There is something amazing about being in nature. I delighted growing up on a horse farm with lots of land to explore with my brother and friends. As an adult I realized, after a lot of non-quiet time in a classroom then with three kids at home that I crave the peace that comes working with the land. I love yardwork, its energizing.

When my kids were little the idea of homesteading was appealing, but I lived in a condo and then on 0.24 acres not exactly homesteading building blocks. Instead I taught myself to sew in the condo, and had an Etsy business for a while, however, it was just too much with three kids under four years old. Plus we wanted to homeschool so I dove into that. My homeschooling philosophy in the early years was get your hands dirty so we started growing vegetables to learn about seeds. Plus I naively thought that if I grew it, they would eat it. Ha, ha. The more I grew vegetables and learned about companion planting and using flowers to help vegetables the more amazed I was at the God that created nature! I could go on for hours about the things I’ve learned, sorry to those that have had to listen to my soap box or gotten texts to thin your lettuce patches. It’s all out of love, I promise.

A few years ago my husband, Mark, finally graduated seminary (only took 11 years) and received his first call to become a pastor for youth and family. We moved to a house with more land! Now I quadrupled my old garden size, plus the previous owners had created some stunning gardens around the house. I began to play more with flowers. I’ve always been drawn to flowers in painting and decorating and flowers given away are a great joy!

So now that I have this beautiful vegetable garden space, I wanted it to look beautiful so I added flowers. It’s sort of a “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” syndrome. After I had some flowers, I wanted more. Now I’m buying seeds to cover our yard in blooms. I can’t wait to use them in arrangements!