Mom 4 Real Update from Jess
Hi there, it’s Jess. You may be wondering where I’ve been for the past two years, or maybe you didn’t notice. Well, I’m here to give you a little update about the blog…what’s happened, what will be happening and a personal update as well.
Let’s start by going back a couple of years. In 2023, I personally hit a wall. As a family, we had lost two of our most beloved family members, my mom was fighting her 3rd battle with cancer, and we had just experienced that lovely pandemic. On top of those things, my husband and I had also become empty nesters. I was trying to catch my breath and learn to live without either of my kiddos under our roof…it was pretty tough.
In the blogging world, things had also gotten a little overwhelming with the addition of TikTok, AI and SEO becoming such a thing…it was just a lot, and I was trying to figure it all out on my own. I felt spread too thin. So, after much discussion with my family, I decided to sell Mom 4 Real and semi-retire. I wanted to find someone that would continue sharing cleaning tips, recipes and budget friendly information the way that I had, but would do a better job than I felt that I was doing. I worked with an agency to find the perfect people, and made the final decision to sell. This was a MASSIVE mistake on my part. Part of the deal that I made with them was that I would stay on part time and guide the ship so to speak, to keep things like they were, just not have to do as much of the heavy lifting. I was very quickly moved out and discarded. I was locked out of being able to do anything and watched like some of you may have while they completely changed the blog and made quite of a mess out of it. It was gut wrenching to watch 12 years of my work go down the toilet. I also had incredible guilt about letting you and all of my readers down. It was really hard to watch. I continued to send the new owners emails and tried to get them to fix things and work with me, but that didn’t work out. Then, two months ago, I decided to reach out one last time and I actually got an answer back. I won’t go into the discussion we had or how it happened, but in a very strange twist of fate, I have now reacquired Mom 4 Real and I am so so so grateful! I’ve felt like part of me was missing the past couple of years and now I feel like my old self again!
With the help of a developer, I have worked hard fixing all of the strange things they did to the blog and have a long list of new ideas, cleaning hacks and recipes to share. I’ve been planning lots of new things, but also reminding myself that I don’t have to be a TikTok creator or an Instagram influencer…I can just share the things I love here on the blog and do it authentically. Get back to the basics as Ina Garten would say. I hope that I can regain your trust and you’ll continue to follow along with me as we discover new and easy ways to clean, cook and create in our homes! I’ve really missed chatting with you, answering questions and sharing all of the things I’ve been doing around my house! That being said, If you would like to jump off of this wagon, I totally understand. You can email me at [email protected] if you have any questions or if you would like to be removed from my mailing list. No hard feelings…I totally get it!
If you’re interested in a personal update, we are all doing great! Matt and I are the most boring empty nesters ever, which is just how we like it! We have been enjoying cooking all kinds of new things lately, sitting on our patio with our dog Paisley, and spending weekends at the lake breathing the fresh country air, taking golf cart rides and watching the deer. I’m turning 50 in a few weeks, and I feel like getting my blog back is just the birthday present I needed!
Our son Cam just got married to his long time girlfriend, Amanda, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to have her join our family! They had the loveliest little wedding in August, and live close by with their dogs, Wrigley and Sophia.
Our daughter Katie just started grad school at the University of Kentucky and is working to become a speech and language pathologist. She graduated from UK last May and grad school started in June, so she’s been a busy bee! She lives close by too with her dog, Lilah Belle. We couldn’t be more proud of our kids!
My mom is cancer free and doing really well, and Matt’s mom is living in Ohio and comes to spend holidays with us…we are so thankful for both of them.
I hope you are all doing well too, and am so happy to share with all of you again!
Blessings to all,
Jess
