Hey everyone! I’ve been talking about starting a random blog/website to showcase our family’s adventures for quite some time now. I finally decided that the longer I wait, the less of our crazy stories I’ll get to share. I used to post a lot on social media for family and friends to keep them updated, but I would like to slowly make the transition here.
I guess I should share a little about our family. I’m Jen, and I’ve been married to Brian for just over 13 years. We have four children together and they range from one to nine years old. The three oldest are girls and the youngest is a boy. Brian and I met while we were both in the military, we’ve been through a few deployments, moved a few times, separated from the military, supported each other through school, and now we’re trying to figure out life with four kids while trying to maintain our own identities (and our sanity). We have our good days, our bad days, and everything between. We’re not perfect, we don’t pretend to be, and we’ve both been pretty close to throwing in the towel.
I just want to make it clear that if you’re here looking for some blogger that’s got their life together and going to give you the top ten life hacks to a happy marriage, you’re in the wrong place. I’m not a “filters” and sugar-coated kind of person, so don’t be surprised when I’m sharing pictures, videos, etc. and they’re not “picture perfect”. I don’t do makeup, I’m pretty plain, and I don’t like to hide real life. I think that people have a jaded outlook on life because way too many people only post about the good times they’re having and they only share the flawless FILTERED pictures that they’ve crafted.
As long as you’re still in the right place, here’s a little more about our family.
Currently, I have chickens, guineas, turkeys, and raised garden beds with veggies and fruit. (Thankfully Brian loves me, so he just smiles, shakes his head at my ridiculous endeavors, and enables me by bringing me home random $1 bargain chickens from the feed store) When I’m in the mood, I also love working out and being active (Keywords – “When I’m in the mood”) I have a Ninja 650 that I love to hop on when I don’t have to lug around the tiny humans. I also love to preserve food, meal-prep, create spreadsheets, edit other people’s writing, organize things, and clean… I seriously have a spreadsheet for my poultry guys, I’m not joking when I say that I love spreadsheets!
Brian loves his cars! He bought an Evo while we were dating and loves to take it to the drag strip. He’s done almost all of the work himself to prep it for the track and he’s managed to get down in the lower 10 seconds on the quarter-mile drag strip. Shortly after we had our third child, he had a roll cage installed and he’s slowly been trying to rebuild it the way he wants it. (Thankfully I also love him because I grew up in my step-dad’s garage and I’m well aware of what those performance parts cost) He likes to occasionally document his car progress on his Instagram page. You can check it out by clicking here or searching for Countryfriedevo on Instagram.
The tiny humans are all completely different! The oldest loves to drawl and keeps talking about how she’d like to create a children’s book. Our second daughter is very active, and would probably be pretty amazing at gymnastics (or any sport really) if we put her in something. Our third daughter is the one that runs circles around us! She’s high-energy, inquisitive, and climbs anything and everything she can get hold of. Of course, our son is a sweetheart, but he’s definitely our “baby”. He seems to throw more fits than any of the other tiny humans did, but he also seems way happier in general than the others did. (Maybe that’s because he’s tiny human number four and we’ve figured out what really matters and what doesn’t)
If you’re interested in keeping up with our completely random shenanigans, be sure to check back for more updates on my What’s up With the Wattenschaidt’s blog.