Let Me Introduce Myself + Other FAQ’s

Some of you have been hopping over to my little corner of the internet for over a year now. Others just wandered in and may be wondering, “Who exactly is this person?”

So let me introduce myself. I’m Lauren. I’m a 35 year old, organization and list lover, mama to two little boys, who spends my summers wandering through my backyard garden and then posting pretty flower pictures. I’m so glad you’re here!

Here are some of the questions I get asked most in blog world and over on Instagram.

Are you a Stay-At-Home Mom?

No – I’m not. I work in public accounting, and I’ve been doing that since I graduated from college. I work for a really large professional services firm that allows me to dial up or dial down my workload to accommodate what I need for home life. At this VERY moment, I’m currently on my maternity leave after having our second little boy, Jonathan Brooks.

But once I go back to work, I work a reduced workload – I change it throughout the year, but it ranges from 80-90% of a full time gig. That way I have more flexibility than Nathan does in his job to do daycare pickups and drop offs, sick days with our little guys, and Fridays off with Harrison (and now both boys!) during the summer, which is our slower time at work.

How did you learn to garden?

This could either be a novel or one sentence. The simplest answer is that I learned to garden from my Mom. She’s had a love of flowers my entire life, which was passed down to her from HER mom (that’s my grandma).

I used to HATE to be drug to the garden center over and over again growing up. I showed about zero interest in gardening most of my childhood and early adulthood. It wasn’t until we bought our house that I really got into gardening. Thankfully my mom didn’t give up on my on the gardening front, and lives in KC as well to give me tips, advice, and be my sounding board for what works in the crazy Kansas weather. It’s not the easiest place to garden!

Where do you shop for little boy clothes?

Most of their clothes are Old Navy, Gap, Gymboree (I was so sad when they went out of business), and Target. But I buy almost all of our kid clothes at a big consignment sale that’s held twice a year here in Kansas City. I love it because I’m buying good quality stuff for 50% of retail value, and not everyone has the exact same shirt because it’s usually things from 2-3 years ago.

What does Nathan (my husband) do for work?

Nathan is in charge of sales at a gift card technology company. Gift card technology, you say. What is that? My easy way of explaining it is that gift cards have lots of rules and regulations that come along with them. There are laws about what companies have to escheat back to the states for unused cards, how much revenue to recognize on a gift card program and when to recognize it, and things like that that you’ve probably never even considered. (You’re not alone, I had never thought about it either before Nathan started working for his company.) His company basically has technology solutions that help companies do all of those things.

Is your hair naturally curly? Or do you curl it every day?

My hair is naturally wavy. And I just work with the waves. If I’m doing curly hair, like the picture above, and how I wear it most often, I usually wash my hair every 3-4 days, and use a mostly “Curly Girl Method” approach to doing my hair. It saves me time, and my hair has never been healthier now that I’m not battling the waves in search for that perfectly straight hair.

I did a post about my current favorite curly girl products HERE.

What’s your favorite flower?

My favorite flower that I grow is peonies hands down. It’s the start of spring officially for me, and time to start gardening!

My favorite flower ever are probably anemones. You may ask: why don’t you grow those?!

I’ve done a little bit of research on them, and starting them seems like a lot to take on. Maybe someday when I have some more time on my hands!

Where do you live?

We live in a suburb of Kansas City called Prairie Village. That’s on the Kansas side of the state line. Nathan and I both grew up in Kansas City. I moved away after high school, but eventually made my way back here after about seven years in first Michigan and then North Carolina. Kansas City, though, has always been ‘home’ in my heart, though.

What did I miss? Anything else you still want to know??

8 thoughts on “Let Me Introduce Myself + Other FAQ’s

  1. Your job hours / flexibility sound perfect! I love that you get Fridays off in the summer. I’ve probably shared this before, but I grew up in KC/Lee’s Summit. (I’m a Missouri girl- hence “show me” in my blog name) and I have family that lives in PVKS! I enjoy reading your blog. I miss when my kids were that little.

    1. It seems like everyone seems to say that this time with really young kids goes so very fast, so I really try my best to savor it and spend as much time as I can with them. Of course, there are the days I can’t wait to put them to bed and be done with the chaos for the day. But we’re all human, right? 😜

      1. Oh yes! I lived (& still live) for bedtime some days 😂😂 I had a tearful moment the other day when I told my husband the kids don’t seem to “need” me like they used to…which is both amazing and terrifying at the same time

  2. This was such a great way to introduce yourself! I am new to your blog, and I love reading it! Your little boys are so cute!! The baby pictures had me saying Aww!! Your backyard is so green! This year my Mom went very overboard with planting things in our backyard since we were on lockdown all summer! I’ve always been jealous of natural curls!! Yours are so, so pretty! Have the best day!
    Abby
    https://thatslifefor-ya.blogspot.com/

    1. Yay! Welcome! It’s so nice to meet you! It sure seems like everyone got a little more into their gardens this past summer with quarantine. 🤣 Do you think you’ll plant as much next year? Or did you all decide it was too much??

      1. I’m not sure! Probably not as much, but we won’t be doing too much this summer so we will definitely be planting some!! We have a lot of elephant ears in our backyard, and now that it is cold they are wilted and mostly gone! It makes our backyard look so empty!! 😂

  3. Oh I just love Peonies! I am not much of a gardener though and I blame that on my mom and my mom’s mom who also never gardened. 🙂

    1. Hahaha. It certainly seems to be passed down through generations of passion for it and knowledge. 😜 Peonies are super easy to grow! You should definitely try your hand at them.

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