About Madison…
Madison Panko is an author and business professional, who is on a mission to share Jesus's message of joy, healing, and everlasting life.
She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Communications and Journalism from Texas A&M University where she also wrote for the community newspaper. Her ministry efforts include leading Bible study groups within her church and advocating for children who suffer from abuse and human trafficking.
When she is not pouring her soul into her writing or enthralled in a book, Madison can be found hiking a lush Oregon trail with her loving husband Jake. Aspiring to be forever growing with the Lord and using her testimony to help others during times of brokenness, Madison is driven to bring hope and love to everyone around her.
Faith
Faith
I would not be where I am or who I am today if God had not rescued me. He has helped me to blossom and grow into something more beautiful than I could have ever imagined. Jesus has enabled me to turn my mess into a message. The wounds that He has healed and the past sins that He has wiped clean is a true miracle.
My faith is everything to me and I would love to share in this joy with you.
Family
Family
Family is everything. The family that my husband Jake and I have created is the most precious thing in the world to me. Becoming a wife and a mother to my beloved daughter has been a true dream come true. My parents, siblings and large extended family are an immense blessing. My church community and God family is ever-growing and expanding, and for that I am eternally grateful.
My goal is to offer an effective and reliable way for families to grow closer together, and have a blast while doing it.
Fun
Fun
You can call me the adventure addict, as I LOVE to be spontaneous and try new things. Life is about the journey, not the destination. There are so many places I have yet to see, foods I have yet to taste, bands I have not yet listened to and books that are begging me to read them. Creating, crafting and cultivating new memories and special moments is one of the greatest joys in life!
Join me as I explore the world.
Food
Food
I am a gluten-free, whole food and mostly plant-based foodie who has a hankering appetite to taste the rainbow. I sought my degree in Agricultural Communications and Journalism with the determination to understand just exactly what is going within our food industry. Nutrition should be about holistic lifestyle changes by understanding your body and what it is that you are putting in it.
I don't believe in diets, I believe in loving your body and maintaining a healthy relationship that with the fuel that is put in it.
Fitness
Fitness
My goal is to inspire others to live a more clean, natural and healthy lifestyle.
I want to educate and encourage others to learn what their body truly needs to be healthy and functioning optimally. Over the years, my passion for health-conscious living and fitness has only continued to flourish and grow. Boy, am I so excited to share it with you guys!
About The Happy Hot Mess…
Why “The Happy Hot Mess”???
It took me a very long time (longer than I'd care to admit) to come up with a website name and thus brand for myself. I went back and forth on a myriad of different titles, trying desperately to land on "The One". However, nothing really seemed quite right.
After prayer and consulting with my wise council, The term "Happy Hot Mess" was suggested amidst some laughs about how accurate a title it would be for someone like me. My first thought was, "Mannnn, do I really want to label myself as a hot mess?"
Admittedly, there are many times (okay, okay, most of the time) where I am indeed a very hot mess, but that didn't necessarily mean I wanted to own it. My hair is most often in a messy bun atop my head (my unicorn horn as my husband calls it) and my coffee is always being spilt.
After careful consideration, mulling over the conversation in my head later on that week I realized that at one point or another we are all a hot mess! And if that sentiment doesn't toot your horn, let me rephrase for you.
During our lives we all find ourselves in messy situations of some sort. Life is unexpected and at times downright dramatic. We have no way of predicting when life is gonna get a little messy.
The Happy Hot Mess was created to prove that you can find happiness no matter where life has taken you. It's okay to go through times of struggle or growth, but it's not okay to give up and just accept crummy circumstances. As a Happy Hot Mess myself, I'm here to show that it's alright to fall, trip, and stumble.
You just have to get back up again. No matter how many times life knocks you down, you keep getting up and trying again.
Anything that typically can happen, does indeed happen to me. Thus over a million hilarious, strange, and just gasp-in-shock unbelievable things that have occurred over my lifetime.
Growing up, I was always the kid who broke their bones in the most random ways. I was the kid who would get sick, or have awful allergic reactions (think face swelling up like Will Smith in the movie Hitch) to random things such as my little sisters guinea pig. I mean sheesh, I even got a rare disease, Cat Scratch Fever, (and no I’m not talking about the rock song by Ted Nuget) from my kitten when I was 5 and had to be in the hospital for an extended stay.
Over the years, I have just learned to deal and cope with this unexpected way of life. Instead of focusing on the bad, I have worked very hard to see the silver lining so to speak. Each situation can be viewed with either a cup half-empty or half-full perspective and I've found that laughing and smiling is a much better way to get through tough times!
My dear husband Jake has really helped me over the years come to terms with my "hotmessness" as I'll coin it. I used to constantly be apologizing for spilling this or tripping over that. Always abashedly exclaiming, "I'm so sorry I'm so clumsy!" Jake has helped me to work a little mind magic and every time I inevitably drop something, or accidentally break another glass he just looks at me and says, "It's okay Baby. You're fluid, not clumsy. Speak positively to yourself. You're fluid, you'll do better next time."
This type of mind mantra magic has really helped me to see life through a new set of eyes. In the time we live in, I feel that others are so quick to magnify their flaws and quirks as something “bad”. That we must hide those things that make us stick out from the standard status quo. This is such a toxic thought pattern in our society.
Through hard work and personal growth, I have learned how to love myself, mistakes, flaws and all. I have learned that the things that I used to wish would just go away or that I could "fix" are actually what make me uniquely me.
The Happy Hot Mess is here to encourage, inspire, and enable everyone to learn to love themselves, flaws and all. Life is never going to be perfect. There will mountains and valleys throughout every season that we are here on this Earth. My brand is to show others that it is possible to be happy no matter where life takes you. You can be a hot mess express and still find that song in your heart and bounce in your step.
The Happy Hot Mess will be a real-life blog. Not your Instagram, picture-perfect hoo-ha. I will be as authentic as if you and I were sitting across from each other at a local coffee shop pouring our hearts out to one another. Nothing that I suggest or post will entail something that I have not personally been using or implementing in my own household.
Welcome to my journey. It will not be perfect, and I'm still not even quite sure where this magic school bus will take us. But sometimes the journey is the best part, and I can guarantee it will be filled with lots of laughs along the way.
We're in this together.
