WOMAN + WARRIOR CO. IS BACK!!
Hey! Hi! Hello!
welcome to my very first blog post!
Here’s a “Top 3” for why I dropped off the face of the earth (again) (on social media):
1. I was living that Toddler SAHM Life (& can’t forget about my other 3 biggies) AND (living that Military Wife Life and all that entails…which dang, can be a lot at times!)
2. I have been serving as the FORT RILEY PWOC (Protestant women of the chapel) president for the ‘22-‘23 year…and that has been legitimately a full-time job. an amazing experience! But I have definitely been clocking full-time hours each month.
3. If you note all of the above (and then some) essentially, my anxiety went on overload (ready for this…I have ADHD, anxiety, and PMDD…what a cocktail lol) and I had to tune the parts of the world that I could control, out.
I CANNOT. DO. ALL. THE THINGS.
I HAD TO PUT SOMETHING DOWN BEFORE I CRASHED MY OWN PLANE.
and I decided that my business would have to be the “thing”.
I knew that I had been called to serve in ministry this year and I had made a commitment to serve for the duration of the ‘22-’23 PWOC year. and I ain’t no quitter!
I knew what direction I wanted woman + warrior co. to go in…like full-on re-brand! AND I just did not have the time or the mental/emotional capacity to execute it well and do it justice.
So, once again…and truly as an act of obedience…I put woman + warrior co. down once more.
BUT NOW, I’M BACK.
FOR REAL, FOR REAL.
and Here’s a “Top 3” for WHY I am back now:
1. My tiniest guy has officially started back at full-time daycare! and he loves it!
2. I passed the torch for my PWOC position this week. and my successor is amazing!
3. I’ve now got the right supports and medications in place for myself, so I’m not feeling like I have to literally just disappear to be able to handle life! BIG, big WIN.
Now that we’re like semi-caught up on the crazy train that is my life…
I’m calling a “False Start!” on myself…
time is a weird thing, but all paths tend to lead us exactly where we’re supposed to end up…
When I started this business in 2019, I racked my brains for weeks…weeks!!! trying to think of the right name. (and how I decided upon that name really should probably go in my FAQ SECTION, lOL!)
basically,
It HIT ME AT A STOPLIGHT.
IT LITERALLY passed through my ears, LIKE A WHISPER…
AND I just knew, that “woman + warrior” was it. (honestly, I thought it sounded powerful and b.a. and that’s how I wanted people who wore my brand to feel)
this was a year prior to my husband even considering transitioning from coast guard reserve to active duty military, commissioning with the army…
you have to admit, the name, the “brand cohesion” with military life is almost just “naturally” there…like after enough time…at the right time…it would just…evolve to be what it was always destined to be…even when I didn’t know it yet (god’s cool like that).
During my time stepping away from Woman + Warrior Co., during our 2021-2022 travels with the army and first deployment, I would just walk my neighborhood for hours. I’d walk to reset, i’d walk to pray, I walk to cry (on the inside, like a winner…) but it was on those walks during my period of enforced “rest and waiting” that I gained the clarity and direction of where woman + warrior was always meant to go. I knew exactly what I wanted her to become… it passed through my ears again, just like a whisper…
You see, here’s what I know now:
Woman + warrior co. couldn’t become what it was destined to be, until I started meeting them…until I started crossing paths with those warriors…
to my military spouse community:
I truly don’t know where I would be on this wild and crazy military journey, without you. Whether that’s those of you i’ve been blessed to know and grow with in person or those of you I have been lucky enough to connect with through social media, I am grateful for each of you.
I HAVE NO DOUBT IN MY MIND THAT
THE WOMAN + WARRIOR…
has always been YOU.
You are the strongest, most selfless and sacrificial community of people that I have ever known.
i’m so blessed to claim this community as my own.
and here’s that recurrent “funny thing about time” theme, showing up again…
wouldn’t you know it, that the right time for me to pick this business baby of mine back up, just so happens to be during military appreciation month?
I can’t think of a more fitting day to “officially” begin again, than on military spouse appreciation day.
but Friday, May 12th is just the beginning.
I am about to embark on a whole new career journey, with the sole purpose of helping and appreciating the HECK out of you, my AMAZING military spouse community!!
AND I AM JUST
so. dang. excited!
Thanks for sticking with me, y’all!
in gratitude,
ASHLEE
AKA one of “THE WOMAN + WARRIOR’s” of the world
