My Backyard Peeps: Reinventing Life After 50
How It All Started
When I was in my mid-thirties, long before I ever imagined reinventing life after 50, life looked very different than it does today. I was married, raising two little boys, and living in a brand-new four-bedroom home on an acre of land in an affluent neighborhood. As time went on, I became deeply interested in living with more intention, growing my own food, reducing waste, and building a home environment that aligned with sustainability.
Eventually, that lifestyle inspired me to go to graduate school for landscape architecture, where I learned how to design environments that were both beautiful and functional.
Sunny, Daisy, and Star: How Our Backyard Flock Began
One afternoon my boys and I went to the feed store to pick up the new baby chicks I had ordered. I chose them based on their flight risk, their egg color, their temperament, and honestly… how cute they were. We named them Sunny (a Buff Orpington), Daisy (an Araucana), and Star (a white Silkie). They were adorable, and the boys were so excited. Over time, taking care of them, gathering the eggs, and eating what we collected felt grounding and familiar. I was grateful I could share a tiny bit of country living with my boys, especially since I grew up in a rural area around horses and cattle.
The First Birth of My Backyard Peeps
Somewhere between the garden I was building, the boys playing outside, and the chickens scratching around the yard, I started a blog and named it My Backyard Peeps. It wasn’t a community or a brand or a plan. Instead, it was just me sharing my home, garden, and the life I was creating. I didn’t think anyone even read it; however, later, when I stopped blogging, I found out my husband had quietly enjoyed reading every post.
As the years passed and responsibilities grew, I allowed the blog slipped away. The boys grew older, and the marriage ended, and eventually the domain name belonged to someone else.
That season had closed, so I let it go.
A Full-Circle Moment I Didn’t Expect
Years passed. As a result, I raised my sons, and went through several seasons of change. I did the best I could through each transition. Eventually, as I approached an empty-nest season with a different kind of clarity, something nudged me one evening and on a whim, I checked the domain again.
To my surprise, it was available.
In that moment, it felt like something had quietly circled back around, waiting for me to pick it up again with a different purpose.
What My Backyard Peeps Means for Women Reinventing Life after 50
Today, My Backyard Peeps is no longer about chickens.
It is about the type of people I want to connect and continue to grow with.
More specifically, it is about women who are reinventing life after 50 with faith, courage, honesty, and softness. Many of us want meaning, connection, stability, and a life that feels aligned with who we are becoming.
Additionally, it is about learning financial freedom, exploring new income streams, and creating a life that supports the next chapter with strength and intention.
A Community for Women Reinventing Life After 50
I want to build a community now—one made up of women who are no longer interested in surface-level living. Women who are ready to live with purpose, depth, and intention and also reinventing life after 50. Women who want lives that feel meaningful and beauty-filled, where peace isn’t something they chase but something they cultivate. Many of us want financial independence so we can make choices from strength rather than survival. We long for a faith-filled life, a sense of belonging, and a steady inner satisfaction that comes from aligning our outer world with who we truly are.
Ultimately, this is a community for women who are becoming more creative, more passionate, more honest, and more fully themselves as they step into the second half of life with open hands and open hearts.
My Backyard in This Season
My backyard looks different now. In this chapter, it is a small balcony at my apartment. Even so, it is still a place where I pause, reflect, plan, and begin again. If you’d like to know more about the heart behind this blog, you can read my About page here.
And so I want to end this first post with the truest invitation I can offer.
This balcony is my little backyard in this chapter, and it’s where I’m learning, dreaming, and growing again. You’re welcome here.