HI — I'M RENEE.

Midwest, born and raised. I met my husband in college. We have three kids.

A few years ago I left my corporate job to be home with them — the salary, the benefits, all of it. It wasn't a tidy decision and it hasn't been a free one. We've made real sacrifices to make it work, and we still do.

I'd make it again tomorrow. They're little exactly once.

But here's the part nobody warns you about being home: having the time doesn't mean you know what to do with it. There's a specific kind of blank that shows up around four in the afternoon, when everyone needs something and you can't produce a single idea. I had all the time in the world and still stood in my own kitchen with no clue what to do next.

Familyful started there.

It began with books — planners for the parts of family life nobody hands you a manual for, activity books for kids, free printables for the days that need help. All of it written the way a friend would say it, because that's what I went looking for and couldn't find. Not an expert. Not a curriculum. Someone who'd already been through it and would just tell me what actually worked.

That's still the whole idea. It's only getting bigger.

What I want is for families to feel connected — actually connected, not photographed. To make the chaos count instead of only surviving it. And to get a bit more fun into as many houses as I can reach.

I'm proud of what I've made so far. But the part I didn't see coming is what building it has done to my kids.

They design their own logos now. They write their own books. They invent things nobody asked for. They have not one shred of doubt that if you can think of something, you can simply go and make it.

I'm not sure I've ever given them anything better than that.