Hello, my butterflies and knights. I suppose that opening alone makes you wonder why I’m calling you that. I will explain that later…I promise. It is one of my favorite stories to tell.

So why this blog? I’m here because my life completely changed. To be honest, I’ve been struggling with all the changes. I went from chatting with loads of people daily to not seeing anyone but my family. From working crazy hours, to not working a job at all. I went through a divorce, lost my dad, got remarried, adopted two children, and got diagnosed with a really rare syndrome that flipped my life upside down all within the past 4 years. I find myself longing to speak with someone about my days, sharing a new thing I’m trying, brag about my kiddos and just find a way to connect with the world again.

There is always apprehension in sharing yourself on the world wide web. You open yourself to trolls and critics, but my hope is that this blog helps you not to feel alone, will give you ideas to try if you too deal with chronic illness, find my tribe that gets me and I get them.

I have a total of 8 children: 2 stepkids, 2 adopted children, and 4 biological from my first marriage. Three still live with me and 2 of my older children live in the apartment downstairs of our home. I’m American and my husband is from England (yes, I am still in love with the accent and could listen to him talk forever). We have two dogs and four cats, one of who is my companion and sweetest most perfect cat ever: my mainecoon named Viggo. I want more animals, but we are going at my husbands place which is slower then mine. Then it happened, the little kitten that was found on the road and belongs to my precious Lily, got pregnant before we could get her fixed. I’m not upset about this because kittens are the cutest little creatures on our planet. My husband and I have already had arguments about keeping one or two or more. I’m thinking keep all, while he is at keep none, so we will see where compromise lands. Ha!

We just did a big move from Florida to South Carolina about a year and a half ago and we are in love with where we live. The pace of life is much slower. I absolutely adore the changes of the seasons. I haven’t had that in over twenty years since my teen years in Alaska (my dad was quite adventurous). I love all the little farm markets with fresh produce from local farmers. I started my own garden last year which did not go so well due to some health issues, but this year we are in a much better place, and I have shrunk my list of what I’m going to grow by a lot, but I’ll share more about my garden later (good or bad). I also now live close to my sister and her family and my mother. Truly if I didn’t have family here, and with all my health issues, I would be a hermit, but more on that later as well.

So, I’ll sign off for now, knowing that I have just started a place to share my life, my emotions, my feelings. AH! What have I done? Ha! My goal is that eventually this reaches who it needs to, and ultimately helps me with my health and mental health. I hope that my content I choose to share reaches who it needs to and along the way, I look forward to finding my tribe who gets where I am, and I can get where you might be.

For now…. keep looking for your wings, and soar my butterflies. ~~Michelle