Finding joy in the simple things: life in the country, transparent motherhood, and fast easy recipes.
Hi! I’m Jess.
Welcome! I’ll be honest, I don’t really know what I’m doing here on this blog- lol! In fact, the SEO Yoast plug-in (the blogging software that helps this blog get “seen” on Google) is still screaming orange at me (it’s supposed to be green), and I don’t know what else I can do to fix it. I’m brand spanking new at this blogging thing, and I’m figuring things out one Google phrase search at a time. I’m not the best writer or even some recipe-creating wizard. But here’s what I do know; life is passing by, one beautiful moment at a time, and I have always wanted to do this. Create a space where I can keep alll the goodies; the sweetest chaotic motherhood moments, the amazing finds, and the yummiest recipes. Here is where I share them with you.
About Me
- I LOVE to cook. One of my favorite things in the world is to cook a huge meal with all my friends and family, and then just sit and happily watch them all eat it, enjoying each other’s company. Extra happy points if it’s outside on a patio (mental note: I need Hunter to build me a patio).
- I stay busy. Between family, church, and our goals to succeed business-wise (I refuse not to be rich one day), we’re always on the go. I try to stay organized as much as I can, but sometimes every day is different and I can’t say I hate that. Want to see what one day in our life usually consists of? Watch here.
- I love social media. I know, that sounds terrible- haha! But, my background is in social media marketing, and I know how powerful it can be FOR THE GOOD. Follow me on Instagram, you’ll get to know us very well on there-lol.
- I currently work as a SAHM, and do social media marketing for a local company on the side. I also do some videography for local events on the side too. Basically our family is made up of side hustles-lol. And we love it! Lots of flexibility and freedom. This blog is actually a dream of mine to become a stream of revenue for my family.
Things that make me happy:
- Being with Hunter and my kids, they’re truly my world
- Trying out a new recipe and loving it
- Traveling to a new place
- A nice, fancy, boujee hotel (if we get a good deal of course)
- A good iced coffee on a patio
- Thrifting my way through a town
- A relaxing facial
- Swinging on a hammock beside a creek
- Swinging on my swing on my back porch
- Basically any kind of swinging
- A good cheap purchase
- Video editing for a client and reading that client’s reaction to said video
- Sundays- sunny, chaotic, busy Sundays.
My husband Hunter is a good ole country boy who, thankfully lives up to his name! He’s an avid hunter and provides our family with a freezer full of deer meat each year. Unfortunately, that country boy is also a picky eater and if it ain’t fried, he ain’t interested. It’s a bucket of fun cooking new recipes for him to try out. *heavy sarcasm* But he humors me, and I continue to try new things in the kitchen.
About Us
Hunter and I got married in September of 2013. We first met in 4th grade at our church school. We were mortal frenemies until about high school, before heading down our own paths the way teenagers often do. At about 21, we spent a lot of time in the same youth group and, low and behold, a true friendship blossomed. Because of this, I can truly say my husband was my best friend before we started dating. In fact, he was a pretty determined best friend and stealthfully wormed his way out of that friend zone as fast as he could! When we were 22, we got married after dating for only 3 months. When you know, you know. He is for sure the best thing about me.
About our Family
We have two kiddos (so far!) – Julia Reece born in February of 2018 and Jack Fischer born in June of 2020, smack dab in the middle of a global pandemic (blog coming soon!). We definitely want more babies, but would like to spread them out a teeny bit more – ha!
Our background
As a young married couple, I’d say we were hard workers. I had my first job at 14, it was in me to keep chugging away to find a career that made me happy AND brought a decent income. I completed my Bachelors of Science and allllmost went to nursing school, but thankfully changed that plan at the last moment and married Hunter instead. Looking back, I now know God was leading me every step of the way to finding a perfect fit for the way I am wired so that I would be truly fulfilled. I would’ve been bored out of my mind in a daily routine.
When we got married, I began working a sales job for the company Yellow Pages which led me to a position with a startup digital marketing company called Rock City Digital. I LOVED sales and the challenge it presented me. I loved meeting new people, days that were never the same as the one before, and working alongside a team to build a business from the ground up. At the time, Hunter was working with a company in our church laying tile in houses. He soon decided to go out on his own and launched his own tile business. Not long after, he started a used car lot.
This provided for our family quite well, but as everyone knows, this type of work is pretty hard on the body (knees for sure). Hunter is a hard worker, but we definitely believe in working smarter than harder- haha! Hunter started looking at other avenues, and thanks to our brother-in-law Josh, he got into flipping used cars. He got his dealer’s license and Rock City Motors LLC was born.
Hunter’s Used Car Lot 
I went back to work when Julia was 6 weeks old 
Hunter actually kept Julia a lot at the car lot in those early days, while I went to sales meetings, etc
Our first home purchase was a flip house, and to say it needed work was an understatement. With help from Hunter’s amazing father, we remodeled this whole house. From scraping popcorn ceilings to laying hardwood floors, the transformation was amazing. I still remember walking on plywood floors for the first year of having that home until we could afford to lay hardwood in it.
Those were honestly some tough times, and at times, we didn’t know if we would be able to pay the bills that month. We lived there for almost 3 years until we sold it, but not before having Julia in February of 2018. This house was where we started our family, and it will always be special to us. We fully flipped it and sold it. God blessed us to make quite a good chunk, and to pay off all our debt. Our plan was to find another flip house. We put money down on an apartment right around the corner from our church and paid the first month’s rent. Wouldn’t you know God had other plans? Unexpectedly, just 16 days later, we had closed on 90 acres of land 40 minutes away in beautiful Conway, Arkansas.
Our plan was to find another flip house. We put money down on an apartment right around the corner from our church and paid the first month’s rent. Wouldn’t you know God had other plans? Unexpectedly, just 16 days later, we had closed on 90 acres of land 40 minutes away in beautiful Conway, Arkansas.
How we bought the farm
My sister, Hannah, my brother-in-law, Josh, Hunter and I have always been pretty close. Josh has ALWAYS been a role model to Hunter, so when he called one day telling Hunter he was headed to look at some land that was going up for auction, Hunter was (of course) down to ride along. I remember him mentioning it to me, but saying how unlikely it was that he would even offer anything because of how much that amount of land usually cost, especially that close to town. But they were going to go “just to see.”
The fellas knew little about large land auctions, but found out in order to even attend this one you had to have a pre-approved loan for a percentage of your top bid. FOR FUN, Hunter went to see what we would approve for and was all set for the auction just like that. There were multiple tracts on this piece of land, but the guys found out through the grapevine that the extremely wealthy neighbors were determined to make sure it didn’t get sectioned out. They wanted to prevent companies from coming in to sell off pieces and causing the neighborhood to lose value. At this point, Hunter and Josh were truly thinking a win at the auction may actually be possible. Still very slim, but they were definitely going to “just see”.
The auction was held in what is now my living room. A small space…with a few filthy rich neighbors, a few investors, my husband, Josh, and his brother. Talk about intimidating. But God. Bidding proceeded. As Hunter and Josh started bidding, the neighbors were basically looking at them like they were a bunch of kids. But as the guys continued bidding, they looked incredulous. They finally came over and asked straight out what we planned on doing with the land. Hunter and Josh explained we wanted to homestead it – cattle, horses, the whole nine yards. But definitely keep it and one day build. Keep it, build on it, and make it our forever home.
And then, the men who had come in determined to outbid anyone who tried, (and they were wealthy enough to do it!), nodded, quit bidding, and walked out. To say the guys were elated is an understatement. Only a few more bidders continued, but in the end, we were the overall highest bidders for what was an insanely low price for a large amount of land. About a month later, Hunter and I were the brand new owners of around 90 beautiful acres in Conway, Arkansas, for an unbelievably low deal. Josh closed on the other 4 hundred and something acres. I truly believe this miracle was directly connected to our decision from the very beginning to be faithful with our tithes and offering. You can never out-give God!
In 2019, I decided to resign from my full-time career in digital marketing to be a SAHM. This was an extremely hard decision considering my passion for my career. However, I loved Julia more and I believed it would be worth it. Now, I am living a dream I never even knew I had! There are still hard days. Living on one income is terrifying at times, but God is faithful.
Hunter and I are still hard workers and we have a dream to build a debt-free home on the hill behind our current little farmhouse here on the farm. Alongside the car lot, Hunter is starting to build spec houses to sell, selling Graceland storage buildings, and we are also looking into land development. We plan to have more babies and raise a family on the good simple things of life.
It’s not always been easy. It STILL isn’t easy. There are still months that make us uneasy-lol. But with God, our family, and a little elbow grease, I believe we will make it. Now, I just want to document every single precious chaotic moment that is flying by way too fast. Here is my place to do that, and I hope you all enjoy following along as well!