Tag: introductions

Posted in Motivation Monday

Introduction to “Motivation Mondays”

Posted on by Babz

Welcome to our introduction series! This is where I’ll fill you in on the background stories of each section of the blog – how they came to be, what I hope they hold, and why the subject is so important to me.

For the first post in this series, we’ll be discussing Motivation Mondays.

What is Motivation Monday?

Motivation Monday is the one day per week that I dedicate simply to getting motivated. Motivation is something that I’ve always struggled with, and I knew when going into this blog that one of my big goals was to be inspirational and motivational for other parents in unconventional family structures. It can be really isolating for us, as most parenting blogs focus around “mom” and “dad,” with a few out there focusing on two moms or two dads. In all my searching, I had yet to find a blog dedicated to a three-mom family.

(For those of you who are new here, no, I am not part of a throuple. My wife and I [“aunties”] co-parent our two children with their biological mother.)

Motivation Monday is a place for me to share those heart-wrenching and heart-warming family stories, the ones that make me so happy that I decided to do this. It’s hard AF to manage a family when you already feel judged by your community, ostracized from the kids’ birth family, and at the end of your rope with the day-to-day routine. Trust me, I know! So if my stories can bring a little bit of light to a dark and emotional experience… I’m happy to share them. And I want to hear yours, too — never be afraid to chime in on one of our posts!

Why should motivation get its own day?

Motivation Monday was actually one of the first theme days I came up with for the blog (after Type A Tuesday, of course!). Dedicating an entire day every week to motivation has been a game-changer. Being able to tell myself that Monday is the day I gather strength for the rest of the week already makes it a little motivational so I’m in the right head space to make great things happen.

What motivates me most in my life?

I’d like to say that I have a long list of things that motivate me. I’d like to, but unfortunately I’ve never been a very good liar. Honestly, the thing that helps me power through every hard “today”? Knowing that there will be an easier “today” eventually. I might not always know when that better day is coming, but looking back it gets easier to see it.

As much as I’d also like to say that I have a life separate from these kids, I’d be remiss if I pretended that they weren’t the biggest features in my life right now. When so much of my schedule revolves around the kids, it’s only natural that the kids themselves would be a huge motivation for me. If I can raise them to be emotionally-responsible and intelligent little human beings, I’ve done the hardest job ever to the best of my ability, and that’s definitely something to look forward to.

Posted in Thankful Thursday

Come meet our family! (Again)

Posted on by Babz

Hi, and welcome to Semi-Planned Chaos! This isn’t the first time I’ve tried to start a blog (this blog) for our family, but hopefully this time it’ll work out a little better than the previous iteration did. With any luck, we’ll develop a small-but-loyal following of other “unconventional families” who don’t really see themselves reflected in other family blogs. All too often, bloggers try to create this artificial life that — while beautiful — isn’t realistic. We don’t want to be that kind of blogging family (and we hope that our readers will let us know if we’re veering off in that direction).

For starters, let’s take a minute to introduce each of the chaos-creators. After all, this is our first post — we don’t know each other yet!

Mama Dragon

Babz/Mama Dragon: That’s me! I’m the primary content-creator for this blog. Before I went on hiatus to take care of our little family, I was a full-time product description and web content creator. A few times I dipped my toes into fiction-writing territory, but blogs were always where my heart returned. Truthfully, I’ve been blogging since before blogging was even called blogging… But that’s another story entirely.

I am definitely the planner of the family. At any given time, I’ve probably got at least two or three calendars going, for various activities. Planning ahead is life and it’s sometimes the only thing that keeps my sanity nearby. I’ve also been working on mastering some easy, reasonably-healthy recipes for our family — so far it’s going pretty great! I’ll share my planner tips, tricks, and hacks with you, as well as the occasional recipe to make your weeknights even better.

Mama Zombie (and Baby Dragon)

Bre/Mama Zombie: That’s my lovely wife. She couldn’t have possibly come into my life at a better time, and I don’t know where I’d be today if I didn’t have her. She supported me through every phase of my writing career, and continues to support me during my indefinite-hiatus. She works full-time as a casino security guard and spends most of her free time sleeping or hanging out with her family.

In our family, Bre is the doer. Day in and day out, she steps up and does the things that our family needs her to do, even when she’s not feeling completely up to it. She doesn’t waste time planning the day-to-day details because she’s got a bigger picture in mind, and she knows that together we can make our dreams a reality.

The Unicorn

The Unicorn: Angsty, rebellious preteen – check. Sweet kid who’s just a wee bit lazy sometimes – also check. Our Unicorn is a one-in-a-million kid who usually thinks of others first, and mostly makes smart choices. Of course, she’s ten, so smart choices can be in short supply on occasion.

Although the Unicorn is the older of the two children, we actually got her after her sister. Getting caught up in school has been a tremendous challenge for her, and after a lot of hard work and dedication, she is almost back on track in school. We’ll work to share some tips for getting unmotivated kids… Well, motivated!… as soon as we get all caught up on everything else we need to do. 😉

Baby Dragon

The Baby Dragon: Baby Dragon has been with us since she was an actual baby, but now she’s four and ready to take over the world. She excels at finding loopholes, negotiating, and getting by on less sleep than everyone else in the family. She has an obsession with ocean documentaries and is currently in love with JoJo Siwa and all things associated.

Baby Dragon is currently enrolled in preschool, and it has been life-changing for us. We still don’t have too much time around school hours (in part because of the state preschool requirements that parents and guardians must participate in the classroom at least two days a month, and in part because her program is only 3 hours a day). In the time we do have, we tend to look for brain-boosting activities. We’ll try to share some of those with you guys as time allows.

Now that you’ve (virtually) met the family, why not stop in and say hello? Our comment section is always open, and we’re always looking forward to meeting new people. Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you’re most excited to read about on our blog!