I am so honored to have so many new followers from my Paleo Meal Planning – Cheap & Easy article.  If you haven’t read our “about” pages, you can find quick links to them here:

• The Dirty Floor Family
• The Mouthy Mistress (Me, Summer)
• The Workaholic
• The Nerd
• The Muffin
• The Stinky

Aside from all of that personal junk, I wanted to give you a little Dirty Floor Diaries 101 and tell you what we are and what we aren’t.  That way we eliminate any confusion and just get right down to the nitty gritty so that you know exactly what to expect.  5 Each (though I could do so many more.  I’m limiting it because I tend to be rather wordy!)

What we are:

• We are a family who has Dom Perignon taste on a Stella Artois budget.  We like nice things but can’t always afford them, so I have taken my artistic talents on the road and am learning to sew, craft, and paint furniture.  I have plans for some great DIY fashion tutorials in the very near future.  My favorite Haute Kid Couture post in recent history is the one where I replicated a shirt I saw at the GAP for less than $10.
• We identify with the Paleo Diet and do our bests to eat grain-, dairy-, and refined sugar-free diets.  We do allow the occasional splurge, and we promise not to complain about the resulting migraines, joint pain, and gastric distress.  Mark Sisson recommends you stick to 80% Primal/Paleo, and we are much, much closer to 95%.  I (Summer) just have this undeniable hunger for ice cream about once a month that I just can’t control.  The Workaholic enjoys a beer after work on a nightly basis.  And the kids?  Well, they’re more gluten-free than Paleo.  They eat Paleo dinners, but indulge in gluten-free Annie’s Organic Mac & Cheese about 3 times per week.
• We are funny, real, unfiltered, and honest.  While this is a “family” blog, I sometimes blog about non-family things, like Wanting a Magic Mike for Christmas, or how I think the Characters of Yo Gabba Gabba look like sex toys.  So in that sense, this is a blog about family, but not necessarily a blog for the younger set to read.  Ya’ dig?
• We are CHANGING.  We want better lives, I want to learn how to manage my time better, The Workaholic wants to learn to play golf and to do things by himself, The Nerd wants to find some common sense, The Muffin wants to stop whining, and The Stinky wants to learn how to go pee and poop in the toilet instead of a diaper.  We screw up sometimes.  The Workaholic is extremely dependent on other people to declare his happiness.  I stumble with lifestyle and schedule changes.  The Stinky makes stinkies on the floor.  The Nerd looks for something in the refrigerator that should be in the pantry.  And The Muffin whines her way into time out.  But we’re human.  Because we are human and we recognize that none of us are perfect, we are also:
• A judgement free zone.  We love everyone.  Everyone struggles.  This blog is about lifting one another up, taking beautiful pictures, working some super fun and easy crafts, and celebrating life in general.  If you are struggling with something,  PLEASE visit my “Mouthy Mistress” page and shoot me an email.  I promise to be your personal cheerleader and to lift you up.  We all need a pat on the back sometimes, and I’m your gal.

What we are not:

• We are not a “food blog”.  While we do strive to bring you even more delicious recipes in the future, we are not “technically” a “food blog”.  We offer a weekly Paleo Meal Planning article, complete with a printable shopping list, but most of the recipes are not our own.  The article is to simply help people who do not want to come up with their meals and shopping lists on their own.  I simply tell you what we are eating for the week and hope that by taking some of the guesswork out of eating Paleo, we enable people just starting out, or people in a rut, or people who are just busy in general, to get healthy and to cut the inflammatory foods out of their diets.  It is our goal to deliver more recipes in 2013, but please don’t look for every post to be a recipe.  You CAN, however; count on a Meal Planning article every Friday.
• We are not a rant site.  We have been known to discuss postpartum depression, relationship woes (like being a single (married) stay-at-home mom).  We talk about our views on discipline, and how we live life in general, but we always come from a place of honesty, from a place of wanting to share in order to help someone going through the same thing, and from a place of love.  We try to keep calm and carry on here.  If you see a post fueled in Anger, look out.  The world might be exploding.
• We are not a “Paleo Blog”.  Yes, we follow the Paleo Diet.  Yes, we eat grain-free.  But SOMETIMES, we indulge.  And SOMETIMES, I might want to share those indulgences with you, because some things are better when indulged upon.  That does not happen often, but it might happen.  And while we are a Paleo family, we blog about other things, not just Paleo.  So while we do offer the Paleo Meal Planning, and we do talk about the lifestyle, that’s not all that we talk about.
• We are not Paleo Elite.  We believe that everyone can afford to eliminate inflammatory foods from their diets, even if it means eating industrial meat until they can afford better.  We believe that stress causes as much damage to the body as grains do, and that if eating well and paying your light bill means eating grain-fed beef and general farm-raised fruits and vegetables, so be it.  We also believe that if you don’t have a deranged metabolism (unlike Summer), white potatoes are a fine source of food.  The Workaholic needs to gain weight and eats a variety of small purple and red potatoes with his protein for breakfast every morning.  We also buy peanut butter.  *GASP*!  I know.  But Primal Toad said it was OK, and if the toad croaks, it must be true, right?
• We are not perfect.  We are a family trying to be the best we’s that we can be.  We have strong opinions that may or may not match up with yours and that’s fine!  We are capable of agreeing to disagree in many areas, and we hope that differing opinions in certain areas of our lives aren’t enough to make you (whoever you are) defriend or stop following us.

I think that about covers it. 

We are who we say we are, and we hope that you love us as much as we appreciate you being here.  I really mean it when I say to please write me personally (Summer (at) dirtyfloordiaries (dot) com) if you have any questions or need some encouragement.  Encourage is my middle name.  Seriously!

Ok, well not really.  But it maybe should have been.  

Welcome, welcome!  We look forward to “Seeing” you around these parts in the very near future.