About Me

A family of five sitting on a white bench in front of a blue backdrop with the text 'Our Story Made New.' The group includes two adults and three children, smiling and posing together.

Hi, I’m Shelby — and I’m really glad you’re here.

I’m a wife, a mom of three, and a country girl living in Southern Indiana doing my best to build a faithful, intentional life in the middle of the beautiful, beautiful chaos.

My days look something like this: up early for inductive Bible study and a workout before the house wakes up, I do a little bit of work for my family’s business, then breakfast, homeschool, chores, collecting eggs from our backyard chickens, prepping dinner from scratch, and shuttling three kids to baseball, Tae Kwon Do, and everything in between. My boys are 8 and 7, and my girl is almost 5 (June can’t come fast enough, she’ll tell you). We homeschool, we micro-homestead, and most evenings we fall into bed tired in the best possible way.

It’s full. It’s loud. It’s exactly the life I didn’t know I was looking for.

I Didn’t Always Live This Way

Not long ago, my life looked completely different — and felt completely different on the inside.

I spent most of my early years just trying to find somewhere I could be happy. Just… drifting. Picking the best available option in any situation and running with it. Never wanting to be tied down, always feeling like I needed to keep moving. Like contentment was somewhere just around the next corner, if I could only get there.

Then a big life event shook things loose. And I didn’t just drift, I started sinking. And it was the loniest time in my entire life. I met my husband’s family, and they invited me to church. I started learning more about God — really learning, not just knowing He existed. Because I always knew He was there. I just wasn’t intentional about it.

And the more I learned, the more I realized something uncomfortable: I had been avoiding Him. Not out of anger or rebellion, but because deep down I believed He had better things to do than deal with me. That I wasn’t worth His time.

But then after going for a few months, it clicked. If I accept the gift He gave me — the whole impossible, undeserved gift of it — all He asks in return is that I follow Him and be His.

Why would I deny Him the one thing I could give Him?

That question changed everything.

What Grace & Grit Living Is About

When I gave my life to Christ, I didn’t just get peace with God. I got a new way of seeing everything — my home, my time, my money, my purpose as a wife and mother. I started wanting to steward it all better. To live with intention instead of just reacting to whatever the day threw at me.

Grace & Grit Living grew out of that shift.

This is a place for Christian women who are trying to build homes that actually reflect what they believe. Women who want to:

  • Grow deeper in their faith — not just Sunday-morning faith, but the kind that shapes how you spend a Tuesday
  • Homestead simply — whether that means a backyard garden, a few chickens, baking your own bread, or learning to preserve food
  • Homeschool faithfully — with peace instead of panic, even on the hard days
  • Steward their homes and finances wisely — because how we manage what God gives us matters
  • Build rhythms that bring peace — instead of just surviving the week

I’m not here because I have it all figured out. I’m here because I’m in the middle of figuring it out — and I’ve learned enough along the way to share something worth reading.

A Little More About Our Life

We live on a small suburban property in Southern Indiana that we’ve turned into as much of a homestead as we can manage. We keep backyard chickens, grow what we can, and make a lot of our food from scratch — sourdough, bone broth, meals from scratch, the works.

I homeschool all three kids, which means our days have a rhythm but rarely a script. Some days it’s beautiful and everyone is thriving. Some days it’s the kitchen table at 2pm with someone crying (sometimes me). But it’s ours, and I wouldn’t trade it.

My husband and I are building something together — a home, a family culture, a legacy we hope our kids carry with them. That’s what drives most of what I share here.

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