ABOUT


A bit about me:
Hi there. My name is Megan. I am a Midwest girl at heart~ but exploring the world is in my soul.
I grew up reading cookbooks, collecting "Hints from Heloise" newspaper clippings that I would glue to index cards and cleaning our kitchen cabinets when my mom wasn't looking ( I always had a sneaking suspicion that spices went bad after a decade..my parents didn't agree).

My Family
I am a mom to 3 boys...all spaced 3.5 years apart (you can see photos of those beauties here)This spacing was not planned but rather seemed to be the perfect amount of time to find sanity and sleep once again.

Our Past. Our Present.
Ohio isn't where we envisioned raising a family but life never happens quite like we plan. We spent the first years of marriage training for tribal missions work (more about that here). We spent a few years after that traveling the world and leading high school and college students on trips to remote third world areas.
Eventually our lives became a little more domestic as our boys came along. Our memories of trekking through coffee plantations, climbing the Great Wall and having our 4X4 break down in the Mongolian countryside on a near daily basis are magical. And now we get to make new memories around things like soccer games, dinner with neighbors and family game night. Just as perfect.

About our daily lives.... its a little less than ordinary, I suppose. I own an international print magazine (more about that here). I travel and speak and edit and dream up really cool things that get put on bookstore shelves for people to buy and read. How cool is that?! I get to champion women in their business journey and that's a pretty incredible honor.

As for my three boys, our oldest son started a company at the age of 5 (more about that here). You can find him most days with his nose in a book or practicing his upright bass. Our middle son, Ezra, plays endless soccer and spends far too long each day fixing his hair. Otto, the youngest, has made us laugh more in 4 years than we had in the previous 30+ combined.

I love life. I really LOVE life. The ups the downs, the ebb and flow of it all. 



The Art of Homemaking:
The blog started nearly 10 years ago. Ten!!! For the first few years it was really just my way to journal life with the boys (it was my solution to the hours of scrapbooking that I had no interest in.) It was pretty bland and boring those first couple of years with posts like "salmon for dinner". Nonetheless it got me writing and brainstorming and in a creative mindset when I was just a young stay-at-home-mom with wee ones underfoot.
 I feel like the luckiest girl ever to have met so many friends around the world because of my little corner of the blog world and for the doors it opened for sharing my discoveries of timeless homemaking principles that still have so much importance in our own homes to this day.
Somedays I post recipes from the kitchen and other days a crafty tutorial. Somedays you might read a random thought about life or I will share something that has been motivating and encouraging me. If you ever have a desire to guest post, drop me a line!

Freelance writing advice:
Alot of people ask me how I started freelance writing without a journalism degree (or any college degree for that matter!). The short of it...someone gave me a chance. One day while washing dishes I thought, "I wonder if I could write for a local paper about homemaking principles?" I made a list of all of the editors in town and started pounding out emails...all were sent before dinner that night. It didn't take long before I was given the opportunity at my first writing job, for my first editor, who is now my writing mentor; Mr. Clark. I can't imagine I would have made it very far in this whole writing thing without him.
Over time I began writing for dozens of editors across the country on both magazines and newspapers. Of course, now I own a magazine and am that editor. But that's another story all together....

If you have an inkling towards making money at writing, my first suggestion o everyone that emails me asking for advice, is to narrow the focus to what you really feel most passionate about. After you've done that, get some good content under your belt that showcases that exact topic on your blog. Become an expert! Lastly, start emailing and pitching ideas. Locally. Don't try to contact Better Homes and Gardens right out of the gate. It will take weeks...maybe months to be given your first opportunity. Don't give up.

10 Things About Me:
 
1. Growing up I spent countless Saturday afternoons with my single dad at the movie theater. Sometimes we would watch 2 or 3 films in a weekend. I think I had my fill and now the thought of sitting in a movie theater for a full length film makes me feel a bit crazy.

2. I am a pizza girl. I could eat it everyday. I also love cheese (all cheese...goat cheese being at the top of the favorites list), avocados, olives, medjool dates, mozzarella sticks and brats with sauerkraut.

3. I dislike country music. Unless it is pre-1995. Then I love it

4. I love to dance. I'm not excellent at it. Nonetheless, I dance, all the time (usually alone...but not by choice).

5. My perfect Saturday? Wake up early and make a big breakfast while listening to bluegrass music. Head out to the farmers market (it will be chilly because all perfect Saturdays happen in October), grab some goodies and make it back home in time for a noon kickoff (college football, that is). Spend the afternoon drifting between the kitchen for snacks (pizza rolls and beer, of course), the bedroom for a cat nap, the dining room table to make the next Scrabble word and the TV for game updates. End the day with a pot of beef stew, a hearty loaf of crunchy bread and a bottle of red wine. Yep...that's pretty perfect.

6. My celebrity crush has always been Paul Newman.

7. I cannot play a good game of volleyball to save my life.

8.  99% of what I read is non-fiction. In fact, the only fiction writer that I have followed over the years has been Maeve Binchy. She's legit.

9. I really love shopping. Like finding-the-deal-of-the-century shopping. Places like Walmart and Target do nothing for me. But put me in a Saks Fifth Avenue or Nordstrom and I'll find the $400 shirt for $8. I have the golden touch when it comes to that sort of stuff.

10. I can't remember the last time I painted my fingernails.


I hope that helps you get to know me a bit more. Of course, I'd love to learn more about you too. So please email anytime and introduce yourself~

xo