The Honeybee

Hello dear readers! I’m Melissa (aka the Honeybee) and I am passionate about wellness, my backyard chickens, and the many DIY projects my husband and I take on. I’m excited to share with you all the tips and tricks, do’s and don’ts, and how to’s that I have learned and figured out along the way.

I am the 5th child out of 6. We were homeschooled (any other homeschoolers out there?) and mom was (and still is), more or less, a health nut. Turns out, she passed that trait on to me! Even though I have a major sweet tooth, and I definitely splurge on some not so healthy snacks, for the most part I like to keep my food and personal products healthy and toxin-free. In 2017 I was introduced to essential oils and I immediately fell in love! What better way to support our bodies than with plants that God created? All natural and healthy – exactly what I was looking for. These oils have helped in my wellness journey by supporting high energy levels, supporting my immune system, easing muscle and joint discomfort and supporting deep sleep, etc… These oils and the oil infused products have replaced all of my personal care and home cleaning products, it’s amazing! Both Vito and I love living with wellness as a priority.

When we were looking to buy a house, I wanted two things. one, a dishwasher, and two, a yard big enough to eventually get chickens. Guess what? Our house CAME with chickens! As it turned out, the previous owners were not able to take the chickens with them. No, they did not die. I remember waiting for the call about wether or not our offer was accepted or not. I was working at a daycare and was in the two year old room when Vito texted to give me the news. Our offer was ACCEPTED! I screamed… Literally! My co-teacher spun around with panic on her face. “What happened?” I shared the good news with her after reassuring her nothing bad or alarming happened to the kiddos. To top off the excitement of buying our first home, a few days later we were asked if we wanted the chickens that were there. um, YES PLEASE! We were truly blessed by this home. We got the chickens and a dishwasher!

Who else is a major homebody? I, for sure, am! It was such a great feeling when we finally bought our first house in November 2019. This house is pretty far from being a fixer-upper, but I’ve got plans to make this house our own; make it into our home. With these plans comes all the fun (and not so fun) DIY projects that I rope Vito into doing with me (I don’t fully trust myself with some of those sharp power tools yet!). We’ve completed a few projects already. We’ve built and put up open shelves in the kitchen, refinished our 1980s dining room table we found on Facebook Marketplace for $50 (6 chairs included for that price!). Now that the weather is warming up, we can get some outdoor improvements going! We made a fire pit, and I still want to build a deck area off the back of the house, and build a chicken coop. I also have a few pieces of furniture to refinish as well. The DIY list goes on! I’m excited to share all our projects with you in the future. I hope I can help inspire you to make your own DIY projects and maybe help you get through the first few!