Life Lessons from a Hot Mess Mom

1️⃣0️⃣ • T E N • 🖐️🖐️

It’s been 10 Years since I had a 10 hour brain surgery to remove an acoustic neuroma tumor that was wrapped around my earring, balance, and facial nerve. The risk were so high! Permanent hearing loss, permanent balance issues, and permanent facial paralysis were all very likely and the risk of other brain injuries and even death was explained to us numerous times.

…BUT GOD! 🙌

I am permanently deaf in my right ear because they purposely cut that nerve to work around the balance and facial nerve and I have a few other small differences like handwriting and lack of tears in the right eye but I’ll never stop giving God all the glory for bringing me through and allowing me to continue to live this wonderful life that He’s blessed me with and I’ll never not remember all of YOU that were there and supported our family through it all. ❤️

11•12•2025

Today’s Visual of this Hot Mess Mom vs the 10 Year Old, Non-Verbal Autistic child gone WILD! 😅

He beat me down today y’all! 😮‍💨🥱

Life Lessons: Mother’s Day Edition

Today, several people praised us Moms for being such great mothers and juggling all the many hats that we wear each and every day.

In all honesty, I feel like a failure most days. A real life Hot Mess Mom!

To me, there’s never enough time in a day, me to go around, or money to buy all the things.

Today was a great reminder that WE’RE DOING GREAT even when life gets messy.

From Mom to Chef to Chauffeur to Circus Ring Leader and Chaos Coordinator, we have survived another year raising other humans, we’ve kept them alive, the house is still standing, and they all seem happy so we should be proud of ourselves.

I take on a LOT of roles in this crazy life but my absolute favorite will always be Wife and Mother!

As the proud mother of 5 beautiful children between the ages of 20 down to 2, I’m raising adults, kids, and a toddler. Life is bound to be messy.

I already know that there’s probably never going to be a perfect picture with this crew.

Someone is always not smiling or looking away or has their eyes closed or is giving the face of “I hate pictures!”.

I mean, there are S E V E N of us so it’s just the facts of life.

…but I wouldn’t trade a single thing because these are my people and my favorite job in life is being the Chaos Coordinator of this crew!

I’m One Blessed Mama! 💙🩷🩵🩵💖

Happy Mother’s Day to all the other Hot Mess Moms out there! 🌺

I see you and I feel you! You’re my people! 👊

Life Lessons: Autism Mom Life Edition

🧩 AUTISM AWARENESS DAY 2024 🧩

Every April 2nd is Autism Awareness Day and the month of April is Autism Awareness month.

Autism is something that a lot of people don’t know a lot about but it’s a part of the life we live EVERY SINGLE DAY.

Autism (aka Autism Spectrum Disorder or ASD) usually isn’t identified by physical features but by emotions, reactions, communication (or lack there of), quirky gestures, etc

Autism can look as normal as these photos of our precious 8 year old boy… 🥰

✨Handsome! Charming! Happy! Carefree!✨

This is how our Miles looks and acts most of the time. He is the cutest boy, with the most precious smile. He is the most laid back, chill, loving, fearless child we have.

We know without a doubt that Miles see the world differently than we do.

He loves the Wind in his hair and the Water between his toes.

He isn’t afraid of big rollercoasters, big waves, or big crowds.

On the opposite side of Miles’ carefree life, sits an entire village of people that are fearful, uptight, protective, defensive, always alert, and many days exhausted trying to give him the best life possible.

You see, Miles is mostly nonverbal so he doesn’t verbally express his wants and needs. We have to use our best judgement to understand him daily.

Also, in all of these photos, there’s a story that I don’t remember being all smiles like you see.

When we’re at the beach, we have to watch Miles closely because he doesn’t know how far out in the ocean is too far or why he can’t just go with strangers.

When we’re at an amusement park, Miles wants to ride ALL the rides but doesn’t understand the rules of waiting in line so we have to do our best to teach him the rules but we stay ready to defend him if someone has something to say.

When we’re trying to take professional pictures, getting Miles to make eye contact with the camera is almost impossible unless one of us is acting like a crazy person behind the lens which means we usually don’t ever get a full family photo with him looking.

When trying to take the random picture of him against the brick wall today because he was laughing and smiling so much, he ran away from me and ran into the parking lot in front of a truck which almost gave me a heart attack. The truck driver honked at him 4 times and gave Miles the meanest look and while I was very upset with Miles for dashing into the road, I was ready to fight that man like I had nothing to lose. Then, I was short-tempered with my husband about not being right there beside us and it wasn’t even his fault.

I’m telling you… Autism families face many struggles every single day and we stay ready!

I’ve always got a whole conversation already started in my head before someone even makes a comment about Miles’ actions and I’ll probably take a whoopin’ if I get into a fight but I will throw hands for my boy without thinking twice. 😉

I say all of that to tell you that Autism families are always on guard and in our case, only when we’re at home, can we take a deep breath and relax just a little because at home, Miles knows the boundaries, the rules, and how to be more self-sufficient.

So yes, we could easily live a more stress-free life by staying at home instead of putting him out in the world where so many things can go wrong but we will continue to face the fears, embrace the chaos, and carry all the emotions that go along with raising a child with autism by taking him into the world because that is how you spread Autism Awareness each and every day and not just one day or one month out of the year.

Most importantly, we will continue to take Miles into the world to teach HIM about the world and how to be the best version of himself so that he can one day thrive in the world he’s been given with more independence and we pray that by people meeting him and others like him, the world will be filled with more autism awareness and acceptance to embrace him and all of his special abilities. ❤️