Buttons Thoughts is a creative Memoir collection of farm and non-farm alike. The stories will pull you into memories which others can relate to in their own lives. This farmer is not immune to the realities of life. Trying to juggle farm and family life, and to handle both well, is difficult. Grace will be the first to admit that balls continue to be dropped. There is no where else she would rather be.

The stories will tune into her love of the land, her children, her husband lovingly known as “My Hero” and a huge extended family. She shares stories of days that still have her dance with joy. Days that shook her to the core making her want to hide and deny and to not face them.

No longer afraid of the tough stuff she realized that stories need to be told so others in the same situations will know that they are not alone. No longer afraid. Grace believes whimsy needs to be included. It balances out the emotions.

Grace Vanderzande is an avid storyteller raised in the small village of Odessa Ontario. She fondly calls her husband “My Hero”. Together, they bought two hundred acres outside of Napanee Ontario in 1979. He worked a fulltime construction job while Grace was left to handle the day-to-day operations of their ever-expanding farm. Two children, tending livestock, as well as the household duties. This is the source of her inspirational stories sowed in the realities of farm life in Ontario.

As a creative outlet, she started a blog named Buttons Thoughts in 2010 which soon became very popular. True short stories about her daily life and how she coped with humour and imagination captured her audiences. In 2014 she started sharing her stories in a monthly column, Tales from the Farm, in a local newspaper, The Napanee Guide.  Kingston This Week and The Whig still publish her column.                                                                                   

Grace is a nature lover and spends most of her time in the bush, sitting on a rock or stump. Surrounded by the wildlife that shares their farm, she is never without her camera, paper, and pen. She captures her world in her own special way.

Grace Vanderzande's profile page