worked. I still didn’t have time alone to myself though.  I really felt like I was going a little crazy at times. 

This went on for about a year.  Connor was about to turn two and they had an opening in the two-year-old program at a local private school. We decided that it was going to be the best thing for him.  He would be around children his own age, he would be learning, and they help potty train (which is a big deal in my book haha.)  He was used to being dropped off at his Nanny’s so being dropped off at school wasn’t a big deal for him. He went with ease and loves being there with his new friends.

I was used to only working four days a week and schools was going to be five days a week, with Fridays be a short day.  The new decision was to work five days a week or take time for myself.  It had been two years scene I had Kendra time.  I had already started my Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/southernmamaofone17/) page and was really loving doing it. The choose was easy! Momma was taking her few hours on that one day a week all to herself.  This is my time to go to my appointments, clean the house without someone making a mess behind me, shop in peace, or just be alone and nap. It was even time for Raymond and I to just be together alone. 

Going back to work was not an easy choose to make but I’m very glad I did.  Not only did I go back to work, but I went back and started doing a different job. I’m learning new things and getting to be more hands on with the machine side of things along with still helping out with the office when I’m needed. I have amazing bosses that understand when I need to take time off for my son.  I missed two weeks when Connor had the flu, they called every day to check on him.  Having understanding bosses who loves me and my son like family sure helped make it easy to go back.

Going back to work may not be as easy for every mom.  Some mom may have to go back to work even though they don’t want too. Some mom may be ready to go back right away.  Just remember that you are you and the chooses that are right for me and my family are not going to be what is right for you and your family.  If you have a great spouse that helps out or even just someone you trust with your child it does make the transition easier on all parts. I’m not here to tell you to go back to work. I’m just saying it may not be easy at first, but it will get better and it may even be the best thing for you and your child. If you choose to be a stay at home mom, then that is amazing.  Being at home taking care of your family is a full-time job too. There is no right or wrong choose between the two.  There is just that right choose for you and only you know what that may be. Do what is best for you and your family. For me going back to work was the right choose at that time and in the future things may change.  I at lest know that I will be okay with either. I’m at a job that I love and know that when the time comes for field trips or sports events my bosses will be understanding as to why I must go. I’m around adults and I get to have alone time to help me keep from losing myself again.

For my first official blog post I thought I would write about why I’m doing this in the first place.  Lets go back a little way, after having my son I felt lost.  Even though all I’ve ever wanted in life was to be a mom it wasn’t an easy task for me.  It was six years of struggles, lots of medians and shots, a miscarriage, depression, finding my way back to God, more medians and shots, and finally it was time to see a specialist.  But before we could even call them God had other plans and blessed us with Connor.  Of Couse I put all I had into a healthy pregnancy, labor and being a nursing mom.  I stayed home with Connor for the first 6 months then when back to work part time while still nursing him.  Which isn’t a big deal lots of moms do it.  Once he was a year old and we stopped nursing I really did feel lost.  I had put so much of my time into work and being a mom that I forgot to take time for myself.  So, for my New Year’s goal I was going to take care of myself a little more.  I started getting my nails done, doing my make up more, finally went and brought myself new clothes that wasn’t pregnancy or nursing friendly. I just got back to feeling a little more like me.

Like most people these days that have Instagram or any other foam of social media, I would get lost in the world of videos that others posted.  Watching different stories just kind of became my thing to do while soaking in the tub after I would put Connor down for the night. I started following other bloggers and seeing what they were doing. 

As I watch these, I thought maybe I could do that.  Give another mom feeling down and lost the courage to take a step out of her comforted zone and do something for herself too.

I made myself a “blogger” Instagram page. (even though I didn’t have a real blog at the time or ever thought about doing it) My Instagram is linked on the home page. Please go check it out and follow me. (https://www.instagram.com/southernmamaofone17/)

I started posting what makeup I brought new, about different home items I would buy, like my new vacuum, a clean-up spray that I had tried and liked.  Then I posted my first story about my curling iron I have (the Beachwaver S1 – https://beachwaver.com ) and I had a lady message me about it. She started asking me questions about it and my hair type. She even sent me an update and let me know she brought the same one because of me and she loves it. She was so nice and thankful. I felt like what I was doing was helping at least one person. It gave me the push to keep at it. I started posting about different things I found on sale. I would post when I was trying on new clothes.  If I was out shopping and I seen something cute or on sale I would do a story.  Then I began just jumping on to say hey and what’s going on this week.  My page is still new and doesn’t have many followers right now but it’s growing every day.  It’s really been very fun.  But with Instagram you can only post in the comment section so much and sometimes I felt like I could have explained more.  Posting super long stories about a subject sometimes felt like I was taking away from it.

 I’m hoping that I can go into more details on here at least a few times a month.  I want to be able to really talk about what products I’ve used or how much I paid for something.  If I do a small craft or gift bag, I want to have a place where others can go to see what I did and what I used to do it.  When we start redoing things in our home I can link where we got things, what colors we are using, and just some helpful tips to get though the stress of it all.  I want to maybe be that one person whose story to have a family gives another the courage to keep going. To the mom that hasn’t felt like herself in years, I want to be the one to show her that maybe just a little time to herself is what she needs to get through it.  If I found a really good trick on how to do something, I want to help the next mom find it too. My goal is to just help and have fun.

I hope this doesn’t seem like a lot and hasn’t scared you off on my very first post.  Thank you very much for taking time out of your day to read this. I hope that it helps someone know that can do something for themselves too.  Lots of love!! 

Welcome to my journey with this new Blog. To start off my name is Kendra. I am 32 years old. I am a wife and a Mama. I’m loud and out going for sure. I love to meet new people. I feel like I’m a friendly person and easy to get along with, lol. One of my favorite things to do is to just talk with people and get to know them. You never know what someone else can teach you. My happy place is in the deer stand or boat. My family is everything to me. I alway knew that I was put here by God to be a mom. My faith in God is what has gotten me though this crazy thing we call life. With Him there is nothing I can’t do.

I meet my amazing husband Raymond 13 years ago in a bar. A few months later I meet him again and within a month of that we started dating. We moved in together after only dating for a few months, decided to get married after about 9 months of dating. We got married in May 2008. I was 20 years old. We have a great relationship. Looking from the outside you make think we shouldn’t be together, I’m loud he is quite. We have taught each other lots over the years. We work that’s for sure. He works away from home (14/7) as a boat caption. I love that we have time to miss each other when he is gone, it makes for his time home that much better. It also brings us back the joy of the beginning of our relationship when we spent hours on the phone just talking and getting to know each other.

In September of 2017 we welcomed our only child, our son, Connor Joseph. He is the light of our lives. This kid makes me smile and laugh out loud every single day. He was our gift from God after six very long and hard years of trying to have a baby. (I will write about our journey to have him at a later date.) He is the only Grandson on both sides of our families, so that means he is super spoiled lol. He is a copy of his dad for sure, but we have learned he is as outgoing as his mama. He sure keeps us on our toes. This kid is fearless and always wide open. Right now we are in a Toy Story obsession. He thinks he is Buzz Lightyear and can fly.

All in all I’m just a working mom and wife trying to raise a good ole southern boy. My hope is that he will learn from his dad and I and grow to be a great man who loves and respects others. This is something new for me. I will apologize now if there is misspelled words, sentences that are not written right, or if these post run on and on and on sometimes. Like I’ve said before I love to talk and meet new people so these may run on sometimes. Welcome to my life and let’s see where this road will take us. Only God knows and I’m leaving it all in His hands.