Blog Post 3: Today Our House Flooded... To say it was a surprise is an understatement. It hadn't rained like this in nearly 30 years in our area. The last time I remember rainfall like this, I was a 14-year-old riding around with my parents, surveying the damage and thinking it was the most exciting thing that had ever happened to our sleepy little town. Twenty-eight years later, I sat watching water slowly creep into our living room, and all I could think was how defeating it felt. The night before, I barely slept. Maybe three hours, if I was lucky, before our cat woke me with an urgent chorus of meows. Once I finally got him settled down, I couldn't fall back asleep. Then came the first clap of thunder. By 4:15 a.m., the rain was coming down in sheets, and my phone blared with the first of many emergency alerts. Tornado Warning. Not a watch. Not a "conditions are favorable." A warning. Somewhere nearby, the atmosphere had decided today was the day to try and spin it...

5 Things About Me When you start reading a blog, it’s nice to know the person behind the words. So I figured I’d share five things about me that pretty much sum up who I am. 1. I'm a wife and mother. I have a pretty badass husband who geeks out over all the same things I do. Whether it's hobbies, movies, dinner, the weather, or some random rabbit hole we stumbled into, we're usually on the same wavelength. We're very much a Gen X/Xennial couple. Most evenings you'll find us exactly where we like to be: at home. I'll be working on one of my many hobbies while he's gaming or tinkering away in his office, always within earshot so we can carry on a conversation from different rooms. Together we've raised two beautiful daughters. I still call them my baby girls, even though they're teenagers now. Our oldest, Ruth, is 17 and has always been an old soul. Her counterpart, Inky, is 14 going on 40. Ruth is the tornado—controlled chaos. Inky is the hurricane—ev...

  Hi! My name is Wren. I've wanted to start a blog for years, but I didn't feel I had anything worth writing about. Every so often, though, a topic would cross my mind and I'd think, Man, someone could definitely relate to that! Living with multiple chronic autoimmune illnesses, I often wished there were a place where I could share the day-to-day realities of my quirky habits. Maybe someone else in my position could find a little relief in knowing they're not the only one living this way. Deep down, I want to find a purpose in the pain. I want to help others feel a little better, because every day can be such a struggle. Knowing there are others out there with similar thoughts and experiences is a comfort, and I hope this little corner of the internet can become that comfort for someone else. So, like many people these days, I jumped on ChatGPT. I named my AI "Jinx." Jinx is a girl, apparently married, and loves a lot of the same things I do. Don't worry—I...