YOU GUYS…

It is mid-August. What? Memaw wasn’t lying when she said the older you get the faster time goes. She was right about EVERY thing. Especially Procter & Gamble.

I left off with you in JANUARY. That was literally last week in my mind. Let me fill you in…

Back in January I had just acquired the knowledge that I was going to need a pretty major surgery come May. I had to sit with it for a long time before I shared it with any one outside of my close knit circle (I.E. 5 people). I’ll go into more detail in a dedicated post but short story short… after Maebry was born I developed a pretty huge dehiscence. I didn’t even know what that word meant this time last year, so it definitely threw me for a huge loop. I basically lived with a football size hernia from January – May. Not cute. I named her Hilda. Was not sad to see her go. I spent most of the year mentally preparing for surgery and being sad that I physically couldn’t do much. No lifting, no strenuous any thing really. It was a major bummer and it affected my whole little (bigger than average) family. I couldn’t have made it (literally) without Jesus, Jonathan & my parents + a couple of friends that were in the know. All of their prayers carried me through. Forever grateful for my people. May came. Hilda was forever vanquished and true healing began. It was a painful and long recovery. I finally turned the corner somewhere between week seven and nine. Praise HIM. I can honestly say I am better than I’ve ever been and so extremely thankful to have that all behind me. I sat down so many times to blog/journal about it and just couldn’t do it. It was too personal. Now with a little time, I can finally talk about it with a better headspace and outlook on the whole situation. Let’s move on shall we? Recovery lasted through late June so we will pick this update up in JULY.

Sweet July. Balm to our little (big) family’s soul. We kicked off the month with revival at the church JKM pastors. A week we all look forward to all year long. This was our fourth revival and every single year has been wonderful. This year though, shew, the Lord SHOWED OUT. We had FIVE precious souls saved and JKM had the privilege to baptize SEVEN. IT WAS SO GOOD. Jonathan and I both have always wished we could’ve experienced an ole timey revival and this year I feel like we got a small taste of what it use to be like and IT WAS AMAZING. The whole week was one none of the Martin Six will soon forget. We loved being with the men who helped and their families SO very much. Just a really reviving and lovely week all around. Already looking forward to next year!

July also brought an unexpected litter of puppies & my thirty-fifth birthday. Again.. I was JUST twenty-seven THANK YOU. Maebry said her first two words “DaDa” and “BYE!” We also had a brand new baby boy join our friendfam.

August has been good to us so far! We started our FIFTH year of homeschool. What a great and unexpected blessing it has been. We hired our second ever babysitter (first ever since having four). We left the three boys for a few hours and had the best time. Already have a few more date nights planned too! Maebry attended Sunday School for the very first time and I was officially cleared by my surgeon for no more follow ups!

Of course there have been a lot of things that have happened on the daily since January that I wish I would’ve documented. Not to sound like a broken record, but I truly do love blogging and enjoy so much looking back on my life during different seasons. I am really hoping to make daily updates a thing, as well as to talk about specific topics that cross my mind and are on my heart. I’m not even sure if anyone ever even sees these posts but I sure do love making them.

Until next time,

❤ Hannah

Happy Thursday folks!

Felt so good to hit that publish button yesterday. Can’t wait to do it again today!

Like I was saying yesterday… I am really just so excited for 2024. I always look forward to a new year and fresh slate. This year is no different other than my excitement level is much higher than the past couple of years. Determined to make 2024 just wonderful. Here’s how I plan on doing it…

Before I get into my list, some of these things are nonnegtotaibles (*), others are just things I want to form habits with or maybe just do a little better than I have previously.. Here we GO.

1. Reading my bible + more intentional prayer time.* Last year my reading plan was one chapter a day. This year I am trying out the Bible Recap (so far, I like). I’m also making a prayer list every morning when I complete my reading and making/taking the time to earnestly pray. I feel like I’m pretty good at praying at random times throughout the day and before meals. Just conversationally, but I want to do better about journaling my prayers. I think it will be really nice to look back on.
   
2. Drinking more water & less everything else.* Coffee is something I look to every single day so I don’t plan on changing that (I am switching out sugar for honey/maple syrup). I am however going to stop buying diet drinks/other drinks and only enjoy them when we’re dining out (which will be very rarely, more on that in a minute).
   
3. Weight-loss.* I know I am only two months postpartum so I am not rushing this one but I am being more intentional about what I am eating. More nourishing, way way less processed, and making sure I am eating enough and consistently throughout the day. I’ve been known to skip breakfast or lunch and that’s not something I want to continue. Weight loss can sometimes be a secondary effect of these things but for my health (and longevity) it is important that I do lose some weight.
   
4. Limiting social media. I deleted my instagram at the end of 2023 and I can’t put into words how much peace it has brought into my life. I don’t have any plans to ever return to Insta but I did create a new Facebook for the sole purpose of having access to Marketplace. I don’t and won’t have the app on my phone. Setting boundaries to prevent mindless scrolling!
   
5. Limiting dining out. For many reasons this is a thing this year. 1. its so expensive for our family size. 2. We want to spend money in much cooler ways. 3. We want to save money for much cooler things. 4. I love cooking and just got some very neat new cookbooks that I can’t wait to use. 5. I love Costco & Sam’s and would rather buy in bulk than go out to eat. 😉
   
6. Blogging consistently. I absolutely love to write. It’s honestly one of the only outlets I have time for in this season of life. I love looking back at things I’ve written and want to have more things to look back on in the future. I mentioned yesterday how vlogging has always appealed to me but I do not have time to learn all the things that go along with it. Maybe one day, but for now I really want to focus on this little blog here. Right now, I plan to do daily recaps, post recipes we love, new products we have tried and love, as well as thoughts and feelings of life events and of course whatever else pops into my head.
   
7. Reading. Since I’ve given up my scrolling habit I will be replacing it with reading. Like writing, I love to read. Mindless books mostly and please don’t put me down for nonfiction, horror or romance. Thank you. I love a good suspenseful thriller though.
   
8. DECLUTTER & ORGANIZE.** Without getting too much into it, 2023 was a LOT for me and mine. We survived but this year I truly want to thrive. Girl pregnancy was much harder than boy pregnancy for me. Not to speak in to general of terms but it seems to be the case for most ladies. I couldn’t do much for 9 months + recovery so needless to say I am READY to go. My house didn’t completely go to shambles thanks to my wonderful hubs but I really want to get it back to where I can manage it more smoothly and efficiently. We currently have a dumpster in the yard and have cleaned out a good bit but we still have a ways to go. I don’t dread it though. I seriously feel lighter with every single thing that leaves our house. We are just tossing everything in the dumpster, I am also taking carloads to donate! Onward and upward!

I am sure there are more things but those are the main ones for now. I reserve the right to add to this list though. 😉

Talk soon!

Hannah

Bluey anyone?

Hey Friend! So remember that time like a year ago (in a few days) that I consistently blogged for a bit? Yeah. Well… guess who fell back off the wagon? Itsa me. I did. BUT for a really good reason….

Are you ready???

We had a whole nother baby last year! And guess what else? SHES A GIRL! That’s right. After three precious, loving, loud, hilarious, WWE recreating on the daily boys we added a girl to our family! We are almost two full months in and we still can’t believe it.

Here she is…

Maebry Craven joined our family on November 5. Our biggest baby at 9lbs. 14oz. Thank you Lord for modern medicine and a successful fourth c-section. We’ve had a few bumps but we are still standing and not just standing but moving forward daily. One day I will write out her whole birth story because it is a true testimony to how good God has been to me and our (not so) little family. AND all the specific prayers that were answered. We are absolutely smitten with this punkin girl. She is the sweetest and calmest baby. She’s an excellent sleeper (like has been consistently sleeping through the night since three weeks old. What? Never experienced that before) and eater. I will be doing monthly updates going forward. ❤

What have we been up to since I last posted? A lot of the same ole same ole. JKM is still pastoring the sweetest church. We are still homeschooling and doing guitar. Hoping we are about to enter our “thriving not just surviving” era

2023 was a hard but beautiful year and we all welcomed 2024 with open hands. We can’t wait to see what the Lord has in store for us.

My goal for this year is to be more attentive to my family and home. Decluttering/minimalism is still at the forefront of my mind and we are making great strides. There is actually a dumpster in my front yard right now. Sometimes I have zero chill. This is one of those times.

I also want to get back to eating the way that makes me feel the best. Between pregnancy and postpartum the wheels kind of fell off the proverbial nutrition wagon. It’s time to get back to the basics. I’ve tried a lot of things and I definitely believe that limiting sugar, processed food, convenience/fast food, etc. makes me feel the very best. Also, drinking more water is on the agenda. I couldn’t get enough when I was pregnant.. now it’s a struggle. I will be victorious though. I have to be.

Limiting social media + blogging more (and consistently) is also a HUGE intention of mine.

Really looking forward to 2024. Even years tend to be the best years so hoping that trend continues.

We have several camping trips and a beach trip tentatively planned. We all really love and enjoy camping so we are very much excited to get back to it. We didn’t make it to the beach last year, so hopefully we can pull it off this year.

Can’t wait to blog this year. I love looking back on years gone by. I truly wish I could vlog BUT with the consistent noise level in my home I don’t think it’s the best time. All (mostly) happy noises though. Thank you, Lord.

Talk soon!

Hannah

Another day, a consecutive blog post? Internally, I’m telling myself, “be cool. be cool. don’t make a big deal about it.” I tend to get a little squirrely when I’m on a roll. Two consecutive days of something is DEFINITELY a roll for me, okay?

How was your monday? Ours was pretty fab!

Once all the fellas were up we knocked out homeschool. Seriously, very thankful for it being fun again. Not to beat a dead horse, but also we all needed it to be fun again. After school time every body played well-ish together and then we had lunch. The babiest boy went down for a nap and the bigs enjoyed some rare screen time. It was a very peaceful two hours. When CGM woke up we headed out to my parents to drop off some sourdough starter for my mama to take to one of her coworkers whom I think is just precious. We picked the boys some dinner up, since JKM wasn’t going to be home until bedtime. Once home and full we got to cleaning since we are having our friends over today! We knocked it out pretty quickly, this could change in the next sixty seconds but while it’s accurate I want to put it in writing. I feel like my bigger boys have finally gotten to the point where they really get that working as a team instead of trying to WWE each other while doing tasks actually makes things go faster. The bookend boys played with some Christmas gifts while the middle one enjoyed iPad time.

(this sink from Walmart (their toy brand) is a HUGE hit. 2/3 LOVE it.)

Daddy got home after we finished reading and every body was able to tell him about their day and wish him a “sleep sweet” so bedtime went well also. Honestly, golden stars all around. I think the excitement of buddies coming over today was another big motivator.

I started a new book and deleted my social media apps off my phone before calling it a night. I really REALLY need to take a huge step back when it comes to scrolling. I am a master justifier and any time I am on a kick ( currently : decluttering/minimalism ) I use that as an excuse for extra media time in the name of research. No more. I also, as a thirty-three year old with responsibilities, need to go to bed at a reasonable time. Again, being with my kids 24/7, I justify staying up entirely too late so I can have time alone. Well, jokes on my night owl self because I’m flipping that narrative to waking up too early! I eventually want to get up at 4:30am but will probably start waking around 6am. Tomorrow is the day. Hold me accountable, okay?

SUGAR FAST UPDATE : I did very well all day. I realized AFTER I had partaken in a fortune cookie that I had messed up. Treating it like whole30 / 75hard and restarting today!

Have lots of thoughts swirling around so I may come back later and lay em out or I may just save it for tomorrow..

Was that mysterious? JK. I am many things but mysterious isn’t one.

Talk tomorrow? Later today? Soon!

Because of His Grace,

Hannah

Another weekend has come and gone… while it wasn’t anything special it sure was a good one!

My favorite days of the week are Mondays, Thursdays & Sundays.

Mondays are especially good because I’m a real big fan of a fresh start/clean slate.

Today is an extra special Monday because I am doing something wild and crazy. Today is day one of my 40 day sugar fast. Watch out! I am actually pretty excited about this challenge and real thankful for Wendy Speake and her God given wisdom and inspiration to write the book. I will FOR SURE be keeping myself accountable by doing daily/every couple of days check-ins here!

I am also really looking forward to another week of homeschool. Those words SURELY would not have come out of my mouth even last month. I have been on the struggle bus with our homeschool life but after some prayer, self reflection & a change of curriculum (Masterbooks is superior in our house), we are back in business! We used Masterbooks last year for Math and loved it. Then I decided that using something that worked made little sense when there HAD to be something better out there (story of my life) changed to the good & the beautiful. While TGATB is absolutely beautiful, it just wasn’t the right fit for me and mine.

We are hosting are monthly BBC+P (boys book club + little sister) presentation day here tomorrow and I AM PUMPED. I love having people over to our house and have finally given up on waiting until our home is *just right* to host. The Lord has really shown me that people care very little about our 1970’s brick ranch aesthetic and way more about how I make them feel while here. Thank you, Lord.

That’s the highlights for our upcoming week. I really do enjoy this blogging thing, so I’m gonna try real hard to see ya back here tomorrow!

Because of His grace,

Hannah

P.S. I’ll leave you with the cheese-in-ist baby around these parts. Also, I know he’s two but FOREVER the baby. Just ask him…

P.S.S. Christmas jams are a year round thing round these parts.

Can you even believe it’s 2023? Me neither!

Time just keeps on swiftly moving on…

How do you handle the new year? In the past I haven’t handled it well, honestly. Ive made too many resolutions that I haven’t kept. Or forgotten what I committed too. OR fallen and completely given up. This year though, I’ve decided to just improve in general. There are a few areas, I really crave change and hope I can do better than I did yesterday. For me these areas are…

+ Our home. Being a better gatekeeper. Decluttering like my kids think they’re next 😉 Cooking more. Having less to clean. Hosting more. More game nights. More movie nights. More homemade goodies. Less eating out.

+ My health. MORE consistent sleep. I am a night owl by nature. This year I want to rise and bed down earlier. Quit my habit of sugar. It’s real bad y’all. More water. Move my body. The usual.

+ Homeschool. Follow the boys interest more and enjoy it more than last year. Ruts are real, ya’ll. More field trips. More park days. More library time and NO LATE FEES.

+ Travel. CAMP MORE.

+ Books. My goal in 2022 was to read 36 books. I closed out the year at 57 books. Shooting for 72 this year!

+ Blogging. Become much more consistent. Write about what I like, am learning & enjoy.

+ Debt Freedom : Get it GONE!

These are really just guidelines. I hope they change as I get better at certain things or realize they just aren’t attainable in this season of life (read : yet).

What are you feeling going in to 2023? Hopeful? Dreadful? I want to know!

Peace & Blessings,

Hannah

Hey! Hello! Hi!

WHAT A WEEKEND. It was SUCH a good one!

Friday : JKM and I dropped all three boys off at my in-laws and headed to our married bible studies overnight meeting. Sounds a tad sketchy when I say it out loud but it was such a fun time! There were many laughs, tears and good stories shared. We love our group and are so thankful for their friendship and support.

Saturday : Around lunch we went and picked up our fellas. It was Cason’s first overnight with Jonathan’s parents and he did SO well. He even slept late! After we picked the boys home we rushed home and got ready to go to JKM’s baby cousins wedding. He is the last of the grandkids to get married on Jonathan’s side. It was a beautiful wedding! We left after the ceremony and took the boys to dinner in downtown Cleveland, Ga. I would absolutely love to live there one day! They have THE BEST Ingles. It’s truly a dream.

Sunday / Today : Branson & Jonathan went on their breakfast date. (JKM has started taking one of the older boys out every Sunday. They alternate weeks and have had the best time. Both have truly been enjoying the one – on – one time and so has Daddy). I had full intentions of all of us going to church this morning. Sunday School + service but the baby woke up kind of rattly sounding so we decided I would just keep all the boys home. Jonathan went to service. I am SO sad I missed it because some of my favorite people came to visit. They just had a new sweet baby boy and I would’ve loved some snugs. After JKM got home we worked on cleaning up (and out) our den / man cave / play room. We made great progress! We were hoping for a super early bedtime but of our sweet boys ended up throwing up right after dinner. Thankfully, he has not been sick for a while now so I think it might be safe to head to bed!

The plan for this week :

Monday : homeschool / grocery pick up / library drop off for a book I thought was surely lost / donations drop off / some house cleaning & JKMs brother & sisterinlaw are coming over for dinner.

Tuesday : homeschool & womens circle (ladies group at our church).

Wednesday : homeschool

Thursday : homeschool & church.

I dont know what the next weekend will look like. We’ve talked about going to stay at the hunting land but time will tell!

What’s on your agenda this week?

Talk soon!

Peace & Blessings,

Hannah

Every time I listen to the Dave Ramsey show I always love to hear how he responds to callers when they ask how he’s doing. His response is always the same, “better than I deserve.”

Dave Ramsey has been on my radar since Mason was a baby, so 8ish years. We were so gung-ho when we first started reading his books and then we ended up selling our home and paying off all of our credit card debt with that. Let me start at the beginning and bring you up to speed with our past & present.

Jonathan and I started our marriage with debt. A credit card with a pretty big balance and a car payment. We were both working at the time but we were not saving anything. JKM’s paycheck covered all of our bills and mine basically went to eating out and frivolous spending. The sad part isn’t that we were burning through my checks but we were also running up another credit card AND I decided at the same time my paid for car wasn’t good enough, so we took on another car payment. On paper we could afford all these new things, the new car payment, the credit card minimum payment and eating out ALL the time. We hardly ever grocery shopped and even when we did we still chose eating out over staying in. We developed more bad habits with our money than good ones.

It wasn’t until I got pregnant with Mason and we realized in order for me to come home (which was always the plan, even though we were never preparing for it financially) that our spending habits would have to change. I remember pinteresting debt freedom plans because I had no idea how to even begin digging out of the hole we found ourselves in. We had never even had a budget. Not once, had I written down what our bills were, I dont even think I knew exactly how much we were making. Sad times, friends.

Once I finally realized we needed to start with a budget and to find out exactly where our money was going, I felt better and worse. I could NOT believe how much we were spending on eating out and just junk. We were the definition of keeping up with the Joneses’

I came home in January before Mason was born in April and we went ALL in on living within our means. It was then that I developed a plan to start paying off debt and sticking to a budget. We hadn’t yet learned of Dave Ramsey’s ways so we were just doing the best we could with what we knew. When I came home we had three consumer debts. A credit card and two car payments. We were able to pay off Jonathan’s truck within the first year but we were still dealing with the other two debts. We kept chipping away at them but on a limited income it was mostly just paying the minimum payment more times than not. This continued until after we brought our Branny bear home from the hospital. When MKM was almost three and B was two months we made the decision to move.

It all happened so quickly, we had talked about listing our house before but never got around to it. Superbowl Sunday of 2017 we mentioned it to a good friend, who mentioned it to his uncle who happened to live in our neighborhood. He and his family came and looked at it and that Wednesday they told us they wanted it. We had a lot of DIY projects going on and he told us to halt them that they would finish them. Such a blessing.

We had heard whispers that one of Jonathans extended family members was looking at moving into a retirement home. The rumors were true, he was looking to sale a brick ranch on a few acres and that had always been or dream but never something we thought could actually happen. After a lot of back and forth he agreed to sell to us for a good price on one condition… We had to clean the house out and accept it “as is.” That phrase will forever haunt me. We were young and not well versed on what repairs would cost. The house was like something you would see on hoarders. Not even exaggerating. He had been widowed for a while and had completely let the house go. It was ROUGH. Before we even closed we got to work cleaning out. JKM’s family helped us clean out and we finally could see the bare bones. It needed floors and paint most of all, so thats what we did.

We closed on our old house a month before we closed on our new house. We were able to pay off a credit card that had been haunting us for years and cash flow new floors and all repairs needed on the new house.

After we were settled in we only had a car payment & our mortgage. We weren’t in our house long before we realized we desperately needed new windows. We were out of cash so we financed them. We carried three debts for 2.5 years before paying off the windows.

From 2020 until present day we have carried and paid off several debts. A credit card, camper, car & personal loan are our current debts. We have been working so hard towards paying down our debt to truly reach our dreams of starting a business. We are fully back on the Dave Ramsey train and have already completed baby step 1. We are currently on baby step 2.

Follow along with us as we reach our dreams!

Peace & Blessings,

Hannah

September and October were so good to us. REALLY hoping November continues with that grace.

We are currently on day three and only have praises to sing. The weather has been absolutey beautiful. We had the good fortune of having a playdate with Mason’s bff yesterday. All the boys had fun just being outside. Once we got home from the park we cleaned up around the outside of our house which was much needed. I’m really trying to focus on “care creates contentment.”

This month we will celebrate Branson & Cason’s birthdays and I cant believe we are about to have a SIX and TWO year old. I really need to stop blinking. We also have multiple family members who have birthday this month including my sweet mama & JKM’s brother.

We hope to spend Thanksgiving Day (B’s birthday) at our hunting land and then leave a few days later to go to Pigeon Forge. Our happy place. We are all looking forward to a little time away.

JKM and I are currently working towards debt freedom. We have already put a nice chunk of change towards our credit card debt this month and I am hoping to keep that going. I’ll do a whole post after this about how we are planning to get out of all consumer debt. 🙂

I am really trying to get rid of as much as I can before the new year. We have made so much progress since 2019 but have slowed down since 2020. I have realized how much keeping a minimal home keeps me sane and just want to do so much better with not having excess.

Jonathan and I did a food allergy test over a year ago and mine came back saying I should avoid dairy and gluten along with several other foods. The other foods it mentioned have been easy to avoid beccause I dont like them. HA. I havent stayed away from gluten or dairy and I think its finally catching up with me. This month, I really hope to find the strength to cut them out to see what changes I will see to my mood and body.

I think that is all for now! I will update at the end of the month with how we are doing with these goals. I really enjoy daily blogging so I am going to get back to that this month!

I hope today finds you well & at peace.

Talk soon!

peace & hair grease,

Hannah