Ever since I was a little girl, I wanted to be a stay-at-home mom and homemaker. I was blessed enough to have my mom home with me when I was a child, and I wanted my family to have the same experience. Naturally, I loved having my mom home because she took care of all of our basic needs. She ran a well-oiled household; she paid the bills, made sure we were clean, fed, active, and educated all while fostering a sense of community and belonging. But, the true wonder and fascination for me was witnessing her never-ending creativity. I admired her love of gardening and how she took pride in making our modest house colorful and charming. I watched her bake snacks for me to take to school on my birthday each year (Rice Krispie Treats were always my choice). I observed her spending many long days, and late nights, sewing halloween costumes and high school dance dresses for my sisters and me. I fondly recall her helping me decorate my Valentine’s Day card box (weren’t those awesome?!). And don’t even get me started on how bad ass I thought she was when she and a friend invested in a scroll saw to create and sell beautifully hand painted home decor. I wanted to follow in her footsteps.
Fast forward to 2003… I was working as a medical insurance benefit configuration specialist. I began working in the Health Plan / TPA industry shortly after high school and was blessed with the opportunity to continually learn and grow. I had an amazing boss who saw potential in me that I didn’t see in myself. Besides, why did I need potential when my husband at the time and I were planning to start a family? After all, I was going to be a stay-at-home mom and homemaker! We recently built a townhome sized perfectly for our small family. We had an adorable Basset Hound named Ivan (who had a broken butt) and were surrounded by supportive family and friends. We were married for nearly 5 years and were ready to take the next step. In the back of our minds, we knew there was some instability in his job since he was employed by a large airline corporation and the industry was dealing with the aftershocks of the 9/11 tragedy. We talked about starting a family a great deal and came to the conclusion that we couldn’t predict nor control what would happen and therefore decided to proceed with our plan to start a family. Then, it happened, we found out we were having a baby! We were ecstatic and nervous about all of the changes headed our way. One month later, he lost his job. Looking into my first born son’s eyes 8 months later changed everything. I wanted to be a stay-at-home mom and homemaker, but I found myself wanting more for this new family. I developed a strong need to provide for him; to not only take care of our domestic needs but also ensure we’d have the means to purchase a single family home in a good neighborhood, provide him and future children with a good education, and give them a childhood filled with love, joy, and opportunity. It was at that time when I decided to pursue my career further.
In January 2007, I was offered my first leadership position at a start up HealthCare company. This company went on to provide me with the opportunity to grow and develop in so many ways all while being surrounded by a team of people who became my second family. About 6 years ago, after a variety of professional successes and failures, multiple leadership positions in different focus areas, I was provided the opportunity to work with a coach. This professional was brought in to educate our organization on Agile methodology; an approach to delivering work products emphasizing incremental delivery, team collaboration, continual planning, and continual learning. She also taught us Kanban, a lean method to manage and improve work across human systems. I connected with these concepts in a strong way (ok, maybe not so much the continual planning part) so much so that I’ve been known to run a good Kanban board at home when preparing for company or managing a large project. What I learned is far beyond a different (and more satisfying) way to lead and manage work, I took away lessons that apply across all areas of life.
Coincidentally, around the same time, I found myself in a very difficult place in my life. I was unhappy in my life and in my marriage. Due to all of the demands of life as a working mother and the way I dealt (or didn’t deal) with many things up to that point, I was lost. I felt like I didn’t know myself as well as I would have liked and I realized I was allowing life to happen to me instead of living a life I wanted. So, I got divorced and lived happily ever after. HA! If only it were that easy! Really, what I did instead was invest in myself. I invested in getting to know myself again, I began pursuing things which bring me joy, I began learning and growing again, and I put myself back in the driver’s seat. Over the past several years, through connections I’ve made with family and friends, therapy, self-exploration, and working with amazing coaches I am finding myself again. I am learning and growing as a human, a mom, a professional, a leader, and a significant other. And, I am thrilled about what the future holds.
My goal with this website, associated social media platforms, and business is to invite you to learn and grow with me; a jack of all trades, master of none (or perhaps of many). I am here to teach you what I’ve learned as a human, a professional leader and a wanna-be homemaker. I am excited to share with you my passions. My passion for for food, for connection, for growth, and for love.
credits:
What is Agile? By: Aaron Bjork https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/learn/agile/what-is-agile
Wikipedia Kanban (development) – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanban_(development)
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