A bright, vibrant mural is such a fun thing to catch when you’re running around town, but it’s an even funner thing when you plan a whole outing around checking out a few. Bonus: for all my ballin’ on a budget girlies, it doesn’t cost anything but a little gas and maybe an iced coffee to check out a handful in one day!

If you’ve been married or in a committed relationship  for any amount of time then you have heard the same piece of advice over and over: don’t miss date night. I do think this is really good advice but I know that sometimes it’s easier said than done. When our kiddos were younger and we didn’t live near family, a date night would easily cost us $100+ once we factored in the babysitter. At a certain point babysitters stopped just taking what you would give and started having strict rates, even requiring extra for more than one kid or pets in the home! So yes, while dates are important, at that cost it just isn’t feasible for every family on a regular basis. 

Looking at the life my husband and I are living right now, you wouldn’t believe how incredibly hard it was 17 years ago. 17 years ago I was only 19 years old. It was the Summer after my freshman year of college. A few months prior, when I came home for Christmas break, I had told my parents I was pregnant. Luckily, in the town they lived in at the time was a small community college so my life looked like working some days, taking college classes other days, teaching dance class in the evenings for extra money, and in all ways preparing to be a single mom. 

The bad news is that I almost missed a blog post this month. I always write around the 15th of the month and last week I was absolutely swamped with getting things ready for our state convention. The good news is that going forward I will have way more time to pour into this beloved space!

I have served as the marketing director for our state libertarian party since 2020. In that time I have seen three state chairs come and go. I have created from the ground up our Instagram presence (999 followers) and our email newsletter (1,100 subscribers). I also redid our entire website and was ready to install a new CRM. I have also served on the convention planning committee for the last few years as well as the bylaw committee this year. These are thankless positions anyway, but they were especially hard to do the past couple years.

I once heard at a social media conference that “the best camera to start with is the one in your pocket.” This advice resonated with me because I am a big believer in exploring passions without a high cost of entry. I’ve always been one that was more comfortable working my way up to the best tools - after proving success in a specific niche - versus going all in financially on a hobby that might not pan out. With that in mind this month I am sharing with you my best tips for taking better photos with your phone! 

The 2024 Kansas Legislative Session starts on Monday January 8th, which means we are days away! It is sure to be a crazy session and I expect the craziness to continue right on until November since we are in another Presidential Election year. I am going to be updating regularly throughout the session on issues I am tracking along with groups like the Libertarian Party of Kansas and the Kansas Cannabis Coalition.

Growing up in a house of four sisters, you can imagine that the beloved classic Little Women was a favorite of ours. I’ve watched the 1994 movie every Christmas for as long as I can remember and I’ve been elated the past few years to add the 2017 PBS series and the 2019 Greta Gerwig movie to my watchlist. I’ve read the book a couple times and I even did a Little Women devotional last year, which I loved every moment of. It’s so good to see characters or scenes that don’t get a lot of attention being explored in these other mediums. 

Did you also know that I work part time as a wedding coach? What is a wedding coach you ask? Think of it as somewhere between a full-on wedding planner and being a DIY bride. The average cost of a wedding planner is between $2k - $5k. I have found that most brides don't actually need a full-on wedding planner. What they really need is just someone to tell them the pieces of the puzzle, keep their planning on schedule, and be the master of ceremonies on the day of. That is precisely what I do!

I started my blog back in 2016 and at the time I hosted my blog on Wordpress. Wordpress has long been the industry standard for blogs and websites of all types. I started in a free theme and over time upgraded to different paid features. That is one of my favorite parts of Wordpress, that you can start with no budget, grow to a shoe-string budget, and then when you are making money with your blog you can easily upgrade to best in class tools. I hosted my blog in Wordpress until 2021, when I finally made the switch to Squarespace.

I must admit that after state convention this year I was ready to quit my work with LPKS. I had a resignation email sitting in my inbox for weeks. At first, it was a couple other women in the party urging me to stay. “Don’t let the bastards get you down” one friend told me. “If you quit now then you are letting them win” another one said. I was feeling better but then I read a leadership book that very pointedly said “politics is not leadership.” Meaning that politicians are not the ones driving change but rather politicians should be reacting to change that citizens desire. So back to wanting to quit I went. What was the point of working in politics if it wasn’t going to drive the positive change I wanted to see in the world?

Every year my church starts “21 Days of Prayer” on January 1st. We do this two times a year, with the other one being in preparation for Easter. I’ve always found this to be an enlightening time. In the past I’ve felt called to fast from foods that do not serve my body well, alcohol, even hobbies that distract me from the Lord. This year I felt a pull to read a book of the bible specifically named after a woman. I prayed on it a little longer and finally felt pointed towards Esther.

If you know me then you know I live in that funny little overlap that is a girl who likes designer purses AND a girl who is trying to lead a sustainable lifestyle. I am not the thriftiest of shoppers, but I am learning. Over the years I have self-funded my purse addiction by taking really good care of my purses, buying styles I know I will be able to resell, and then reselling them in order to fund the next purse. Through that process I’ve been able to pinpoint a few rules for a spotting a good designer secondhand bag and I can’t wait to share with you.

If you’ve been following me for any amount of time then you know it is a passion of mine to encourage other women to crush their goals. If by chance one of your goals is to start earning money by sharing your favorite products online, then this post is for you! I’ve taken a handful of influencer courses as well as developed my own strategies for working with brands and I am ready to share all the best tips with you.

“What is going on in Kansas, anyways?” is a question I’ve gotten a lot over the past several months. I’ve wanted to share about my stance on the primary election back in August, but in order to do that I feel I have to go back even further than that, so bear with me.

It’s been a while since I shared about a good vacation so for this month I am going to highlight my recent trip down to New Orleans! NOLA is a place I have been wanting to visit for YEARS! I have had at least two other trips to NOLA that have fallen through, so this time I was not going to cancel it for ANY reason. I told my friend we were going to pick a weekend and see it through and that’s exactly what we did. As busy moms with a new school year looming, it was so important to get some time away while we could. The trip was slated to be a whirlwind: we were flying in midday Friday and leaving late Sunday evening.

You know that I love the internet and social media. You know that I believe in its power to connect us all and activate us on causes we have in common. Not just for the big causes but also for the little moments we all have had but maybe never said out loud. For example, just this morning I shared this in my Instagram stories: “Girls be like I have so much anxiety and then drink a third iced coffee and turn on a murder podcast.” Almost immediately I had messages from other girls replying SAME! It’s little moments like that that I thoroughly enjoy and I’m sure you do too.

That being said, there are a handful of popular mom complaints that make their rounds on social media that I just simply cannot relate to. I’ve been keeping a list and I’m sharing it today not to brag, but because if there’s even one other mom out there who also can’t relate, then I want to know you and I want you to know you’re not alone!

It’s no secret that I am a fan of social media. I’ve written about it, talked about it, and made a career out of it. I believe it’s a powerful tool and should be treated as such, but not that it is inherently evil. I have closely followed Mark Zuckerberg’s career including each time he appeared in Washington, as well as the most recent whistleblower hearing. I almost always end up siding with Zuckerberg and am even called a “Zuckerberg groupie” among my friends.

Last year, I had so many people tell me to watch the Netflix docu-drama, “The Social Dilemma.” More than one friend told me, “it will totally change how you feel about social media.” Well, I watched the movie and I hate to break it to you, but I did not learn anything I didn’t already know.

Listen to podcast episode here.

As I sat down to write this blog post, I found myself wanting to skip it. I just went on a fun vacation with a friend, couldn’t I just write about that? Surely it’d be more fun to write about a vacation or shopping than to write about demonic oppression? Still though, I have a rule that once a topic is put on my list, it must be explored. I simply couldn’t skip this topic for another month. So, I set out to do some research and quickly found the following verse in 1 Timothy 4:16, “Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.” So, here I am being obedient and sharing how learning about demons in the bible has helped improve my overall mental health.

When I first started my marketing firm, I was advised about the importance of not only networking, but of giving back to the community by volunteering. With my specific skillset, volunteering for me normally looked like giving my time or expertise; as opposed to giving supplies or financially. I learned quickly that almost every non-profit needs help with marketing, as they typically do not have big marketing budgets. I had so many requests for non-profits needing in-kind marketing help, that I eventually had to give myself a rule. My rule was I had to pick only one non-profit at a time to work with, otherwise I was liable to have more in-kind work than paid work. Between the non-profits who actually hired me and the non-profits I voluntarily gave my time to, I feel like I’ve seen it all. I am going to share some of the biggest lessons I’ve learned about volunteering, in hopes that it helps you be a better volunteer in your community!

The leaves are falling and the air is getting crispier. We’ve already processed our final batch of chickens for the year and gotten our pigs back from the butcher. Life on the farm is transitioning into winter mode, where the outdoor responsibilities are slightly less. Truthfully, this is exactly the spot you want to be in come Fall as a farmer. Even though winter is knocking, just beyond that will be Spring. Every Spring at least a couple friends reach out to me wanting to know my tips and tricks for getting started with chickens. So, with the help of some You Tube videos from my husband Dean, here you go!