I LOVE PROBLEM-SOLVING AND LOGIC

I’ve never been at peace when my life didn’t center around problem-solving.

I discovered during high school that math, in general, came easy to me, and that I had a knack for finding the different angles to come at a problem. It made it easy (and fun) for me to tutor and help kids in my classes who didn’t always understand the way our teachers taught.

Engineers run in my family… I wouldn’t say that everyone expected me to get a degree in engineering, but it surprised absolutely no one. I went to the same school where my dad and uncle had graduated and loved just about every minute.

By my junior year in college, I had found exactly what I loved the most; I worked as a manufacturing engineer on production line equipment- keeping it running, adding new product capabilities, and making improvements that improved production metrics. In short, it was a problem-solvers heaven.

I’ve discovered recently that it’s this superpower of mine that works both as an engineer AND in my home.

Do you know that old saying about marrying a man like your dad? Well, I did it! They were so alike, in fact, that the first time I left them alone together they decided to put organizers up in the closets of my new home. When I returned, my closets looked beautiful and they both had blackened a thumb with their hammers. 

Once we were married and living together, we realized just how alike we are. We both enjoyed our engineering jobs (and sometimes stayed up to all hours fleshing out work problems together), loved spending time with our families, and discovered we had a bit of talent for coming up with home improvement projects and executing them well. When it was time to move, we were both pulled strongly toward the fixer-uppers. 

My husband and I have always been avid DIY-ers, mostly because I dream stuff up and he is the only one I can imagine bringing my plans to life. But also because it’s so satisfying to create something that enhances our lives with its functionality. We love the feeling of a job well done, and again I’ve come to find that my knack for problem-solving helps us most during home improvement projects.

In 2008 we brought home a beautiful baby girl, and in 2014 brought home another beautiful baby girl.

My passion for functionality, problem-solving, and logic came in handy again when we moved into our farm oasis, originally built in 1890, in the late summer of 2019. We had spent 14 years living in our first home at the lake, but I yearned for the quiet and privacy of farm life. And it so happened that the whole family was quickly immersed in the lifestyle. Chad’s joy at the end of mowing the yard. The girls’ love of animals being fostered by the chickens, turkeys, ducks, rabbits, and barn cats.

For me, it’s just the whole of it. Being surrounded by crops and trees and wind. People living a mile away considering us neighbors. Seeing ALL of the stars, hearing the frogs croak in the pond at night, and watching the hustle of the wild animals as the sun started its spectacular set. I couldn’t be happier with our setting.

Our home is a sanctuary. Inside the house is quiet, even in storms. There is plenty of space for everyone to spread out and have their own interests, even if most evenings we end up in the dining room for games or the family room for a movie or catching up on a favorite show.

BUT, the last time our home was updated before we arrived was in the late 80s. Thankfully, our home’s previous owners had wonderful taste and everything was perfectly livable. But we were ready to have lots of fun updating the home to our own taste. Probably something you’re in the hopes of doing yourself.

During all of life’s wonderful events, and while  I wasn’t looking, my girls decided to grow up. When they weren’t being shuttled from place to place for school options, horse riding lessons, dance lessons, or swim practice, they started asking to help. 

Showing them how to do things for themselves and helping them realize they don’t have to accept the status quo if they’re willing to put in a little work became a huge “why” for this blog. I’m already homeschooling them with the sole purpose of teaching them HOW to learn educationally, now I have the opportunity to show them how it applies to every aspect of their lives. 

And, I’m getting an opportunity to not only show up for my girls and make our home a functional space, but also make use of my love of problem-solving.

Sometimes my kids get assigned a task deliberately, like when we needed to replace the toilets of the house and I knew it would be a perfect confidence booster for the oldest. 

Or when the hallway needed to be primed and the youngest could finally help- she’d been begging to help paint but at 8 years old, needed to improve her technique.

They are learning more and more, usually more often on the routine house maintenance things than the bigger projects, and it’s so much fun.

I love hearing what my 15-year-old’s friends say about her spending the weekend ripping up carpet and installing floor tile. 

I personally love the sense of empowerment that comes with something that changes so much visually. It makes me so happy to see my kids loving it as well! 

And I enjoy showing them that every difficult task is just a series of straightforward steps. 

I started Revealing Rock Haven to share the projects that we are undertaking in our home to increase its functionality and make it a truly peaceful place for our family to live. I hope that our projects and experience are both helpful, entertaining, and inspiring. 

My girls have inspired me to expand this blog into a business— to make it a place to come for motivation, direction, and encouragement for home organization and renovation. To help more mothers create functional spaces that work for their whole family, and give them the tools to make these changes themselves.

I want to provide an example of how we are involving our children in what we do as well. I have a dream of sending my children into the world as confident and competent young women, and I love that this teaching is happening side by side, giving us even more time with our children during these years when parents are no longer the center of their worlds.