The more I reflect on it, the more I have had this sense of coming full circle in my journey.

Where I started: a 10-year-old girl on her parent’s potato farm selling sweet corn at her roadside stand.

Where I am: a grown woman surrounded by kiddos, wandering out to the garden every chance she gets, watching her flowers grow, and selling bouquets of blooms (once again at a roadside stand).

There are many chapters between these two parallels that have made life pretty interesting for me in my 32 years. Everyone loves a good CliffsNotes version, don’t they?

My story starts as a farm girl here in Central Wisconsin – it’s here where I spent my summers manning the sweet corn stand (a.k.a. subconsciously developing an entrepreneurial spirit – and also probably my book obsession haha!). I later pursued schooling to become a speech-language pathologist and off to undergraduate, then graduate school I went! Luckily, I decided to stick to a local university for grad school because I was diagnosed with Lymphoma mid-program. In the summer of 2014, I underwent treatment, became a cancer survivor, and completed graduate school thanks to an amazing support system around me. This ‘experience’ gave me serious perspective and kickstarted my lifelong need to live life fully and seek out joy along the way.

Tyler and I married in 2016 and soon after found (truly stumbled across) a newly listed farmhouse property. I’m not kidding when the ‘For Sale by Owner’ sign was being pounded into the yard when I drove past. This is the property that we have poured ourselves into, spent yearrrrs bringing back to life, and welcomed three babies home to. It’s also the property that sits lakeside and has an open slate of yard that is the future home of many cut flower beds 🙂 – hence the name Lake & Bloom.

Flowers entered the scene in 2021. I was no longer working as a speech pathologist and had been running my photography business full time, along with raising my two littles at home. This mama needed a creative outlet just for me and a post about the Growing Kindness Project was suggested for me on Instagram one night as I was mindlessly scrolling. I enrolled the next day and the rest is history. The summer of 2022, I had my first taste of seed-sowing, flower-growing, and flower-giving. My daughter and I spent the season growing beautiful flowers and gifting them to patients at a local oncology clinic – the same clinic where I was treated and gifted a second lease on life.

My other dose of perspective was sent my way in the summer of 2023 (the same summer I had big plans for growing a lot more flowers). We had just welcomed baby #3 into our lives, the growing space was sown and planted, and summer was in full swing! I was up for a midnight feed with the baby, when I started experiencing stroke-like symptoms on one side of my body. I was rushed to the hospital and the scariest few weeks of my life began. These days and weeks were spent running tests and ruling out a stroke and brain tumors, to the ultimate diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis.

Instead of wandering through a garden full of blooms, I watched the weeds take over the garden from my windows. I physically couldn’t even walk to the garden, let alone nurture and enjoy it. I spent the season devoted to my health – nutrition, reducing stress, and working through physical therapy. I retrained my body to walk, balance, run, and ultimately regain my full strength (and then some)!

2024 is here now. The year of perseverance. I am rejuvenated. And I am back – with a renewed dream and a bigger grow list than ever before. *Spoiler alert* – I’m now running and lifting every. day! The little girl who spent her afternoons manning her vegetable stand has come full circle. She’s now the momma who will tote all three of her kids to the cut flower garden – teaching them about the power of hard work and a willingness to bring a vision to life.

These flowers will pass along life lessons to my children, but it’s all about the joy they will bring into our lives. And ultimately your lives as the bouquets find their way to your homes and spaces.

So now – I welcome you to play a part in this growing story. By supporting L+B, you’re helping to bring this beautiful chapter to life. It’s my hope that these bouquets bring you the same sense of happiness that they have given to me when I needed it most.

Cheers to the beautiful, flower-filled season to come!