Welcome to Margins & Messes

Margins & Messes started the way most things in my life do: quietly, thoughtfully, and after a lot of overthinking.

I wanted a place to put the thoughts that don’t quite fit anywhere else. The ones scribbled in the margins of books. The ones that surface while making dinner for the fourth night in a row. The ones that come when the house is finally quiet and I’m too tired to do anything but read.

This isn’t a space for having it all figured out. It’s a space for living in the middle - between routines and chaos, intention and exhaustion, the life I imagined and the one I’m actually living.

I’m an introverted, book loving millennial mom raising a neurodivergent kid, married to a laid-back blue-collar husband, and sharing my home with an anxious coonhound who mirrors my nervous system more than I’d like to admit. I live with OCD, a busy mind, and a deep appreciation for familiar comforts.

Books have always been my constant. Reading is how I rest, how I cope, how I make sense of things. Food comes next - realistic food, imperfect food, the kind you make because you need to eat and care for the people you love. And lately, I’ve been feeling called toward slower living: learning how to make more from scratch, grow what we can, and build a life that feels quieter and more grounded.

Margins & Messes is where all of that meets.

Here, I’ll be writing about:

• Reading and writing as survival

• Motherhood in a neurodivergent household

• Food that’s comforting, not performative

• Learning to live slower without pretending it’s easy

• The small, honest moments that make up a lived in life

If you’re looking for a hustle, perfection, or loud opinions, this probably won’t be your place. But if you love books more than small talk, feel overwhelmed by curated internet spaces, and want community without pressure - welcome.

I’m glad you’re here. Stay as long as you’d like.

If this resonates, you’re welcome to join the newsletter. I send occasional, quiet notes - no noise, no obligation.