The Closing of A Book.

Last Saturday night I packed the “Mommy & Max Co.” sign away for the last time. It was a bittersweet closing of the first book in our series, and so I have been reflecting. 

Back in 2016 B.M (before Max). hahah sorry I DO laugh at my own jokes. 

Anyways, in 2016 I was studying herbalism and I really started enjoying the lessons about skin health; Also, I loved mixing up random concoctions for myself to try.  

But, Man, I sucked at it. 

All of you, who obsess over the exfoliating scrub, would die(in laughter) if you knew the first version. I’ll never forget gifting my sister in law a rock hard container of scrub because I used the wrong kind of oil. Like so hard, if she tried to use it she'd scratch herself. Yikes. I persisted. 

March of 2017, then came Max. You know how the first few years of motherhood goes. . .it consumes you. Finding the balance between taking care of your child and taking care of yourself is a hard one to master, and so I fell off the herbal skin care bandwagon for a while. 

Getting to know Max and getting to know myself as a mother was the most important thing to me. 

Before you know it Max is toddling around, I’m a stay at home mom, we move to the Northwoods, every moment of every day it's Max and I, we go on many adventures, and he’s truly my best friend. The irrational crazy variety of best friend, though. 

March of 2020, about two weeks before Max’s 3rd birthday, covid shuts the world down. 

On a normal year, April is already an added insult to the injury that is 8 months of winter up here. Everything is Mud, everywhere is closed, and it’s a literal ghost town in Mercer, WI. 

Add that to the two year old who didn’t understand that if he took his gloves off outside and buried them in the snow 5 minutes into the idea. Well then that equaled tears, and a trip back inside. Cabin fever is real. 

When warm weather emerges you’re ready to get outside and play, but man, even the parks were closed in spring of 2020. 

Max and I had to find something to do, so I decided to start messing with skin care again. 

We started making soap, we’d give it to friends and family as gifts. Before you knew it we’d built a small customer base. Then the following year I mastered my exfoliating scrub recipe, added bath salts, and so we expanded our product list and started going to markets. 

And we were happy. If you’ve read my previous blog posts, you’ll understand that it’s at this point of my life that I’m really starting to claim who I am.

We hit the end of 2021, and I started to think about what my goal with this business was. 

I have always wanted to help people. 

I know what it’s like to live without. I know what it's like to be a child with no control over the living situation. A kid digging into every corner of that week's home to find a quarter, so that she could buy a Little Debbie snack  from the Px store down the block, and know it may be the only thing she eats that day. 

And now I know what it’s like to live with. I have a warm house, a comfy bed for my child, food is always easily accessible. I never want to take that for granted, and so I never forget what it was like when I didn’t have it. 

We aren’t perfect parents, but Max is well taken care of. He’s privileged in, at the very least, the ways I mentioned above. 

As a parent raising a kid, who will one day be an adult, I want him to grow up with this understanding. An understanding that even the basic things in life aren't everyone’s reality.

 I believe if he grows up understanding this, he won’t be the kid picking on the little girl wearing dirty clothes at school and a rats nest for hair, but the one befriending her. 

He won’t be the man that judges people as being beneath him, but a man who goes out of his way to help people get to where they belong. 

So, as January of 2022 came, I decided that we were not only going to start donating a percentage of our sales profits to organizations serving families in our community, but we would volunteer as much as capable. 

And so we have. So far this year, the combination of fundraising and our percentage of profits has raised right around $2,000 which have been donated to various organizations, such as domestic abuse shelters, food pantries, foster closets, and suicide prevention and awareness. 

The amount Max has learned this year is unseen yet, but I can tell you he has lots of questions about the things we are doing. He’s just taking it all in. 

That brings us to the present where Max is in kindergarten, and learning how to read so quickly. 

While he’s less involved with the actual making of products now, nothing has changed about the awareness I’m aiming to create in him. 

The present, where I’ve become more intentional. I know my mission. 

The Mommy & Max Co. book may have closed, but it was just the first book in our series. The name has changed but the characters have not. Where you see me, you will see him. 

With lather & love, Mommy & Max Co.