Home inStead: Reflections on Family, Place, and Meaningful Work

There are seasons in life when success looks remarkably different than it once did.

For years, my work has been centered around education. Teaching, coaching, curriculum design, research, professional development. I've loved the challenge of solving complex problems, collaborating with educators, and building systems that help children and the adults who support them thrive. That work remains deeply meaningful to me.

But life has changed.

I'm now raising two young children. My days are measured less by meetings and projects and more by naps, snack requests, neighborhood walks, library books, and the beautiful unpredictability of life with little ones. At the same time, I'm still drawn to the work that has shaped my career and identity. Rather than choosing one over the other, I'm learning what it looks like to hold both.

Today, I'm excited to share two new chapters for Knowledge Exchange Network.

First, KEN is now officially an LLC as I begin offering independent consulting services, partnering with schools and organizations to continue contributing to the field I love.

Second, I'm introducing a new blog series: Home inStead.

The name is intentionally layered.

It's a play on homestead. A nod to cultivating a life rooted in place, relationships, and stewardship. It's also home instead: choosing, at least for now, a career downshift to build my work around home rather than building a home around my work. And lastly it is in stead, signifying this time as standing in place of the version of success I once imagined, while discovering one that feels more aligned with the life we're building today.

For me, this is a story about redefining what meaningful work can look like.

Family

One of the greatest gifts of this season has been the opportunity to be more present with my children.

Like many parents, I've wrestled with questions that don't have easy answers. How much is enough professionally? What do I want my children to remember about these early years? How do I continue making an impact as a professional while embracing the irreplaceable work of caregiving?

But I've realized that caregiving isn't separate from my professional identity. It has expanded it.

Every day I find myself observing, wondering, experimenting, and learning in ways that deepen my understanding of child development, education, relationships, and community. Home has become another classroom, another research site, another place where knowledge is exchanged.

Place

One unexpected lesson has been how much place shapes the way we live.

As we've become parents, we've found ourselves wanting to spend more time in Michigan, where both of our families live, where we grew up, and where our children have the chance to know their grandparents, extended family, and the rhythms of another community.

It has made me think often about the idea of the village.

People talk about finding your village as though it's a single place or a single group of people. But what happens when your life is rooted in more than one community? When pieces of your support system, your history, and your identity exist in different places?

Sometimes it feels like we have two places we call "home." Sometimes it feels like we have none.

Home inStead will explore that tension. Not just geographically, but emotionally. What does it mean to build community across places? How do we create a sense of belonging when our lives stretch beyond one neighborhood, one school district, or one definition of home? How do we intentionally cultivate a village for our children when the people we love most are spread across state lines?

I don't have the answers. But I think they're questions worth asking.

Meaningful Work

For much of my career, professional growth meant moving upward. More responsibility, more leadership, more impact.

This season has invited a different kind of growth.

I've intentionally stepped back from traditional full-time work, not because I've become less ambitious, but because my ambitions have expanded. I want to build meaningful partnerships through consulting. I want to continue creating resources for educators. I want to write. I want to be present for ordinary weekday mornings with my children. I want to invest in my family, my community, and the people who have invested so generously in us.

I no longer see these goals as competing with one another. I see them as connected.

Meaningful work isn't defined solely by a job title or a promotion. Sometimes it's found in mentoring a school leader. Sometimes it's found in writing something that helps another parent feel less alone. Sometimes it's found in preparing dinner, planting a garden, reading one more bedtime story, or saying yes to a vacation with grandparents because those opportunities won't always be there.

Perhaps the most meaningful work we do is the work of building a life that reflects our values.

Looking Ahead

Home inStead will be a place for thoughtful reflections on caregiving, homemaking, education, professional identity, and the everyday decisions that shape a meaningful life.

Some posts will be practical. Others will be personal. Many will live somewhere in between.

We'll explore questions about parenting, learning, home, community, career, and what it means to stay professionally rooted while intentionally growing in different directions.

If you've ever wondered whether it's possible to pursue meaningful work while slowing down, to stay intellectually engaged while embracing caregiving, or to build a life that feels deeply rooted even when it spans more than one place, I hope you'll find something here that resonates.

Thank you for joining me for this next chapter.