If you want to get really into the details you could say that our story started way back in 2000. My now husband Josue was the new kid at our little school in the smallest town, population 74. Technically we never dated but we were friends. After school, we both went on to start our adult lives. Josue went into the military to quickly be deployed to Iraq during the Operation Iraqi Freedom War. He had also gotten married and had two boys. During this time I was also having kids and working. I moved a few times and spent some time being a stay-at-home mom. During that time I learned how to be frugal and live below my means to take care of my family. My first 9 years of motherhood were spent with let us just say a silent partner. After that I found myself alone with three kids and very little of anything but the things I did have were love and Jesus and a lot of it!
Being in that situation forced me to get serious about frugality & simple living. Although I worked a full-time job there wasn’t much left after bills, child care & food. I think that is when the gears truly started to turn. To make things a little more interesting Josue came back into my life very unexpectedly. One Facebook message eventually led us to be a family of 7. Our first date was in October 2015, Engaged in May 2017, and married in August 2018. We welcomed our final child in July of 2019. God’s plans are incredible, aren’t they?
Budgeting, meal planning, and making things stretch were in full force. Many of those practices we learned in the beginning are still things that we use today. I now run a successful business from home and Josue has a successful career. For years I have shared bits and pieces of ways we make things work with so many mouths to feed. I can’t tell you how many times we have heard “I don’t know how you guys do it”. Well, we still have a lot of love and Jesus. We also are strategic and those are things I hope to teach anyone who wants to learn.