In this post, all about what I’ve been up to in the past five months!

The Stoner Mom Diaries | months worth of updates

Oh friends. I have been meaning to write a good update here for months but every time I’ve written a post, some weird inner conflict starts up and keeps me from hitting publish. This always happens when I neglect anything. The longer I let it go, the harder it is to break the habit. So that’s what this post is, a long accounting of where I’ve been since my last diary post. I’m also using this post to share the very exciting secret project that has been consuming us here at casa de la stoner. If you follow me on Instagram you probably already know what it is, but for those unaware, read on!

February: best birthday gift ever

In February my husband made my 36th birthday a notable one by giving me a new car after years of driving around in a well-loved (beat up) minivan. Saying goodbye to the minivan was definitely overdue but sad nonetheless. That was the car I toted my babies and toddlers in, and now that it’s gone those days seem firmly of the past. No more backwards facing infant seats, stickers on windows, goldfish crackers embedded into the seams of the seats. The kids are all big enough to buckle themselves in, open doors, bring their trash out.  I guess this means that it’s time for mom to have nice things.

After so many years of using a car with absolutely zero frills, having my first nice car with modern features is not getting old. I did not anticipate feeling so strongly for a car but god, this thing is beautiful and so comfortable. It’s been a few months and I’m still learning the features that most people have been enjoying for years. Like, blind spot monitoring? I didn’t even realize that was a thing!

March: anniversary and Katya’s ears

In March David and I celebrated our 6th anniversary by cleaning ourselves up and venturing downtown in the middle of a snowstorm. Drinks and dinner where we got married, people watching, deconstructed apple pie. All was typical for an anniversary dinner, until we got home late and saw our cat Katya looking very unwell.

Her walking was impaired, she was clearly off balance, and her ear had an unmistakable odor to it. Ear infection. Thankfully we were kid free that night so David and I were able to bundle her up and head right back out into the snow to our local 24 hour vet clinic.

Poor Katya. We were at the clinic well after midnight, waiting as she had her ears cleaned out and was injected with antibiotics. Somehow she had contracted a double ear infection, one side getting bad enough to damage her eardrum and seriously impact her balance and mobility.

It’s been months since we got her diagnosed and she’s gone through multiple rounds of antibiotics since then. She’s now doing worlds better, but her recovery took a lot longer than I’d ever anticipated. She’s still a bit off balance and needs to regain her confidence with climbing and jumping but she gets better each day.

It’s been a needed reminder of how precious our pets are to our family, how much they are truly part of the pack. When she was really sick I put everything on hold, spending days next to her and keeping the kids and dog away when she felt the worse. I am so relieved she’s  back to her old happy self and am not going to take for granted how lucky we are to have healthy pets!

April and May: I don’t even know

Honestly, April and May both just kinda slipped away from me. David was out of town for a large chunk of April which meant I spent a lot of my time alone and focused on surviving as the only adult in the house. We did celebrate his birthday when he returned, and gave him his very own didgeridoo which he plays daily. I also celebrated a rare Saturday 4/20 by seshing and shopping with a girlfriend. I’ve been trying to do better at seeing people and getting out of the house. I’ve seen Jessica more than usual lately and am really looking forward to attending a City Session Tour with her in early June!

May has flown by with an endless stream of after-school events to mark the end of the school year. That means a lot of final projects, presentations and performances to help with and attend. Between school and Girl Scouts, we have been busy. I’m just glad I finally have a decent vehicle for shuttling all sorts of kids all over the place. I did have a nice afternoon date at the Denver Botanic Gardens with David. That’s definitely an excellent place to explore while stoned!

Summer Time: and the living is easy

As of this week we are in summer break! My girls successfully made it through another year and this fall I’ll have a fifth grader and a seventh grader. This was an easy year for the kids, despite a lot of changes. Tori’s transition into middle school was quite smooth and full of new experiences like playing the clarinet in band, taking choir classes, and attending school dances.

Lizzy started city theater classes this year and is so into it. This summer she will perform in her first real play on the stage with costumes and everything. She got braces this spring and has been handling the change so well, dutifully brushing after every meal and taking the time to take care for them properly. I’m very proud of the kids. They are all so interesting, and watching them mature and grow in their special interests and hobbies is one of the true blessings of parenthood.

We are spending another summer at home this year, forgoing vacations for in-state activities. Next summer 2020 we are taking all six of us to Hawaii so we need to focus on saving money for that. Victoria has a week-long girl scout camp to look forward to this summer, and Lizzy has a two-week acting camp with her theater group. She’s also turning ten in July so I’m doing a big room makeover for her birthday to welcome her to double digits. We’ll be spending the rest of our time this summer doing the usual local stuff that our family loves like Water World, visiting our many excellent local museums, amusement parks, and enjoying playdates with friends.

The Stoner Mom News

Big Things are Coming: introducing Happy Flower Company

*Update! Since I wrote this post our website has launched! Visit my CBD hemp flower store at happyflowercompany.com

While I may have been quiet online, behind the scenes I’ve been working on something quite big. For the past few months David and I have been setting up a new business and handling the many hurdles involved with that. What business you say? Well reader, it is with much delight and excitement that I announce that very soon we are launching Happy Flower Company, my own line of premium, Colorado-grown, CBD-rich hemp flower!

All of our hemp is greenhouse grown in Colorado Springs using organic practices. Our hemp contains absolutely no pesticides, has rich terpene profiles, and is cultivated for high CBD content. We provide lab results from each batch so you know exactly what’s in your flower, and with under 0.3% Delta-9-THC, our hemp is federally legal to ship to all fifty states.

Happy Flower Company is an e-commerce business so we’ll be doing all of our sales online. At the time of this writing we are just a website away from launch. Our infrastructure is all in place and ready to start fulfilling orders as soon as we’re ready.

There has been a ton of work involved to set up this business. My husband David gets credit for all of the incredibly hard stuff like finding an excellent hemp source and securing the best deal. For designing our logo around my vague stoned description of what I wanted. For finding the best packaging for our products. For figuring out the massive headache that is banking in the hemp industry. It has not been easy and none of this would be happening without him. He is truly the engine of Happy Flower Company!

We also have a beloved business partner who happens to be family and very dear to us. They have their own set of unique industry experience that makes their partnership with us invaluable.

I am the voice of Happy Flower Company so as usual I’m the photographer, copywriter, and editor. David and I are designing the website together which has been a ton of work. This is our first online shop we’ve ever designed and we are literally learning as we go. And that’s where things currently stand. Once the site is up we are ready to launch! I’m spending this weekend working on it, and hopefully we’ll get the site up in the next couple of weeks.

I will of course keep everyone up to date as to when we are ready for business, so stay tuned for details as we get closer to our launch! Sitting on this for so long has been hard but I can’t wait to share everything when we’re ready!

Five Years at The Stoner Mom

In other big news, next month thestonermom.com turns five years old! In late June 2014 I launched this blog with a post about being stoned in the basement. Since then with the help of my business partner and husband we’ve turned thestonermom.com into a family business that sustains us. Five years is big moment of reflection for me, as I think about how long I expect to be here in this very online phase of my life.

I don’t plan on going anywhere soon but I do have goals for what I want my online presence to look like. I’m truly hoping that in the next six months I can get back into sharing more about what’s going on with me personally. Be it how I’m continuing to work on my mental health with cannabis, or what it’s like working full time in the cannabis industry, or just the regular day to day stuff that I struggle with sharing.

To celebrate my blog anniversary I’ve been compiling quite the stash of giveaway goods. Glass pieces, vaporizers, cannabis accessories, CBD edibles and so much more.  I’m going through five years  worth of cannabis PR and merchandise, and it’s all gotta go! So stay tuned this summer for those anniversary giveaways, as well as a Father’s Day giveaway next month that is going to knock your socks off.