Welcome to my blog! My name is Eileen and I am a stay-at-home mom who has too many passions to know what to do with! I am an old soul and a free spirit who loves to find new ways to create beauty out of anything! This blog is the hub of all these wonderful passions from homemaking, home renovating, “yardening” (I’m coining this term I made up… it is a mix of gardening, homesteading, foraging and other yard related things), homeschooling, parenting, crafting, writing, and the list goes on. I am but a novice in all of these areas but learning is at the heart of all my passions and is one of my favorite past-times. I am totally that kid whose mom tries to help them tie their shoes and the kid says, “no! I want to do it!”. I am a full on Do It Yourself-er. It’s a gift and a curse… I see just about anything and think, I can do that! Don’t get me wrong, I have my limits but I love embarking on any sort of adventure that includes creating.

This blog was birthed out of a desire to begin sharing my passions and adventures in such a way that hopefully inspires others. I have found that there are a great many number of people in life who have a hard time looking at something and thinking I can do that. If that’s you, I hope through my own ups and downs, do’s and don’ts, successes and failures, you can begin to get a sense of your own passions and find the confidence to pursue them too. Because, if I can do it, you can do it!

In addition to all of the the DIY posts I’d love for this to be a place to connect on a deeper level. This blog wouldn’t be here if it hadn’t have been for me recently learning how to more deeply connect with myself emotionally. I have always loved words but never considered myself a writer. It was never something I excelled at in my school days. I always thought good writers were really special people who were just deeper than the rest of us. Writing was not something I had the “I can do that” spirit with. Up until this past year, if you asked me to write a poem I don’t know that I could have, at least, I never had before. It wasn’t until one night at a really low point in my life that a poem sprouted up out of my pain. Like a wildflower popping up in the crack of a concrete slab. I have a long history of being very disconnected to my emotions. That difficult night, in an effort to make sense of what emotions and thoughts were swirling around in my head, I started penning words and forming them into rhymes. Something about writing to a cadence was therapeutic for me. Like opening a tightly sealed jar by rhythmically turning the lid (see how poetic I am now? I’m so deep talking about wildflowers and jars and stuff). I immediately wrote a second poem that night and have since then written more poems than I can count (not because I can’t count that high, but because it’s too much of a hassle to try and count them all, and the number keeps growing). I’ve fallen in love with this beautiful new art as a method of connection. It totally aligns with so many of my other passions that involve creating something beautiful out of anything including pain. I guess you could say I was a poet and I didn’t even know it….. I know… I’m sorry… But I had to! 

I find much of my inspiration for my writings, crafts and various projects, from nature. I try to surround myself with it. My husband knows better than to bring me typical, cut flowers when he wants to be romantic. A real living plant is the way to my heart! My yard is full of them. There is a peace and a connectedness I feel when I’m in nature that I don’t find anywhere else. It’s my escape—my happy place. It’s where I go to find clarity and to listen to the source of all creativity and beauty, with the Creator himself. What better place than amongst his creation? I have learned so much about His nature, my nature and about the nature of life through his amazing creation. I can’t help but be drawn back to it time and time again, hoping for another glimpse into his heart. 

If you’re at all familiar with the Christian Bible, you will also notice that many of my poems reference scripture. It wasn’t until I started writing my own poetry that I had a new perspective on many of the poetic Psalms and scriptures in the Bible. Becoming a poet myself helped me relate to these ancient poets in a way that I never fully grasped before. Feelings are one of God’s greatest gifts that provides us the ability to be in fellowship and connectedness with Him and with each other. We all feel because he feels. We may not be able to relate to much in life if our circumstances and demographics are different, but we can all connect to each others’ feelings.

My poems are not meant to teach truths or state claims. They are not meant to be completely accurate or taken at face value. I’ve found that the process of poetry works best when I abandon being “right” or “accurate” in an attempt to connect with the way something feels. I have learned that there can be a big gap between logic and feelings. Before discovering poetry, I found it hard to ever leave logic. Feelings seemed confusing to me and it was hard for me to make sense of them, so I simply did’t feel them. Poetry is a place where I don’t have to make sense of everything and can simply be in an emotion.

I hope you find yourself connecting at depths you haven’t before and experiencing our magnificent creator in intimate ways as I have. I hope you have fun with me as we laugh, cry and learn together through this crazy adventure of creating beauty out of anything!