About Me

First of all, thank you for stopping by to read my little corner of the world. If you are new here, you will find me documenting aspects of living life as a Christ-following, dependent on Him every single day – for everything, as a single, homeschooling, work-from-home MOM. If you have Visual Communication needs in the form of graphic design/layout/formatting projects – I’d love to work with you DotandInk.com is my business.

I have a son and a daughter, they are 20 and 17 – my son is married and a sophomore in College and my daughter is a senior in high school. We have been a single parent family since 2000. I FULLY rely on my Heavenly Father every day to get through life.

My blessings include calling southcentral Alaska home and staying at home with my children. I love to see, feel, and create with various materials in many colors & textures. This includes creating on a computer. In April 2011, I finished school with an AA in Information Technology/Web Design.

I started my first blog in 2007, and pulled several posts from that blog into this one. One of the tasks on my never-ending to-do list: still need to “clean up” posts from prior to October 2011.

I decided on the name Thoughtful Escapes because I tend to over-think most everything and to me blogging [reading & writing] can be an ‘escape’. Gaps in posts means my thoughts were too fully focused on life in reality and processing … Once my children entered high school, it was important to me to give them a safe, non-public space to grow without being concerned about “showing up on the blog”. As much as I love writing and documenting, they come first. Writing in this space will pick up again when they have both graduated and are “on their own”.

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Affiliate Information

I have added Affiliate links to my blog to help with earning money for funding this space and hopefully help with some “extra’s” for our family. None of these links will cost you anything, but if you click thru the link I’ve provided the company will give me a commission on what you purchase. I am very thankful in advance for your support.

Please know this, these links are for companies I have worked with personally and I highly recommend them. I will not promote something I don’t trust for the sake of promotion or a possible dollar earned.

Are you familiar with CreativeLive? Simply, it’s awesome! You can learn creative skills from the world’s top experts – Pulitzer Prize, Grammy, Oscar Winners, and New York Times best selling authors, thought leaders, and legendary entrepreneurs. With over 1,500 curated classes in Photography & Video, Money & Life, Craft & Maker, Art & Design, and Music & Audio, there is something for everyone. Students can watch on-air broadcasts for free or buy a class and own the content for life.

doTERRA – I researched & held off for numerous years, so we just recently started using Essential Oils. I have found the greatest help for me physically has been the Lifelong Vitality Pack – vitamins don’t usually like me and I’ve never seen a benefit to warrant the cost. These are different. I am a wellness advocate with doTerra, if you are looking for doTERRA products I would be honored if you used the link to my website. Your purchases from my site would help my daughter & I heal our stubborn bodies by enabling us to continue purchasing what we have found most helpful for us.

Dollar Shave Club – This is a subscription I set up for my son while he’s away at college. I wanted him to know I care about him. Every morning he chooses to shave, I am “in” his face :-). He has a tangible reminder, I am praying for him. I miss him. I love him.

InMotion Hosting – this is who I use for hosting all of my websites and where I manage other websites. I absolutely LOVE them – they help so much when I am hopelessly lost in the technical side of the internet, AND they have 24/7 friendly customer service – AWESOME! I can not recommend them enough! In addition, they now offer free SSL on their shared plans – this is all part of keeping up with Google’s best practices.

MOO – this is who I personally use for my business cards and have ordered the mini-cards, postcards, stickers, and square flyers too. I love the feel of their basic cards and being able to have one side be contact information and the other side be different information/pictures (printfinity) – at no extra cost is amazing! I’m weird about how paper feels and what colors look like when printed out. I’ve always been very impressed with the product received. Again, LOVE their customer service!

Shutterfly – I have always been very happy with anything I’ve ordered from Shutterfly. So far, I’ve ordered photo books, calendars, notecards, playing cards, note pad, and photo prints – they’ve all been super great!

Companies I like working with:

Custom Stickers – StandOut Stickers