Happy Friday everyone!! Not only Friday but another Featured Friday is upon us! I’m super excited to introduce to you today’s Featured Co-Host, Mandi from Messy Wife, Blessed Life. Mandi isn’t a food blogger she’s a Momma writer! She is a 20-something year old Catholic wife and mother. You know how hard I’ve been working on contacting other Momma writers instead of just food bloggers because I think a lot of my readers enjoy talking Motherhood. Welcome Mandi!! I don’t remember how I found her blog but I did and I love it! I don’t know her well but remember I spend the week before poking around reading posts and getting to know these fabulous bloggers and Mandi seems like a sweet, passionate, caring person. She’s real and she is dedicated to being the very best wife and mother that she can possibly be, how can I not love that about her??!!
Mandi has a few series on her blog that I instantly fell in love with. One of them is called Marrying Young. I’m fascinated by this topic because believe me when I tell you I wish I met my husband young. I truly believe in what’s meant to be will be in life and I was made to have the experiences of loving and loosing before I met him however having met him at 27 sometimes makes me sad because we would probably have more children if we had started earlier, but the time we met, married and had our first we were both 31, I’m not saying that’s old, I’m not saying that I can’t have more, we both just turned 35 which is the new 25! However my husband and I look forward to enjoying each other again once are children are raised. Mandi talks about the challenges, both good and bad of marrying younger than others. It’s amazing to me that couples can meet young, go through the changes we all go through as we learn and grow, and use that to strengthen their relationship as a couple. I think it makes them amazing people. Her experience with Living the Unsettled Life was one of my favorite reads, she talks about her experiences of starting her life with her husband early on. I think this post shows just how strong this woman is, me being the “planner” I am and always being the most comfortable being “home” realizes just how hard this would have been for me. Then she has guest posts on Marrying Young. As I read through some of these I was amazed at how these woman wrote (note to self I need work on my writing skills!) One of my favorites was Marriage is Hardly the Ending of Anything. Another blogger who speaks the truth of marriage, the truth of how she got to where she is without sugar coating anything. I have to reach out to Abbey because she has another great blog to feature!
My favorite Series that Mandi blogs about is called What Real Motherhood Looks Like. I NEED to be a part of this series Mandi! I love the way you and Sarah talk about just what Real Motherhood Looks like! Sarah grabs moments of her day and talks about it, my heart is heavy on this one because this is often what my house looks like or how my day goes with raising to kids. It helps me see that it’s OK to have a messy house and dirty cloths and dishes stacking up because if it means I get to spend that time with my toddler and my babe, I’m on it! I fight these feelings everyday because it’s only natural for me to “want to pick up”, “clean”, to have dinner ready and on the table come 5:30. I sometimes have to “make” myself SIT………SIT and color with your baby girl, let the dirty bottles stack up. For the first time since my son was born 5 months ago I had no bottles made to feed him and I had none cleaned!!! Man that felt good! It felt so good I had to text my husband about it because I was proud of myself for just going about my day, enjoying my kids, decorating for the holidays!
Another Series that Mandi runs is called “Baby on a budget”. Topics about having a family and living the very best we can as cheap as we can. A great post I read was called Living on one Income. I can relate. Making sacrifices for our family is something my husband and I have been doing for three years now. Our children’s wants and needs will always come before ours. My husband and I have a A LOT of date nights. However 90% of them are spent at home. Stay tuned we just had Date Night Volume 2 this past weekend! We invite friends over all the time. I love to cook and entertain, so at least once a month we will invite a couple over, they come around 3ish, I make an appetizer, the kids play, I pop dinner in the oven, the kids play some more, we eat, they go home to put their own kids to bed. Its a win win for us, we get great company, our children get to play, we still get time alone after the kids are in bed!
A little more about Ms. Mandi, When she’s not spending time with her family or blogging she enjoys baking (start posting some sweet treats you whip up Momma!) she enjoys craft projects, reading, playing word games, selling Lilla Rose hair accessories or watching The Amazing Race or any show with Gordon Ramsey in it! (LOVE HIM!) You can connect with Mandi via Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest!! Please go check out Mandi’s site and make sure you tell her this Momma sent you! Thank you so much for Co-Hosting with me today Mandi it was a pleasure getting to know you and your beautiful family.
