Meet Heather Delaney Reese
For more than twenty years, this corner of the internet has been my home for telling stories, first about saving money, then about family life, travel, and starting a blog, and now about what is happening in America.
This site actually started under a different name, Full Price Never, during the Great Recession. Back then, I wrote about stretching every dollar and shared practical ways for families to make it through an uncertain time. I wrote about parenting, everyday life, and how to build a little bit of stability when the world felt unstable. That early version of my blog helped millions of people feel less alone while they rebuilt their budgets and their lives.
Over time, Full Price? Never! evolved into It’s a Lovely Life. My focus shifted from coupons and budgeting to family travel and memory-making. For more than a decade, this blog became the place where my family and I shared our favorite destinations, resorts, and experiences, and how to build a flexible online business that could come along for the ride. We spent well over 150 days a year on the road, learning in real time what it meant to work online and raise kids while seeing the world together.
Although you no longer see long introductions to every member of my family on this page, they are still at the heart of this story. My husband and our three daughters have been my partners in adventure, my reality check, and my reason for caring so deeply about the future of this country. This site holds our shared history, and I am grateful for every reader who has followed our travels through the years.
Travel did more than give us pretty photos. It educated me. I saw firsthand where evil was planned and carried out in Europe. I stood in spaces where people were enslaved in the Caribbean, and learned about the uprisings that demanded freedom. I visited cities and small towns all over the world and heard how ordinary people lived through political collapse, dictatorship, and recovery. Those experiences taught me what happens when power goes unchecked, when propaganda replaces truth, and when people look away instead of pushing back.
They also showed me something else. In every place where cruelty and control tried to win, there were everyday people who refused to give up. People whose names we will never know, who still chose to protect one another and defend what was right. Seeing that pattern in so many countries made it impossible for me to ignore the same warning signs appearing here at home.
That is why my work has shifted again. Today, I write primarily about what is happening in the United States. I write about democracy, human rights, disinformation, and the very real rise of authoritarian thinking in our politics and culture. I write from an openly pro democracy perspective and from the point of view of a mother who has seen what happens when people convince themselves that it could never happen where they live.
My love of history and my years of walking through those historic spaces are what finally put all the pieces together for me. The past is not abstract when you have stood in the rooms where decisions were made that destroyed lives. It is not distant when you have seen the buildings where people were imprisoned, or the fields where they resisted. That knowledge sits with me every time I read the news or sit down to write.
Most of my current writing now lives on Substack, where I share a daily post about the state of our country and the people who are actively trying to destroy it, along with those working to protect it. You can subscribe and join my community here: https://heatherdelaneyreese.substack.com/
Every so often, I may still share new travel content here because I continue to believe that travel is one of the best teachers we have. When we are confined to our own walls, and only hear from people who think exactly like we do, fear and suspicion grow. When we step outside, meet new people, and listen to their stories in the places they call home, empathy grows instead.
So this is who I am now, and who I have really been all along. A writer, a traveler, a mother, and someone who cares deeply about what happens to ordinary families when politics turns cruel. Thank you for being here, whether you arrived for a family vacation idea, a blogging tip, or a piece about the future of our democracy. My hope is that something you find here helps you feel a little more informed, a little less alone, and a little more ready to stand on the side of what is right.