“I can endure all these things through the power of the one who gives me strength.” PHILIPPIANS 4:13

I am very excited!! I have recently had some big changes in my life. Found myself living in a very different house…not really an empty nest but pretty close. Most certainly an atmosphere I hadn’t experienced in 34 years! Our youngest went off to college but comes home some weekends and of course on her breaks. I am sure that will change swiftly when her softball season starts to kick in come January. So needless to say, the house has become a lot quieter and my Momma duties have slowed way down! Part of me is heartbroken, but the part of me that has been put on hold for all these decades…and I wouldn’t change it for anything, has had an exploding rebirth!

It took me a while to accept this. It’s like I didn’t know HOW to be myself…well, my old self. It felt completely unnatural. I found myself having time for things I hadn’t even THOUGHT about in so long. Like taking time to really FIX my hair or OMG going to bed ON TIME!!! I hadn’t had more than 4-6 hours sleep a night in decades! I have since remembered how WONDERFUL sleep can be! Been cleaning out closets, drawers, reading, crocheting, etc. Amazingly though, still feeling like something was missing. I was having a hard time TRUELY enjoying this new found existence. Couldn’t shake the sadness of all my babies being gone and I couldn’t settle into it. Something or SOMEONE was working on me and I just hadn’t figured it out yet.

When I was growing up I had a plan from a VERY young age. I WAS going to be a Mom and the best one that ever lived! I knew as the years went by that I had talents that God gave me. Talents that could have been very marketable or could have turned into some nice careers for me…but, none of that mattered to me. I told my husband before we even walked down the aisle that I was going to be at home with our children, and if that wasn’t something he agreed with than he needed to find another girl! Luckily for me he agreed and didn’t run for the hills!

Now let’s face it, not having 2 substantial incomes in a family nowadays is a struggle. And we did our share of struggling to make ends meet…and sometimes we didn’t. I always did what I had to do to bring in extra money and still be able to be at home. Fortunately, we were blessed with my Husband’s hard work up the ladder and his income growing over the years that we were able to make it all work and send our kids to college. It has never been easy and still isn’t but that’s how life is. God never promised us a perfect life…but He did promise EVERLASTING life and to be with us always.

When we took a transfer with my Husband’s company to Tennessee I had the opportunity to not have to work. We were in a new place and we needed to get settled and had a 6th grader, (our other 3 kids were grown or in college and stayed in Ohio) who at the time had a lot of adjustments to make. So, we felt we would revisit bringing in some extra income at a later date. Once we were settled, I got inspired to do something I had always thought about but never took seriously. Remember, I was MOM and that was my job! I wasn’t exactly sure what lane I would pick, because I enjoy sharing SO many things I have learned over my very educational life! I was often told that I have a plethora of knowledge that I need to share with the world. I was always like…yeah that would be fun and I would really enjoy that…I LOVE to help people and make their lives easier but my life is just too busy and my family needs me…just no time. Well, I started to revisit that idea when I wasn’t working and my daughter was now settled in school and making friends. I started to feel like it could actually be a possibility! Whoa!

Now my oldest son has a knack for technology, among other things, but I knew he was the one I needed to go to for advice of how to implement this great idea I was brewing! So long story short, he helped me take my little concept and form it into a reality. I could see in my mind, almost like a vision, how and where this dream of mine would go and I was ready! So I got to work! Creations_by_Char became a reality! After I felt comfortable with the concept I started a blog and social media pages. I went to work on formulating recipes, tablescapes, holiday entertaining, you name it! I was on a roll!

As time went on, we decided some extra income was needed so I took on some work from home to help out. I was still able though to continue on my mission to make my little “brand” a reality! And, it was beginning to really work!

A little show lol called The Chew on ABC was beginning to use some of my food photography and one day wanted to showcase one of MY recipes ON THE SHOW!!!! I almost died! To this day I still can’t believe it! They literally made my recipe and taste tested it on the air! Michael Symon ate MY Mushroom Horseradish burger on the show LIVE and LOVED it! At that moment I really felt like I was on my way! I felt like maybe my little idea wasn’t so crazy after all! So, I kept at it!

I have NEVER wanted to be famous and STILL don’t want to be. I like my “under the radar” life, but I would love to get paid for my abilities and help our family financially. I kept working hard and the ideas just kept flowing. I truly felt God was helping me along and wanted this to be my path. When He talks, I listen and I really believed he was guiding me down this new road I was on.

As many of you know my new little path was taken down a big detour and brought to a screeching halt when my husband fell ill and had 2 heart attacks. You can read about it in my story called “17 Days” at the top of my blog page.

As with my role as a Mother, I didn’t and still don’t regret my sacrifices as a Wife to help my Husband and my family through that challenging and very scary time of our lives. As you can imagine through those coming years of adjustments, financial struggles, and all the unknowns, my little dream was put back in that little box…for safe keeping…just in case I would be blessed again to open it and say hello. To again revisit that part of “Char” that made an appearance for a short time that I was still so grateful for.

Then to add to all the craziness, we took another transfer and moved back to Ohio. It felt like the right thing to do with all that had happened. We wanted to be close to family and be back with our older kids. So we got settled AGAIN and life went on. We got SUPER busy with school and sports with our youngest and I started working full time from home. My little “dream box” by now was pretty dusty and had cob webs! And still, I was fine with it. The Mom and Wife role was now 24/7 and it wasn’t changing anytime soon!

So, here I am, years later with another opportunity to open that little box. This time however, the feeling of being guided by God is even more strong and I have been listening! I do still work from home so my time is somewhat limited but recently I had some time off and I think God gave me a little kick in the butt and it motivated me! SO….my mind got to work! All those old creative juices started flowing and I am ready to carry on with my plan! We live in a different world now than when I started so my goals and inspirations have changed a little but it’s all still coming from my same heart filled with the desire to spread positivity, creativity, and love.

I want to get back to old fashioned values and bring it to today’s world, our youth, and our beautiful Mother’s, future Mother’s and families. I want to bring back forgotten joys we have lost along the way. I want to share God’s love and inspiration and bring people to His word. I want to get families excited again about the dinner table and slowing down to ACTUALLY talk and enjoy each other. I want to bring attention to the value of prior generations and their knowledge and the beauty of what they lived and experienced. I want to give women the courage and inspiration to take a break and BE OKAY WITH IT…to slow down and see beauty where it has been overshadowed by all the craziness of this world. There is so much in this world to see and appreciate and it lives in simple little places that the forces all around us want to take away and hide forever. I want to with God’s help, bring out my dream and bring about a way of thinking filled with faith, hope, joy, beautiful things, knowledge of all I have learned on my very long journey of hills and valleys, and hopefully have fun along the way! And maybe, y’all will have plenty to teach ME along the way too!

So please join me as I start this new chapter of Creations_by_Char! Please follow me on Instagram and Facebook so you don’t miss it when I finally become brave enough to go LIVE! I plan on going live in my kitchen with cooking, entertaining, holiday planning, crafts, projects, life lessons and so much more! If God gives me enough strength, I may even sing a song or 2! Ya just never know! 🙂

Thank you for supporting me along the way and please spread the word! I want to inspire and help as many as I can! A dream isn’t a dream without beautiful people to join you along the way!

Created with love by:

Creations_by_Char

Char Head 🙂