Portrait

My name is Lani. "Lani" is Hawaiian for Heavenly Skies and no one knows how to pronounce it correctly. Upon my first visit to Hawaii, I also learned that Lani is pronounced differently there, too. Maybe I don't belong anywhere. 

I grew up in a medium to small sized town in the Texas panhandle. I've been asked on numerous occasions if I had horses. No, I didn't. I also don't have cowboy boots or a cowboy hat, and you will never catch me in them. (Is this still a stereotype? Because I hear it often..) I can, however, tell you all about the Alamo and Texas history. And yes, Texas is the best state. 

I stayed in Texas for 22 years, but then through a series of odd events, I married and left with my husband, who is in the Navy. Nothing about our meeting, marriage plans, wedding, first year as a married couple, or really anything else about us is considered "normal", but those are stories for another time. 

I have two boys. One born in 2011 in Colorado and one born in 2014 in Florida. In the year 2010, I became a housewife after leaving Texas and following my husband to a short term school so he could cross rate from one fancy Navy job to another high tech, fancy Navy job*. Anyway, I had this typical Lucy Ricardo/Laura Petrie image of a stylish housewife in my mind as I skipped out of my job as a child development teacher**. Let's just say... uh no. But that's a story for another time. 

So now I'm a stay at home mom. I LOVE it! Talk to me about how stay at home moms are not fulfilled, need job experience, or lazy and I will hit you with a brick. In my, at the time of this writing, 4 years of experience as a mom, I have accumulated a few tips on parenting. Parenting styles, sleep tips, introduction to food tips, baby transport tips, postpartum depression tips, mom uniform tips, how not to go insane tips, how to sneak chocolate in the bathroom before the kids see and steal it tips. The list goes on! But those are stories for another time.

I will leave this gem of a tip: a mom needs interests. Hear that? A mom needs interests. Something that does not involve the kids. Something that defines you. Being a mom totally defines me. It's what I was put here to do. I love it. But I also love other things. Things like:

• Reading 
• History
• Antiques
• Writing
• Hiking, camping, and anything to do with mountains and forests
• Cooking
• Tattoos
• Fashion
• Classic movies and sitcoms
• Learning crafty skills
• Planning my dream home (Ehh, it's called a dream home for a reason. Sigh.)

See that? That's me. Here you will find stories of our lives, parenting and life hacks, egotism, sarcasm, and truth.

Wait, what?

* Please don't ask me what he does for a living. I don't comprehend military terms.

** Fancy code word for menial daycare worker/diaper changer/nose wiper