Welcome to Her Heart At Home.

I’ve got coffee brewing and a tray of cinnamon rolls right from the oven. Come in and enjoy them while we get better acquainted.

It’s sad that’s not actually possible. But I hope you grab your favorite treat, get comfortable and spend some time reading here.

I’m Sarah, a wife, mother, mother-in-law, Nana and… a writer.

As a young wife and mother, my husband and I left the cult we were raised in. We had two children under five, a baby on the way and not even fifty dollars to our name. This catapulted us into an ocean of unknowns and a seemingly endless amount of things to learn and then do. We were spectacularly unprepared for living in “the world”.

I was an adult and parent, but just learning how the world worked. Navigating health issues in myself and one of our children, meeting the unending needs of my young and growing family, struggling in a marital relationship both of us found quite difficult while also learning how to live in a world very different from the one I’d been raised in. And trying to make heads or tails out of the very rigid belief system I’d spent most of my life in.

Soon, I became completely overwhelmed by the constant “fires” burning everywhere I looked in my life.

All these “fires” catapulted me onto a heart journey I’m still on today.

I think it’s always nice to know a little about the person behind the blogs I read, so here’s a bit about me.

– My favorite season is fall. Maybe it’s an echo of my early childhood in southern Ohio where Indian summer can be a glorious, colorful, fragrant time. Alaskan falls happen quickly. Highlighting beautiful shades of yellows, with hints of red and the pungent smell of cranberries. Then… poof… they’re gone.

– From age five to twenty-nine, I lived communally in different isolated, mostly self-sufficient communities ranging in size from 23 to 150 people. I learned how to work hard at a very young age; which I’m thankful for. I also learned much that I’ve had to work hard to unlearn.

-I love Christmas! The sights, sounds, smells, beauty and traditions shared universally, but also the ones uniquely our own.

-I love history, spending most of my free time immersed in it. I’m particularly interested in the American Civil War, the so called ‘Dark and Middle Ages’ and the history of Christianity.

-I’ve been married 33 years as I’m writing this. We have three grown children, two who have spouses whom we love as our own. And I’m Nana to two precocious boys and a little girl we’re excitedly awaiting later this year.

Why I started Her Heart At Home

It’s my hope that some of what I’ve learned through my journey of maturation and soul healing will be a blessing and help to those reading here.

In 1979, Mother Teresa gave her Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech (you can read it here). She spoke poignantly of the need to love the poor, not just with words, but through action. She ended by stating, “And if we love, naturally, we will try to do something. First in our own home, our next-door neighbor, in the country we live, in the whole world.”

She closed with this. “And let us all join in that one prayer: God give us courage to protect the unborn child, for the child is the greatest gift of God to a family, to a nation and to the whole world. God bless you!” (italics mine.)

Family and family relationships are the most powerfully impacting things in life. Be they good or bad.

For the vast majority of us, it is through these closest of all relationships, spouse to spouse and parent to child, we will make our biggest impact.

Yet, so many of us start our own families with some type of relational or love deficit often received in our own childhoods.

Because of this, we need soul-healing, maturation or both in order to create the healthy relationships and family our heart desires and, ultimately, the world at large needs for its betterment.

This was very true of me.

I’m passionate about the “stuff” of our hearts, especially in relation to our own homes. It’s so powerfully important! What is happening in our heart immeasurably affects the health of our home. And I truly believe the surest way to heal the world is through personal soul health, strong and healthy family circles, and the power of ripple effects.

I hope Her Heart At Home encourages like-minded women in their own pursuit of inner wellness and healthy family heritages.