Let's get to know me!

Alright, for the most part, I'm very self aware. With that said, I want to share who I am with you with a very honest and unbiased blog post. I've been busy with my boy who had surgery last week and before that we had a bomb dropped on us about a personal matter I'm mentioning but not divulging. And before that we had sick kids. And before that a funeral. It's been a year y'all but I'm 100% sure I'd be worse off if I hadn't taken the year off. It's like God knows all, which he does, and he set us up in a relaxed state to be able to handle all the harsh life that's being thrown at us. I mean, it really is just life happening, after all. So let's do a little q and a.

Question: Who are you?

Answer: My name is Renee Diaz. I live in Chicago and I am a parent to 3 kiddos and a pup. I've been married almost 10 whole years and I love my husband and my family very much. I am a stay at home mom who likes the hustle and loves to overshare and write. I lack confidence and exude pride and random forms of confidence when I'm certain about my values, thoughts and ideas... which is always. Sound like a contradictory statement? It is. And there lies some of the problem. Unsure and over sure, all the time. It makes for lots of ideas, lots of problem solving and lots of conversation. Good times! Also, if you'd like to know more, I'm an enneagram 6 but I can't figure out my wing. I've been a Christian for 12 years and I read the bible a little almost every day. I listen to books because I hate to read and I can't draw well but my writing is okay and I can get my point across well enough. I say words like "dope" and confuse ground and floor when speaking which annoys the hell out of me. I swear but will keep it off the blog for the most part. I love to cook, build recipes and entertain but don't like being around too many people in an uncontrolled environment or where there is no end time. I'm part of the events committee at church and love working and cleaning for Christ. I love to serve and give. If I'm your friend, I'll probably do your dishes but it'll be a while before I do my own. And don't you dare try to wash my dishes.

Question: Where are you from?

Answer: I'm from Chicago, IL. I was born here and I will die here. I've spent some time in various parts of Chicago and Chicagoland and I've spent a few years in Texas. I love Texas but it's so hot and I just can't. I visited last year and was happy to come back to our cool spring weather instead of the scorching humidity that is San Antonio in March. Ideally, my children would be homeschooled and we wouldn't own a tv. We'd stay in Chicago during the spring and summer and venture to Texas during fall and winter. Yes, in my made up world I have 2 homes, at least.

Question: What do you want to be when you grow up?

Answer: Truely I've asked myself this question a number of time over the past 34 years. The realistic answer is I would like to be happy, health with a fun job and a happy and healthy family life. I like working. I don't mind working hard. But dammit, I'll be disappointed if any job I do feels like work. I like to work for myself. I am a Jane of all trades and a master of none (what every happened to that show?) and it would be fun to find a way to share that with people as a writer. Now the goal... it's more unrealistic but probably unrealistic because I don't sleep well but dude, I would really just want to be a philanthropist. I have dreams of teaching little couponing classes in impoverished neighborhoods and helping convicts get jobs by working at greenhouses all over Chicago. I would like to be a botanist and show people how to grow their own foods and collect seeds to bring down the cost for others. I'd love to make parks with free fruit baring trees and build a little organization that gives back to communities. I want to find a way to sell my talents and recipes and give some of that money away with each and every sale. That would be really cool. And I can't do those things without money so... I want to be a philanthropist. Or just a good steward with the money God gives us.

Question: Why are you blogging?

Answer: There are three parts to this answer.

First, I wanted a way to monetize what I find valuable in my life. I'm not some amazing scholar but I'm honest and I love to share and I love to help people and writing with typos runs in the blood. However, money does not. We are a one income family and I need to be able to get these bills paid and buy a cup of coffee when I feel like I deserve one. I hope that this blog will be a life affirming outlet for myself and others. I also have a basic reviewer background via amazon and although I never did make it to be an Amazon vine reviewer, I have a great status with honest and unbiased reviews. I was worried that I would lose my work when they wiped my account a year ago. Thankfully, after prayer and 2 emails to amazon, Jesus restored it. After 7 years (and 450+ reviews, most with pics and video) it seemed like blogging would be a fun way to share what I like and what I don't like while working with brands or small businesses to help them and the consumer. I don't know that I'm an #Influencer per se, but I do hope I can make an impact on peoples thoughts, hearts and maybe wallets because people should know what a product can do and what it's really worth. And if someone feels like paying me for my thoughts, I'm about that life.

The second part is my attention span. I've done all the things. If you open my Pinterest board you will see all the things I would like to do and a small fraction of things I've done. I thought it would be cool to blog and build a website in a way that encompassed all of the things that I enjoy. I'd break them down by day and attach a fun title to that specific category like "Monday meals" Or "Death by pasta Wednesday" and be funny and have cute pics and that would be my blog. I've yet to figure out how to use a blog or build a website beyond the regular post or take a particularly cute pic. But when I get there, oh when I get there, it will be grand!

And the third and likely most important part: I love to offer advice and speak about Christ. I love to help women and discuss life in the throes of child rearing, adulthood, womanhood, wifehood, identity and most importantly identity in Christ. I'm a Christian and for a long time I couldn't say I was a very good one because I didn't realize that it wasn't about me. I see that now and want to show people what it is to be a follower of Christ and how living a life in Christ is fulfilling even with challenges or the mundane. I'm not pretending to be something I'm not. I'm all the broken things and I want to share that part of myself for Christ, with others.

Side note: I am not consistently working on the blog because this is my Year of No. As I work through this year, I'm organizing and building a small routine in my life to assist with building the blog well for next years launch. However, there's no time like the present to start and if I had begun blogging 5 years ago when I was really active in Amazon reviewing, I would have a much larger following across social media and would be earning a living. Sharing and starting from scratch is nice too though.

I think that's the last question I have to answer. I'll post this on social media and see if anybody has any other questions. Hell, maybe I'll do some promotional stuff and run an ad to see if I'll get all kinds of questions. That sounds like a cool idea!

Thanks for taking the time and I hope you enjoy the blog!

Renee Diaz