If you are wondering what I am planning to write about, this blog post is for you!

But first, a few disclaimers to set the stage:

• I am NOT a professional writer.  There are likely to be punctuation and spelling errors from time to time.  That being said, I am the granddaughter of an English teacher and I do try my best to keep things as easy to read as possible.  Modern technology has also provided me with spell check, which I will be utilizing.
• We are a Christian family, and I may at times quote the Bible or make statements of faith.  Though I’m not planning to write anything majorly controversial, I do acknowledge that the thoughts I put on these pages are my own and may not line up with your personal beliefs.  Please be respectful when making comments, it is never my intention to start a major debate.
• The internet can be a scary place.  For that reason, I have chosen to use only the first initial of each of our children’s names as their ‘identifier’ for the blog.  If you know our family in real life, please refrain from commenting with their actual names.
• I will be adding a lot of original photos and sketches to this website. If you feel inspired by any of the content – please feel free to use the Pinterest button provided at the bottom of each post to pin it to your own board or contact me and ask permission for it’s use.

OK, whew!  Feels good to get that out of the way!  Now on to the fun stuff!

If you were to google ‘what should I write about in my blog’ – that smarty pants search engine would advise you to write about what you KNOW and what you LOVE.

That really helps to narrow down the field.  I have to say that most, if not all, of my life I have dreamed of two things – being a mom, and designing houses.  Happily, both of those dreams have come true for me.  I graduated with an architecture degree in 2004 and promptly began working full time for an architectural firm.  There were a mix of projects that I was given some free reign on; but my favorites by far were the houses.  I just love the personal nature that each house design takes on – crafted to meet the needs of it’s occupants on such an intimate level.  At the end of 2006 when our first son was born, I jumped head first into my new motherhood role and began staying home with him.  Thankfully I was able to continue doing some house design work part time from home – and have continued to do so ever since – while adding four additional children to the family (two boys and two girls).  I am so appreciative that the architecture firms I work for have allowed me the freedom and flexibility to work from home and be there for my kiddos whenever they need me.

And so here I am, 15 years a wife with about 13 years of designing under my belt – and just over 10 being a mom.  Craig and I joke that we have spent the last 15 years growing our family and now we can focus on growing AS a family.  That prospect excites us both greatly.

Now that we have our completed family, we are ready to move onto the next chapter – to design and build a house of our own.  This has been on our minds for years (more on that on the next blog post) and the time has finally come! I KNOW my family, I LOVE my family.  I KNOW how to design houses, I LOVE to design houses (and will LOVE to design a house for my FAMILY most of all!).  So there you have it…

This blog (and connected website) will primarily follow the designing and eventually building of our future cottage/house; But no house design could be properly executed without knowing about the family that will live there – so I will share bits of our family life also.  I hope you are excited to join us on this journey!