“I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking,
what I’m looking at, what I see and what it means.”
-Joan Didion

 

Welcome.

How does a deeply private woman stumble into a career as a professional blogger? How does a HGTV.com star walk away from a life of fame and fortune in sunny Los Angeles? How does a wife to a man with a brain tumor waste time whittling away sentences on a keyboard?

And how does a mother who believes in sacred space, in honoring childhood, in keeping your phone on silent (and tucked far, far away) manage to document family moments in the heart of the Midwest?

I suppose you’ll find out. (Or, you could take the shortcut.)

Welcome to Design for Mankind, the journal I’ve been keeping for over a decade. I’ve grown up here, made mistakes here, and learned aplenty here. It’s my home online, where the dustbunnies are infinitely easier to sweep from under the sofa, where the coffee grinds don’t spill onto cracks in the countertop tile.

If you’re new, feel free to get to know me – both the everyday me and the fancy me – and please read this before following along.

You’ll find me here weekly-ish (and here daily-ish), writing about the good and the hard. A few favorites thus far:

This One Sentence Changed My Life (and Marriage)
My 14 Best Blogging Tips for Anyone
Our Adoption Story
Does Finding Our Passion Make Us Happier? No, But This Does
To the Woman Who Can’t Answer the Door
A Simple Trick to Read More Throughout the Day
My 4 Favorite Teas on Amazon (and Why I’m Making the Switch from Coffee)
When Slow Living Brings Tension
A Battle Cry for Women Everywhere
How to Redefine Yourself
On Social Media Envy
A Gentle Mantra for Working Parents

Plus, the post that landed me in The New York Times, my international homeschooling co-op , and the $6 planner I rely on daily.