I’m Roxanne, and I’m so happy you found us!

Let me tell you a little about me.

I’m a wife, a mom of 2, and typically a mess. I’m also a book hoarder, an old-lady wannabe with my love of knitting and crocheting, a chronic Debbie Downer, and yet also a homesteading hopeful. What I mean by that last one is that we currently live in the suburbs, but our dream life consists of as many acres as we can get, with barns, livestock, a “back 40” with which to feed said livestock, the whole 9 yards, basically, of having a “mini” farm (in scale, not in acreage)!

But there’s been one major hiccup along the way to that dream life – my husband had cancer a few years ago.

In February 2017, when our daughter was born, my husband was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. And when I say “when” our daughter was born, I mean that literally. I was in the maternity ward, grunting through contractions while my husband was across the hospital in the ICU undergoing tons of tests to find out what he was sick with (he’s tough, and had insisted it was just a “bad sinus infection”). We welcomed our baby girl at 10:35 that morning and he told me his diagnosis at about 4:00 that afternoon. Ever since then, I’ll admit that a lot of things have fallen apart, to an extent. Our budgeting, our chore completion, our yard, our sanity, and our emotions too.

When they say cancer affects everything, and that it lingers long after it’s gone…they’re right. 

Despite everything we’ve gone through — 9 months of chemo with only a 20-30% survival rate…dealing with disability pay and job loss…a miraculous complete remission…a bone marrow transplant as a sort of “insurance policy”…a medication interaction that nearly caused kidney failure (and 1.5 years of kidney meds later it’s still a problem) — somehow, we still haven’t lost sight of our dreams.

A lot of people give up too easily, ya know? I mean, sure, we’ve had plenty of ups and downs in our life (like an apartment fire within our first year of marriage!), but we’ve never let go of the dream of farm life. Of a nice, quiet, simple life.

I know we aren’t the only ones to crave a sort of “old-fashioned” life, with peace and quiet and no worries about how many social media likes you got yesterday; without feeling the pressures of society trying to make you just like everyone else, trying to make you, too, be one of those parents that gives middle schoolers cell phones.

I’ll sum us up in a few words:  our goal in life is to raise our own food, raise good kids, and do it with plenty of space and a little dirt involved on both accounts.

So why is this relevant?

Our house is chaos on a daily basis – projects started and unfinished, chores that could really use a little extra attention, dishes staring me down from across the room. I don’t pretend to be some know-it-all, expert, or perfect role model. I think I’m just fumbling through life with that “fake it ’til you make it” mentality sometimes! But I know I’m not the only one out there.

I know all too well what it’s like to not have it all together. I’ve experienced depression from the harsh reality of not meeting my own expectations for myself and anxiety from the earthquake of the cancer diagnosis for my husband, but I’ve also felt the unparalleled joy found in seeing my kids grow and learn (when I’m not at wits end and frustrated by then, that is).

But through years of time, effort, and soul-searching, I know I’m on the right path to be who I’ve always dreamed I’d be.

My biggest passion is helping others find their path in life — the right path to who they’ve always dreamed they’ll be.

I don’t want you to keep sitting around making excuses as to why you’re not living your better days, today. I don’t want you to feel like the world is against you (I know that feeling all too well myself).

I don’t want you to stop fighting for who YOU want to be. 

So let’s find a way, together, to build the simple lives we dream of. Let’s figure out how to simplify life, get our time and sanity back, get our financial lives in order, and then flourish once we realize that there is nothing standing in our way but ourselves.

Let’s be different, changed, so that people look at us and say “wow, she’s something else” in a good way — so they look up to us as people who not only made our dreams come true, but have helped others do the same along the way, and we inspire them to do the same.

Let’s build a village, where we can share our struggles as well as our triumphs, our joys as well as our pain. Where we can applaud each other for surpassing obstacles, and where we know we can find the handholds we need to help us when we need a boost. Where we can accomplish something to be proud of, in spite of it all, together.

Each and every one of you is important to me, and each and every one of you are family. Someday, we’ll all have it all together, but that might have to wait for another time. Someday, we’ll wake up and say “I don’t want anything more.”

For today, let’s just learn to live in the moment, work hard, and build up our “better days,” right before our eyes.