I thought I’d just write a bit about me, my philosophy on home-making, and my writing here on my new blog.
I’ve done corporate marketing and communications writing for a long while on the northwest coast, including Seattle, and now my home, Portland. Like all mothers, I try to strike a good work-life balance in juggling work demands, work and family. At some point, I began to recognize that the whole modern workaday schedule tends to leave insufficient personal time to reflect and express creative ideas.
I recognize now that one must live with intentionality, and set up habits for personal time, reflection and meditation, and for creative expression. I’ve begun chiselling-out time in my schedule now to have an hour or two of personal time per day, and this blog is a portion of that — it’s a reflection of my creative outlet. It’s not that I think the life and ideas of Jeannette Tomanka and her projects are necessarily all that better than others’, or more deserving of attention — it’s that I wanted a bit of a public journal of some of the things that I do and find inspiration in. The things I post here are partly very personal life landmarks — a resource where I can look back and revisit things that I’ve done before and written before. So, partly it will be some of my train-of-thought personal musings, and also tips and how-tos for those that would like to do some of the fun things that I discover.
During my daily time, I spend part of it in prayer and meditation upon Christ Jesus, and this is an important part of my quiet, peacefulness, and living with intentionality. Sometimes, I’ll garden, or cook, or do some crafts for my children or home. My husband has been completely supportive of the endeavor, and has been encouraging of my creative projects (some of which hilariously encroach upon his peace at times!) — but, by carefully working at it, I’ve mostly been able to iron out my personal time on a nearly daily basis without disrupting our family life — it’s usually when my kids are playing or napping, and in school, and before I go to work, or during my lunch hour.
From my corporate marketing experience, I also decided to monetize parts of my blog and social media activities, so this my disclosure of that — Jeannette Tomanka’s Tips can sometimes include paid endorsements, and advertising. Most of the time, any paid endorsements will be clearly labeled. I’m dedicated to editorial control, though, so any and everything that I would publish will be things that I actually use and like.
Perhaps my work as a writer may involve into a full-time “job” all on its own, and it’s great if that happens, but I’m very humbly thankful for the great life that I have, and I’m not really pushing harder than I want to towards such a goal — the creative outlet here is an end unto itself, and I will get great enjoyment out of it — I’ve transformed some of my private journaling into more publicly creative writing.
I hope you find great inspiration here, and enjoyment of the things that I will post!
May your days be filled with peace and love.
Sincerely,
Jeannette Tomanka
