Welcome

Hi, I’m Aileen

Welcome to my blog and author website! Whether we’re lifelong friends or new friends, I count it a privilege to connect with you in this space.

People often ask me why I blog. During the years I cared for my mother, I was largely confined to my home. My blog was a lifeline to the outside world. Now Mama is home with Jesus, and I’m finding I still need to write. If my blog has a certain potpourri vibe, that’s because I can’t narrow my interests to only one or two topics! Whatever I love, I assume someone else will love too, and that becomes a topic for a blog post. Sometimes I write a deep reflective piece, and the discipline of finding the right words helps me sort my own heart and mind. Sometimes I share a recipe or a poem. Sometimes I take you with me to my favorite places and let you experience them through my photography. And at the end of each year, I recap all the great books I read that year, because books will always be my favorite pastime!

Mostly I write because life is better shared, and I love that geography does not limit community. So welcome, Friend. If you’re new here, drop me a line and introduce yourself!

Woman sitting on an ornate vintage iron bed holding yellow lab puppy

If you’re a new friend, here are some things you may want to know about me:

  • At my deepest core, I belong whole-heartedly to the God who created and redeemed me. As God’s grateful girl, I’ve spent a lifetime trying to fully comprehend “how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.” (Eph. 3:18)
  • My family is my world. My husband is “car guy” with a ministry heart. We raised three amazing kids who are now scattered across the country, and we take every opportunity to be together. We’ve found grand-parenting to be the frosting of life!
  • Other than my overarching endeavor of parenting, my work life falls into three chapters: ministry, career, and caregiving.
  • I was an 18-year-old newlywed when we started our work at the children’s home, the same age as some of the kids! After skipping college to begin ministry, it was a special joy to be a student again in my 30s. I spent five happy years getting degrees in English and Communication and working on the college newspaper.
  • After college, I worked at a global manufacturing company for 17 years. I loved my work and my colleagues, and have many happy memories from my career stage. The end of my career chapter launched the beginning of my caregiving chapter — another highly formative season.
  • I took care of my mother for six years, and she lived with us for most of that time. If you’ve read my book, Walking Mama Home, you know all about that story. If not, get a copy today! 🙂 Her dementia deepened throughout the COVID pandemic, and it was nearly my undoing. God is gracious, and Mama is now safely home.
  • My husband and I spent the first 14 years of our marriage at a residential children’s home in Oklahoma, a highly formative chapter of our lives. We were houseparents for most of those years, parenting from 10-12 children at any given time. Several of those kids lived with us for years and are still a part of our family. Perhaps my heart for vulnerable children stems from generational pain, as two of my grandparents were abandoned as children.
  • My caregiving experience has taken me down a path I never could have imagined. It left me with a heart for people who are currently navigating that “valley of the shadow of death.” In my official retirement chapter, I channel that compassion into volunteering for our local hospice house. It’s a privilege to stand watch at the bedside of the dying and to hug and listen to the precious family members in their grief.
  • My happy place is a cabin in the mountains of Wyoming. As a third generation Wyoming native, the scent of pine and sage has seeped deep into my DNA.
  • I adore dogs! When we lost our beloved red-bone coonhound at the tender age of 10, it took me a year to prepare my heart to love another dog. And now we have Dolly Jo, a sassy yellow lab who, as God is my witness, sheds a full dog every other day! Someday she’ll be a therapy dog….I hope.

Fun Facts About Me

I’d rather be

in the mountains

Listening to

a podcast

grateful for

the peace of Christ

Favorite place

the wilds of Wyoming

my weekends

football & family

best snuggle buddies

Dolly Jo