Ashley
Mama to Maddox, Walker and Finn plus three unruly dogs: Nick Carraway, Ladybird, and Charlotte. Owner of Nest, a custom painting and furniture restoration business run out of my SoKno home. I've written for Knox Moms since 2014, and have also written for The Dollywood Company, Her View From Home, and Today.com. I'm a recovering type-a personality, overcaffinated, sleep with too many pillows, am a better person near water, and love a good British period drama or anything about gruesome true crime. I'm going to die trying to pet something I shouldn't or lifting furniture I have no business lifting, and am a firm believer in convenience meals. Probably a top contender for the title of World's Okayest Mom.
Vitamins, Self-care, and a Snake Oil Salesman
Snake oil: (n) a quack remedy or panacea.Anyone who has spent more than 10 minutes with me knows that I’m a pretty intense student of history. Old houses, old stories, books set in far...
Making The Most Out of Your Local Thrift Store
It’s 2021. We mostly sort of survived 2020, I guess. Pandemic. Election. Murder hornets. Fires. UFOs. I’m waiting on swamp people and lava monsters honestly. (Insert shrug emoji or the it’s been 84 years...
My Kids Won’t Be Home For Christmas and That’s Fine
"This isn't permanent," my attorney said, holding up a parenting plan. "It's more of a guide book of sorts until the kids can tell you where they want to go and what they want...
These Kids Are Going Back to School
“I’m sending these kids back to school if I have to send them in a full plague doctor suit complete with mask,” I commented. An acquaintance from high school was polling people on the...
Have Kids, Will Travel: A Single Mom’s Guide to Taking Trips Alone
“What do you mean you can’t travel alone? You raise them alone. Just do the same stuff you do at home but like, in front of the ocean,” I said to a girlfriend at...
Things We Keep From the Distancing
I’m a single mom to three boys and a small business owner. As I write this, I thankfully have some money coming in, but am literally $1 over my monthly bills budget for April....
A Single Mama’s Guide to Car Shopping Alone
It started with two shredded tires a few weeks after Christmas… As my SUV lingered in the shop, with line item after line item in need of repair added to my invoice, it became...