We recently connected with Patty Ihm and have shared our conversation below.

Patty , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?

This is something that I think about every day. Many of my friends and peers are at an age of retirement, where they are considering what their “next chapters” will look like. We are longtime foster and adoptive parents, still with young children with high needs. Raising them has been my “job,” and retirement is not on the horizon. If I had continued classroom teaching, I believe I would have similar pursuits (writing, beekeeping, hobby farming) to look forward to in retirement. As my life is now, though, work and parenting are inextricable. Though the days can be long, I am happy just being open to what they will bring, and I am grateful for every space I find to fill with my creative pursuits.

Patty , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My path as a writer began as a therapeutic release. My husband, Dan, and I began foster and adoptive parenting as our biological sons were growing up. We found the complex issues and challenging parenting decisions presented through fostering were different—bigger and harder, it seemed—than those experiences with our older children. Journaling was something that I had done off and on since early high school, so I put pen to paper to try to make sense of the tides of my emotions.

I eventually began sharing my writing in the form of a blog. My blog evolved into a book, my memoir, “Isn’t that Enough? Musings of Motherhood and the Meaning of Life.”

I don’t know what happened, really, except maybe for more life experiences that turned me the direction of fiction. My first novel, Goldie Bird, will soon be released with Our Galaxy Publishing. It just sort of happened, with inspiration coming from the back of our family’s van, while sitting among the bees, and while trying my best to comfort an angst-ridden child.

I’m pretty proud of my memoir, how it came to be, and what it represents. I’m excited about sending my novel out to the universe to see how it is received. Honestly, though, I’m most proud of my family and the strength and courage of those who have been here at the farm.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

I have taken considerable inspiration from Ann LaMott’s “Bird by Bird,” a book written as a tool for writers looking to improve their craft. LaMott shares her technique for seeing her material through a one-inch picture frame, noticing, observing, and bringing to life the tiniest details framed within. Understanding this philosophy of writing has allowed me to slow down and look for the importance and significance in the smallest moment. It’s all worth it, and it’s all a gift if it’s viewed that way.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

We were in the process of being licensed as foster parents when one of our sons was diagnosed with a brain tumor. He was ten years old at the time. He was home with me during the days between his diagnosis and surgery. We had been to the grocery store, and I was unloading the groceries while he struggled to work on his accumulating homework assignments. He stood, in tears, and threw his homework to the wind as he ran out the door, to who knows where. It was in that moment that I came to understand that some things were far more important than others. I went for him and let him know that he didn’t have to do that work, then or ever, and that we were going to get through all
of this.

Once the successful surgery was behind us and he began to heal, he was the one that asked when our foster children would begin to come.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://pattyihm.com
• Instagram: pattyihm
• Facebook: patty.ihm

Image Credits

The image in the photo with the book, “Isn’t that Enough?” Was put together by Christine Weimer and shared previously on social media.