Me? Miss July? Oh, you shouldn’t have!

I am flattered to be chosen to represent the Arkansas blogosphere for a month. I appreciate every one of you for welcoming me and making me feel like my voice is one worth hearing.

I suppose I’ll adjust my tiara and take it from the top. Hi! My name is Jessica and I write about adventures in motherhood at Life With the Bauer Bunch. My husband Jonathan and I celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary in June and in a decade we’ve collected memories and lessons, two sons and one daughter. Those are the basics, but I’ll dig a bit deeper.

Long ago in a faraway land {Conway}, I snagged my first professional job as a staff writer for the local newspaper. I burned the midnight oil covering government meetings and late-breaking news, then sat in a dark newsroom to get the city’s stories told. While the hours weren’t a great match for the family we were starting, it was a dream come true. I was getting paid to write.

After trying to prove myself for a few years, I was asked to begin a weekly column on the topic of my choosing. I chose motherhood. I wanted to encourage, inspire, and relate to my readers. This was long before I heard the word blog, but it was the precise moment I became a mommy blogger.

Life With the Bauer Bunch was born as Nathan’s Daily Adventures in February 2008. My first post was about how adorable Baby Nathan looked on a Sunday afternoon. Hard-hitting stuff. I created this blog to share photos with my family, but it eventually evolved into more.

I quit my job at the newspaper in 2009 and we moved to the southwest corner of the state to focus on a new business, a growing family, and a slower life. I didn’t miss the three-hour city council meetings, but I did miss telling stories. I wanted to use my voice, so I turned to my blog as an outlet.

Through the years I’ve written on a range of topics because motherhood is amazing and terrifying and miserable and hilarious. My purpose is to share it all. I’ve shared my miscarriage and birth stories. I have written about struggling to keep my head above water and I’ve tooted my own horn. Sure, I will fill my space with the kids’ accomplishments like an online refrigerator {it’s my blog, after all!}, but my focus remains the same. I want to encourage, I want to inspire, and I want to relate to you.

That being said, keep up with me this month and beyond, won’t you? I’ll be hanging out here on Mondays in July and you can always find me on my blog. I can’t guarantee it will be funny or powerful or unrelated to chickens, but I can give you the Jessica Stamp of Approval that it will be real. Thanks again for letting me share.

SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS

Blog: www.thebauerbunch.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thebauerbunch

Twitter: https://twitter.com/thebauerbunch

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jessicabauer84