Hey we're Danny and Carolyn Kelley. We live just outside of Columbus on our own little patch of land, fixing up the old farmhouse and raising our son. We both graduated in education from The Ohio State University and love our Buckeyes. I taught for three years as a Title I math teacher for K-3, and now stay home with our son, watching another little sweet toddler a few days a week. Danny teaches third grade and is an author and illustrator of two Ohio State themed children's books! We always wanted to live in the country and after searching and searching we finally found our own little piece of heaven. Living on a one teacher salary we knew acres upon acres of land wasn't an option, but we wanted something cute with a farmy feel. We got exactly that and have loved spending the years slowing fixing up the house to be our own. With both of us being artistic, we love having the creative outlet to really make our house a home. Our biggest creative risk so far was was creating our own wallpaper for our son's nursery. It turned into one of our favorite projects and has helped me be more open to more challenges as we work on the home. With Danny having the summer's off, we try to use the time to work on the home. Our son is just under two and we have another little one in heaven. We're the crazy people that think five kids sounds amazing, and we'd love to hear more pitter pattering of little feet running giggling through the house. We plan to homeschool when the time comes, and I've been just filling my mind with everything I can learn about the topic.
On top of everything else we have two dogs, Elmer and Harvey, or Elm and Bobo as baby calls them. The number of barn cats varies, we have a busy road so you can connect the dots from there. Right now our cats are PollyAnna, Pickles II, and Porky, the newest kitten. Somehow we got on this kick of naming our cats all starting with the letter "P" and we just keep going. We've had Pugsy, Percy, Petunia, and Pickles I, plus three other kittens that were given away, so yeah, the number of cats is kind of a gray area. The chicken count is 10 hens, yes they all have names, and 8 chicks, and we have a whole variety of breeds. Raising chickens is a ton of fun and I could never go back to store bought eggs. The newest additions are two little goats, which will be arriving soon, and has been something I've always wanted.
Now with baby here, most of the posts have turned into baby or family posts and less house stuff, but our blog is more of a way to document life for us than anything else. I believe that to allow God's work to show in our lives, we must be transparent, so while the blog tends to focus mostly on the wonderful times, there are some more heavy posts as well. I want to remember where He has taken me and not forget what He has done for me. The number one thing anyone will say if you want a blog to be successful is stay away from politics and religion, but God is a part of who we are. To not mention Him would be like to not mention I am a wife or mama, so you will see scripture riddled throughout because it is who we are. Again we don't make money with our blog, it is really more just for us. Even if no one read it we would still do it, because the ability to look back at the pictures and read where we were at the time is priceless to us.
If you try to look back through posts you will definitely notice gaps. We had a frustrating experience with blogging (read more here) and are slowing recovering and rebuilding all that was lost. It takes time, but we are rebuilding and continuing with new posts as we recover old. Danny used to write back in the day, but it is mostly my blog now. Maybe at some point he will jump back in at times, but as we recover some of the older post you may notice his work in there. Although he isn't writing much on the blog these days, we still work as a team, he honestly is the one that makes our ideas a reality.
So life can be a bit crazy here, to say the least, but we love it and can only wait to see where this adventure will take us.