About

About me? That is a hard thing to write. There is so much about me I would like to share; it is hard to know where to start. I could talk about my alcoholism and the long road to being 9 years sober or on a joyous note, we could talk about my childhood and how fun it was for the most part. As humans, we are all complicated in our own way. We have all seen the good and the bad, we have all learned our own life lessons and we have all had choices we wished we would have made differently. Throughout life we all experience some form of trauma or hardship and some of us have been fortunate enough to fight through it and emerge with better relationships and understanding on the other side. I created this blog mostly to help me process my thoughts and to share with others the struggles that I go through and the methods I use. My struggle might as well help someone other than me. 

I am a 40 something year old woman, I own a restaurant with my husband Ken who is the Chef (probably the best one I know) at Hatfield’s Goode Grub. We met when I was working at my church as a custodian. I took the position at the end of an 11-month spiritual sabbatical. I left my “real job” to follow my faith; a story better told later. My husband was in the states at the time for some medical care after living on a ship abroad for 4 years. He always came to church to talk to the new female custodian: me.

While here Ken had started a food truck business and I became his first paid employee. (I even persuaded medical benefits). I started working for him full time, until one night we went swing dancing. I didn’t even realize it was our first date and within 8 months, we were married, took on a new business partner (his mother: Maw), and opened a new restaurant.

It was a whirlwind to say the least. He was way more experienced than I was in life and in business. He is 10 years older than me and has been in the food business for about 30 years. My strengths lie on the administrative and creative side of things. When we first started out, I taught myself what I needed to know to run things more efficiently, and we both kept God at the center of everything we did. 

Ken and I both have struggles with addiction and recovery in our backgrounds and we have also both been married previously. I have no children and an endless list of reasons not to ever have one, and he has one son, age 29, and a granddaughter, age 7.

As I write this at the restaurant it is 8am (3 hours before we open) and Chef is getting pork butts ready to smoke and I am writing in my “kitchen office” (a metro rack with a shelf just the right height to an outlet so I can work and help in the kitchen when needed). This isn’t every day, but it is one of the good ones. 

I love working together because we are an odd pair. His part of the business is more physical and mine more mentally challenging but, our talents complement each other well. We both work super hard and are together most hours of the day. However, we rarely bicker and when we do its short-lived and we shrug it off and laugh. We refer to ourselves as an anomaly because we rather pull together and figure it out then argue as married couples tend to do. We have managed to turn a food truck into a restaurant and catering business that sustains both of us and 24 employees.

 But, enough about that. This is about me, right? So, who am I? Other than a married, 42-year-old, recovered alcoholic, restaurant owner. Well, let me tell you…

I am a gardener, a researcher, a dreamer, and a visionary. I have more ideas than I know what to do with sometimes. I am unrealistically enthusiastic at times about seemingly impossible things. I do not think there are many coincidences in this word. I believe in divine appointments and those happen every minute of the day. I am adventurous and would love nothing more than to travel the world forever. If I had to pick a word to describe my spirit, it would be nomadic.

This is my open invitation to you to join me while I figure it all out, thrive and succeed and crash and burn. I hope you enjoy my stories, learn from my failures and stick around to celebrate my successes.  

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