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.
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...
I Don’t Remember Christmas
I have one Christmas memory from my early childhood.
I've thought about that sentence all day. First, I tried to scan all the corners of my brain, lest I make a liar out of myself...
If You’re Reading This, You Survived
It's been A DAY. No one got along. Dinner came out of a can. The biggest dog let the River Nile loose on the floor before I could get the back door open for...
My Mom Told My Kids About Sex
"Hey mom, remember when Finn was in your belly?"
"Yes, bud. Sure do."
"How did he get there?"
"What?"
"You went to the hospital, and a doctor got him out of you, but how did he get IN...