From Healing Patients to Helping Homeowners

For the last 16 years, I have dedicated myself to nursing. I am passionate about quality patient care; teaching my students how to emulate the qualities of compassion and empathy while mastering top-notch skills has been the highlight of my nursing career so far.

Before I was called to nursing, I explored mechanical engineering. My brain is truly fascinated by the parallels between the human body, building infrastructure, and architectural design (a blog is on my to-do list – somewhere near the bottom). In the meantime, here is a look at some of the connections I’ve made…

Early on in our home restoration, I couldn’t help but laugh when a drain cleaning service came out to inspect our sewer lateral for tree roots – my nursing mind instantly thought, “Colonoscopy” – and when we called an electrician to handle our knob-and-tube wiring, it reminded me of consulting a neurosurgeon. The table below, The Major Systems of Home and Body: A Nurse’s Perspective, captures a few more of the parallels I’ve discovered from my nursing background and hands-on home restoration experience.

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Personal Mission + My Philosophy

I have always been guided by a strong sense of mission in this life – a drive to improve the world in meaningful ways. To help and to heal. I strive to overcome adversity so that my spirit can shine through and continue to show up to the world with kindness and deep empathy for others.

Honeybee’s To Do’s is where I bridge my professional and personal missions.

Being organized, detail-oriented, and compassionate comes naturally to me. I am driven by quality and thrive on process improvement. I love streamlined approaches that simplify life and maximize time for creative hobbies, health, family, friends, and spiritual growth – because sometimes the most productive moments come from simply being, not doing. Achieving a harmonious balance between aesthetics and functionality excites me. I value precision, diligence, and thoughtful work.

At the same time, I’ve learned that striving for excellence doesn’t mean being rigid – the goal isn’t perfection. I believe grace takes us places that harshness simply cannot. (The painting shown below is something I made a while ago – I'm no artist, but I loved the message when I came across it, even though I can’t remember exactly where it originated.)

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Part of what inspired Honeybee’s To Do’s came from a personal experience of loss and reflection. The next two sections, Loss, Reflection, and Purpose and The Birth of the Business, explore this more. If you’re not in the space to read about this right now, feel free to skip ahead to Let’s Create Something Beautiful Together.

Loss, Reflection, and Purpose

Grief is complex and deeply personal. It carried me through a season of busy days, then into stillness and reflection – and eventually to Honeybee’s To Do’s: a meaningful way to honor the brief, yet powerful life I carried within me for a little while.

“He will always be with you, woven into the fabric of your being” – words a close friend shared with me that have deeply comforted me. I find peace in knowing that love and connection transcend physical form.

Loss became the catalyst to move forward with purpose, determination, and creativity.

Another close friend introduced me to a Native American perspective on loss – one that speaks of experiencing grief as a whole, rather than just individually, and reminds us that the life we’ve lost leaves us with lasting gifts if we are open to receiving them.

I continue to discover the lasting gifts this little life has left me. He has given me gentle reminders to not internalize, to let go, surrender, and keep flowing with life’s rhythm; to hold greater gratitude than grief; and to know that the antidote to sadness is gratitude.

This journey has guided me to the next chapter – one of new beginnings and transformation.

The Birth of the Business

It just so happens that the “cutting of the ribbon,” so to speak, coincides with a deeply reflective time for me: Fall 2025 – a time when I had once expected to welcome new life into the world. Nothing can replace what I’ve lost, but this new chapter honors that life in remembrance.