about

My entire life I knew I wanted to start my own business. I have a background in business and a heart for creativity. I started out in sales my first year out of college and then made my way into the teaching world. I taught special education, math, and business for about 5 years. I LOVE teaching and I LOVE education. I learned so much in the years I spent teaching and if I didn’t love blogging even more, I would definitely be a high school teacher the rest of my life.

The year prior to me starting a blog, I was at a place in my life where I felt like I was not quite on the same “path” as the people around me. Most women around me were starting a family and entering new chapters in their lives. God made it clear to me that he had something different in mind. I also felt this conviction in my heart that I wasn’t fully utilizing the gifts that God has given me to grow his Kingdom.

my path

This also was a time in my life where God challenged me the most in my faith. Obstacle after obstacle was put in front of me that challenged every bone in my body to trust in God’s power and faithfulness. I lived and still live a very “safe” life. I never was and I’m still not a risk-taker. I could feel God challenging me in this area of my life by putting things in front of me that was out of my control…situations where all I could do was lean on him. I’ve found that oftentimes when you fully lean on God, you look like the crazy one. Either people will isolate you because you seem crazy, or people will draw closer to you because they are the ones who have challenged you to lean on Him in the first place.  

Between both my conviction of not fully using my gifts and not taking leaps of faith, I sat down with my husband one night during dinner and told him about my idea of starting a lifestyle blog. At first, Michael laughed and said, “what’s that?” and “that’s weird.” I may have gotten a little “defensive” because at this point I had a vision in my head of what I felt God was calling me to do. After a great conversation, Michael and I were on the same page and we haven’t looked back since. My husband is my photographer/videographer and he even picks out my pictures each day I post. It has been fun doing this together!

I’ve journaled for about 10 years now. In that time I’ve filled about eight books worth of journals starting from my sophomore year of college until today. I don’t journal every day, but I journal whenever I feel lost, worried, fearful, thankful, or in need of guidance. It was my way of organizing my thoughts and it allowed me to go back and read how God had answered my prayers. It’s a live recording of how God has worked and is working in my life these past eight years. I wanted everyone to experience the same joy I felt as well as show others they’re not alone. That is when I thought of starting a blog.

I didn’t want to literally make my blog a journal—because there is a time and place to share your own personal story, but I wanted to create a space where women of all ages, shapes, sizes and backgrounds feel connected and empowered. I want to share what tools and resources have helped me during the highs and lows in my life. At the same time, I wanted to provide you with practical things like workouts, hikes, travel tips, current devotionals I am reading, recipes, affordable fashion, and cheap ways to travel with your family. I also wanted to share a positive side to social media. A healthy relationship with being able to post about yourself without making it actually about yourself. I wanted my posts to bring light to others without slapping the Bible upside your face. I wanted this space to be a “filler” instead of a “drainer”.

my blog