Hi! I’m Shelly + this is my family, Steven, Sawyer, + Oakley. We’re The Scott’s + the old-fashioned souls behind Little House on the Homestead.
Let me, Shelly, tell you a bit about myself and about our family. I’m a small town Minnesota gal who fell in love with a southern boy, turned Minnesotan! We value the simplistic, yet hardworking farming mindset, and have a crazy knack doing all things creative. We are passionate about Jesus, spending time with family, food preservation, D-I-Y projects, and living a rustic homesteading kind of lifestyle, getting back to our roots!
I, Shelly, am a partial stay-at-home mom to a beautiful son and daughter, have a musically inclined jokester of a husband, a European boxer named Tank, two cutie cats, and a handful of lively chickens! They definitely keep us busy, alive, and help tell our family story. We have been blessed to live off our small 3 acre homestead in rural Minnesota and are currently in the process of moving onto our new 21 acre homestead that is under renovation.
By day we have careers, but by night/weekend we homestead, engage in do-it-yourself projects, make artisan soap + products, scratch cook, spend time with Jesus, and are on a mission to educate ourselves and others teaching aspiring growers and homesteaders alike old-fashioned skills to live more self-sufficient lifestyles!
It’s our mission to showcase farm families in hopes of inspiring others to tell their stories about living intentionally.
Now that you know us just a little bit better…
Let me tell you our blog was born!
For those of you that don’t know, I Shelly, am a sign language interpreter and I am good at interpreting. I love putting my hands up and interpreting the most complex medical appointments and mental health visits. For most that would be frightening, truth be told at the beginning it was for me to. The process was new and I was very much scared.
The beginning of 2016 was definitely a year of change, I went from driving 120 miles a day to and from work, had a new born baby boy and was so incredibly unhappy. I scoff at that now, but I wanted a change and I was determined to eliminate the travel work from home 100% of the time, so that’s exactly what I did.
I scoured job boards, asked other professionals in my field, and found an interpreting job that I stepped out in faith and took. After working for 5 tireless years for an employer that didn’t value its staff, I knew I needed a change. Fast forward about a year I was loving the new job, it was hard–really hard actually, I got commendations from medical staff and co-workers for a job well done, and life was great or so I thought.
One day I got called into a meeting, customary to what we had periodically as a virtual team, and I was so excited to tell them what I learned, how I could do better, give them feedback to which they always requested, and then I heard the words “I think you’re a great interpreter, but just not in this environment.” I was SHOCKED, upset, wondering how I went from getting commendations to being fired, I just couldn’t believe for the life of me why everything was happening. I dreaded the walk upstairs to tell my husband that I didn’t have a job any longer, crying the most incredible tears, but the good Lord was there!
Now, I was still sure I was good at interpreting, I knew I still didn’t want to drive for work, so I filed for unemployment, went back to school to finish my degree, and continued to look for a job as a medical interpreter. I didn’t find one right away I have to admit, but God willing a lady I worked with at the job I had just gotten fired from, told me how upset and disgusted she was and that she wanted to help in any way she could. Needless to say she gave me a job being a lead interpreter for a college and allowed me to mentor new interpreters! Did I tell you God was there for me?? He knew I needed her.
Crazy enough, I don’t tell you this story to get any sort of pity or for you to feel sorry for me, because that job even though written into my life story, it wasn’t the end of it. Months later, I was certain that I was taken out of that place for a reason and realized what I wanted in life, as cliche as that sounds.
Currently I still am interpreting working from home, but I have realized my true passions lie in telling stories, teaching others, doing creative things that fill my cup way past the brim, with family.
With this mindset, I was determined to make a creative outlet for myself + establish a legacy for my family. I started a self-hosted blog after scouring Pinterest, wrote my heart out, created a soap making workshop like the one I attended years ago, invested $850.00 dollars on a self education class, then another $2000.00 on a curriculum focusing on turning your own knowledge into a profitable business. I was inspired to create clean products that would help my sons eczema, that I could be proud of to use on my own family. With the goal of living this self-sufficient lifestyle, God has lead me to teach people how they too can make, grow, and provide for themselves.
I hope you follow along on our homesteading journey and take time to learn some valuable things along the way. It’s my goal to inspire you to get dirty, step outside your comfort zone, and invite you to spend time in fellowship and community with other like minded individuals!
I’m so glad you are here!
Many Blessings,
Shelly