A Letter from the Woman who Disappeared….

Dear Readers,

There is something ironic about running a page called The Strong Homemaker while quietly feeling like you have completely lost yourself. Life got heavy, life got hard. Between motherhood, marriage, our move to Las Vegas, homeschooling, starting a business, stress, and just trying to hold everything together…I stopped showing up here.

Moving to Las Vegas was supposed to represent freedom–a fresh start, away from everything that held us back in Idaho….but…..Las Vegas has a way of sucking you into the hustle, that every moment is emergent. It was me trying to find my place in the world as Courtney. I had been a wife, caregiver, and the one keeping absolutely everything together for so long, that I became rigid, set in my ways, in a permanent state of panic. Part of it was exhaustion, part of it was imposter syndrome. Some of it was me wondering…”if I am struggling in every area of my life…who am I to encourage other women while fighting my own battles behind closed doors?”

But maybe….just maybe that was actually the point. Strength was never about perfection. The truth is, after coming out on the other side of a plethora of struggles….strength is about struggling, fighting, pushing forward, through it all.

I think somewhere along the way, social media convinced women that we either have to be flawlessly put together or completely falling apart. Real life is somewhere in the middle. Most days, I am just a woman trying her best to build a meaningful life for her family, while finding herself and learning.

So….this is me, showing back up, not perfect, not polished….just honest. Honestly, that version matters more. Our family has moved to southwest Missouri, where we can slow things down. I have built my marketing business up enough that I truly can work from anywhere, and this has created a financial freedom that our family is proud of. Our goal is to buy land and start a homestead, ending the generational curses of our families have endured–ensuring that our children do not experience that pain, and that it stops with my husband and I.

So, here’s to a new start

Yours–Strong not Perfect,

Courtney
The Strong Homemaker