I have absolutely no business starting a blog.

My schedule is already ridiculous. I’m a mom. A wife. A full-time student. I work two completely different jobs. I somehow became the president of a student organization at school. There is always laundry somewhere in my house that needs to be folded, dishes in the sink, and I’m pretty sure I’ve been saying, “Things will calm down after this semester,” for several semesters now.

So naturally, I decided I needed another thing to do.

Hi. I’m Mise.

Well… not really. But that’s what you can call me here.

For now, I’m keeping my actual name to myself. Maybe one day I’ll get brave enough to put my real name and face on all of this, but today is definitely not that day. Starting an anonymous blog already feels scary enough.

I’m 25, born and raised in Missouri, and currently juggling life as a mom, wife, working as a pastry chef and an early childhood classroom aide, and getting ready to start my last year of school.

And somehow, after all of that, I still decided I wanted somewhere to write.

Maybe it’s because of all of that.

I’m at this really weird point in my life where I know where I want to go, but I’m definitely not there yet.

I originally went to school because I loved pastry. I wanted to bake. I wanted to learn everything I could about food and get really, really good at it.

Then somewhere along the way, the plan changed.

Or maybe it just got bigger.

I realized that as much as I love making food, I also love helping other people learn how to make it. Now I’m working toward becoming a teacher, with the hope that one day I’ll get to stand in my own culinary classroom and teach other people the things I’ve spent the last few years learning.

But that’s the future.

Right now?

I’m still a student.

I’m still working.

I’m still raising my babies.

I’m still figuring out how to balance school, work, marriage, motherhood, and approximately 47 other things at the same time.

I’m making desserts that turn out exactly how I pictured them in my head–and others that absolutely do not.

Some days I feel like I have my entire future figured out.

Other days I’m eating something questionable for dinner, realizing I forgot something on my calendar, doing homework after everyone else has gone to bed, and staying up way too late playing a video game or telling myself I’ll read just one more chapter of whatever romantasy book currently has me in a chokehold.

And I think that is what I want this blog to be about.

Not the finished version.

The part in between.

There will definitely be food here. Probably a lot of it. Recipes, pastry experiments, desserts I’m working on, things that worked, things that failed spectacularly, and whatever I happen to be obsessing over in the kitchen that week.

But I also want to write about school. Motherhood. Work. One day becoming a teacher. Trying to build a career when you already have a family. Changing your plans. Chasing things that scare you. And all the weird, messy parts of trying to figure out who you’re becoming while you’re already busy being about twelve different people to everyone around you.

I start my last year of school next week, and maybe that’s part of why starting this blog suddenly felt right.

I’m getting close to the end of one chapter, but instead of knowing exactly what comes next, there’s a giant question mark waiting for me on the other side.

My husband recently made the decision to go active duty, which means that sometime after I graduate, we’ll be packing up our lives and moving… somewhere.

Where exactly is somewhere?

Yeah. We don’t know that yet.

So while I’m finishing school and working toward becoming a teacher, we’re also preparing for our family’s entire life to change. New home. New place. New schools. New jobs. New everything.

It’s exciting. It’s terrifying. And I’m sure I’ll have plenty to say about it eventually.

But right now, we’re just in the middle of it.

And maybe that’s really why I’m here.

I don’t have some beautiful, finished life to show you.

I’m still figuring out the recipe.

I’m still gathering the ingredients.

Everything is very much mise in progress.

So I guess that’s where we’ll start.

–Mise