from the blue house:
homeschooled, usually barefoot, always finding creative ways to avoid math. I grew up in a tiny blue house with nine siblings and a childhood that lived outdoors more than in.
It wasn’t the quiet kind of childhood. it was loud, free, unpredictable —the kind you don’t fully appreciate until you go out into the world and realize most people didn’t grow up like that. i spent years trying to smooth out the girl i was, make her normal, make her blend. shocker: she didn’t.
Turns out all roads lead back home, and eventually, you stop trying to outrun where you came from.
eventually, you just grow into it. But that was who we were always meant to be.
What that childhood did give me was an unreasonable curiosity. a wandering heart. an instinct to document everything. a desire to see the world even though i had zero money, zero skill, and a mother who kept saying,
“do it scared. do it messy. do it anyway.”
so here i am—still doing things that way.
The Range is the scrapbook of it all:
- Surviving student teaching
- Running because I actually like it now
- Places I’ve wandered into, on purpose or otherwise
- Travel tips from the scenic-route girl
- Memories worth writing down before they blur
- Roadtrips with good music and bad directions
- Fishing, hiking, and anything that gets me outside
- Faith moments that surprised me
- Learning to meet new people in my twenties
- Eating in a way that feels good
- Projects and crafts that spark something
- Recipes I actually make at home
- Things I’m learning as I grow
This isn’t the beginning. The beginning is in the closet of my childhood room. It is on the bottom shelf, where stacked journals are full of every version of me I didn’t want to forget.
Grab a blanket,
light a candle,
and be inspired to chase your spark:)