Hello!
I’m Kathy Ellen.
That’s my entire first name, so please call me Kathy Ellen.
I’m a reader, writer, artist, teacher, and ninja warrior who lives in Northern Virginia with my lovely husband and two young kids.
Follow along for posts approaching these topics in an intentional way:
Creativity
Writing
Motherhood, parent life, and partner life
Money
Gratitude
Volunteering and activism
and likely some random stuff
I would love to connect with:
other people who are showing up intentionally and living life according to their values, and people who want to get there.
I would not like to connect with:
people who are looking for the one right answer, because I certainly don’t have it, and I don’t believe there is one.
Though I’ll share with you what I do in hopes it inspires you to think about the topic and how you can get more intentional with it.
What can you expect?
Two to three posts a week, and lots of activity on notes. If that’s too much for your inbox, I suggest changing your notifications and reading within the app.
Posts about:
Stories about habits, mindsets, and things that help me live intentionally, in line with my values, and in a way that my mental health is generally doing okay.
Adventures in motherhood and living authentically in a culture that tries to put us in a box and tell us what we can and can’t do as parents.
Reflections on writing and creativity, mainly how to find time for those with two young children and why it’s important.
Monthly Substack reflections on how I’m doing here as a way to document the journey.
Why this? Why now?
I’ve been on social media for years;
I’ve talked about books on Instagram, TikTok, and Youtube for a while now.
I’ve also helped bookstores with their social media.
I fell in love with TikTok, and then found I could not continue the same level of love and time commitment when I had my second child.
I longed for something slower and slowly started pulling away from Instagram too. YouTube is a place I really enjoy being, and, more and more, Substack.
I started a Substack newsletter talking about books I was reading with my kids and ones I read on my own (you can find it here) and found that while I loved writing that, I was also itching to write something else.
At the end of 2023 I started writing down what I was grateful for everyday in a document on my computer, and also what I spent each day, in an effort to curb impulse spending. I decided I wanted to be more intentional in 2024, and the second I did, I became aware of how many things I already do with intention in mind.
I started writing these things down in a document on my computer for YouTube scripts, but also found I wanted to share about them a lot sooner. I enjoyed writing every little story, and I TRULY enjoyed looking back on what I wrote.
So I started a Buy Me A Coffee Page.
I posted there. It was fun. I told no one I was doing it.
Then I started being more engaged on Substack, and a funny thing happened.
I wasn’t gravitating toward people who were sharing books.
I was gravitating toward people sharing about living intentionally, sharing their writing process and their journey on substack, sharing about mental health and authenticity. I commented on their posts and engaged with other people interested in that.
And then I thought: I need to move that Buy Me A Coffee over.
I’m already creating community here to talk about those things,
so I need to do it here. So here I am.
Why Let Yourself Lead The Way?
I waffled for A WHILE on the name, and I came up with this for a few reasons:
1. I feel like if we can really get quiet, we do know the answers to the questions we have. We do know the way. But in our current world, there’s often way too much noise to check in with ourselves.
2. When we check in with ourselves, we are automatically living with more authenticity and intention. And we are less likely to let someone else lead us to something we don’t need.
3. When we are listening to ourselves and living authentically and intentionally, others notice and we can inspire them to do the same. While we are letting ourselves lead the way, we may also be helping to lead others.
My goal with this substack is to document how I show up authentically and intentionally, have conversations about how we can do that in the world we live in, and to connect with a group of people who are also striving to do that.
Thanks for reading this far.
I hope you’ll come along with me on this journey.
If you’re also interested in living authentically and intentionally, introduce yourself in the comments. I’d love to know who you are and what resonated with you enough to hang out here with me!
Stay authentic and intentional,
Kathy Ellen