About Me

Hi there, I’m Lisa, a teacher of middle schoolers by day and a student of living a simple and healthy lifestyle ALL the time!

I was born, raised, and currently live in Central Ohio. My husband and I are aspiring homesteaders on our two-acre property in Galena. You’ll surely be reading about plenty of our adventures and misadventures on this blog.

A Blog Is Born

For a long time, I’ve been writing about books, food, travel, and crafting in a sort of bloggy way. Little vignettes that have just been living a quiet existence in my head and on my computer. But sharing these thoughts and experiences, and interacting with like-minded people, seems like a much more meaningful option.

So what you will find here:

  • Book-related reflections and referrals
  • Recipes, how-to’s, and other culinary musings—with an eye toward nutrition and wellness
  • Travel stories inspired by places that have been hiding in plain sight close to home as well as far off destinations
  • Adventures in creativity (it seems like there is always a new craft to explore)

If any of these things are up your alley, I hope that you will find something helpful, entertaining, or inspiring from the blog.

My Personal Motto (or, A Lesson in Oversharing)

A few years back, I had the idea that it would be fun to draft my personal motto. A little credo that I could look at on a daily basis to center myself and remind me of the kind of person I aspire to be. I asked myself, What is important to me? What do I value? What kind of life do I want to live? Big questions! Lots of thinking, reflecting, journaling ensued. In the end, here is what I came up with:

Kindness
Simplicity
ZEST!

For me, a successful day is one during which I treated others (and myself) with kindness, kept things honest and simple, and approached adventures and obstacles with energy and optimism.

Do I live out this motto with Zen-like perfection every day? Check the items off each night like a to-do list? Heck no. But those are my goals. I’m a work in progress and I appreciate the chance to be better each day than I was the day before.