Welcome to Full & Simple!  I’m so excited that you are here!

I started a blog in spring of 2015 called The Farm on the Hill, but I quickly realized that I had more to talk about than just my gardening and beekeeping.  I started to dream about what I really felt like God was calling me to say, and the vision of Full & Simple was born.

But before I go into that, let’s get to know one another.  I’m a small-town girl.  I have always lived in a small rural community and participated in “country things” like 4-H and FFA.  However, I love my glam too.  I attended Purdue University for Personal Finance and, while in college, I married my high school sweetheart.  After graduating, I worked for a local credit union going to area high schools teaching students about finance.  I fell in love with the classroom setting and decided to attend Oakland City University to obtain my teaching license.  I taught at my old high school for four years before becoming a stay-at-home mom.  Oh, and because of my personal finance background, we are HUGE, I mean HUGE, Dave Ramsey fans.

A few years ago, after we got pregnant with our first child, my husband and I decided to buy my childhood home with ten acres, which is attached to my family’s larger 100 acre farm.  About a year after moving in, the twenty acres next to us came up for sale and we bought that too!  (We love not seeing neighbors!)  Since then, we have added a second child to our family.

I’ve always felt that I didn’t fall into one specific category.  I was friends with “jocks” and “hicks” in high school.  My first “car” was an ’83 Chevy Scotsdale that I bought with my 4-H hog money, but I love sequins and statement necklaces and I’ve even won a few queen pageants.  To this day I still want to have our bees, chickens, and garden, but I love getting dressed up and listening to Frank Sinatra while enjoying a glass of moscato.  I’m in love with Audrey Hepburn and I barely listen to today’s music (I couldn’t even tell you what songs are popular right now.).  My eclectic interests are what originally made it hard for me to decide on a blog name and topic.  Every article out there says to “pick a niche,” but I want to talk about it all, everything that I enjoy.  In the end, that’s what Full & Simple is all about.

With my posts here on Full & Simple, I hope to encourage you to live fully in all of your Ands.  Stop listening to the world telling you that you have to choose Or.  You don’t!  You can be smart AND pretty.  You can be a momma AND wife AND still be an individual.  You can be a beekeeper in the country AND still like to have a night of cocktails with friends.  You can love to decorate AND skeet shoot.  AND.  That’s what Full & Simple is all about.  Living a full life by embracing our Ands, and living simply in God’s grace and purpose for your life.

I’m still learning how to live comfortably with all of my Ands.  I will stumble and make mistakes, but by sharing that journey here on Full & Simple maybe you will find your own freedom to do the same.