Columbus Mom

Melissa is a Central Ohio native who’s been living in Columbus for the last seven years. After graduating from Miami University and living in Boston for a few years, she’s happy to call the capital city of Columbus her home. Melissa’s a stay at home mom to Emily, who was born in March 2015. Emily’s a bundle of energy, who loves running around the house, playing peekaboo and feeding the family dog, Lucy, Cheerios! When Melissa’s not chasing Emily around, she documents her kitchen adventures at the food blog Made by Melissa Lee. Following the 80:20 rule, most of her recipes are on the healthier side, with a cookie or two thrown in for good measure. Besides cooking and baking, she enjoys decorating her home, trying out local restaurants, reading a good book and those first sips of her morning coffee. She’s very excited to bring quick, easy and fun recipes to hungry Columbus parents!

Lydia grew up in a small town in northwest Ohio. She graduated from Ohio University in Athens, and majored in magazine journalism. OU is also where she met her husband. Lydia became a mom in October 2016! Isabella is the perfect mix of her parents!  Watching Isabella grow, learn, and experience things for the first time is the coolest things about being a mom. Full disclosure: Lydia wasn’t thrilled to find out they were moving to Columbus.  It took time but Lydia came around! She enjoys exploring even more now that she has Isabella.  Lydia is excited to share her stories, and experiences as a first time mom with you.

Faith McGrain thought Columbus would be a pit stop on the road to someplace warmer, but she and her husband (Matt) quickly fell in love with this city. Six years and two kids later, they're still finding plenty of new adventures in and around central Ohio.  Faith works full-time as a communications professional, but her favorite role is being mom to her two energetic children, Tenley (4) and Levi (2). Faith delights in life's simple pleasures: good food, good coffee and good friends. She is a storyteller by nature and dabbles in blogging at Faith, Illuminated. She is passionate about living out her faith through simple actions to add more joy to the world. 

Shellie is an Occupational Therapist and Lactation Counselor turned Health Coach. She grew up in Youngstown and moved to Columbus to attend The Ohio State University. Columbus has been her home for the past 25+ years. She has 3 jobs, 1 husband, 3 kids, and 1 fur baby. When she’s not momming or working, she is researching all things related to nutrition and natural health. For that matter, she has an unhealthy relationship with her iPad and is not setting the best example for her kids. Her passion is to help busy moms transform their lifestyles so they can raise strong, healthy and happy families. She blogs about nutrition and natural health at shellielynn.com.  

Alison is an Air Force brat, who was born in Wisconsin (and she still visits there often to see extended family) and lived all over the West before her family settled in the Dayton area. Alison received her BA from Bowling Green State University where she met her husband, best friends who are like family, and worked at her college radio station. If there was a cool band in the mid aughts, chances are Alison played them on her show "My Aim is True." Alison received her MLIS from the University of Wisconsin and moved back to southwest Ohio. She reconnected with her now husband Mark and moved to Columbus a year later. Several years later, she is still working at Nationwide Children's Hospital as a medical librarian and they have a little boy named Rhys and two feisty cats. They are enjoying re-discovering Columbus as parents and enjoy what the city has to offer in the food, music, and art scene. Alison enjoys fashion, cult movies and tv shows, discovering new music and meticulously keeping track of it in various journals, BBC crime dramas, SCIENCE, reading all kinds of books, and cooking. She has a reading blog that she keeps up sporadically called "What Ali's Reading." She loves to write and hope you enjoy her vignettes about motherhood and this fair city.

Melissa Burnett was born in New Jersey but moved to Ohio at the beginning of a school year where she thought her parents forgot her at Kindergarten and spent most of her first day in tears. Since then, she learned to transfer her imagination onto paper and write stories. She taught Title 1 Reading and wrote children’s books before embarking on her journey into parenthood. Melissa is a mother to twin boys and a younger boy who keeps her on her toes. She enjoys Friday stay home movie night with her boys and dreaming up business ideas with her extremely patient and loving husband. When she is not breaking up wrestling matches, Melissa and her husband spend their time working on rental cabins in Hocking Hills. They also enjoy popcorn and coming up with new popcorn flavors. Melissa promises she does not have motherhood figured out, but she does have many funny stories to share and a word of advice “when you go through the car wash with kids…make sure your window lock is on” Read more on her blog: Mommy of 3 Boys  

Amy grew up in NW Indiana and moved to Central Ohio after marrying her husband, Mike, 30+ years ago. Together they raised three kids, Kaytee, Nick, and Joey, all of whom have successfully launched into adulthood and careers. She is a parenting and stepfamily coach, specializing in stepcouples coaching. After many years as a stay-at-home mom, she discovered her passion for coaching and teaching parent workshops through the Worthington Schools. Amy became a dual-certified Active Parenting facilitator (K-5 & Teens) and a certified Stepfamily Help coach. To fulfill her love of coaching stepcouples she recently became a recognized SMART STEPFAMILY therapy provider. This allows her to share even more "support and strategies for your stepfamily's success!" Amy credits her parents, Joe and Elaine, for being her inspiration and role model for strong parenting partnerships and parenting with intention. It serves as the basis for all her coaching programs. She can be reached at www.daretoparent.com.

Martha is a graduate of The Ohio State University and serves as a marketing director for an educational publishing company. A former high school ELA teacher, Martha loves to read—YA fiction, cookbooks, magazines, anything she can get her hands on! She has a two-year-old son who taught her about unlimited patience, unconditional love, and Floorios (Cheerios found on the floor, yet are somehow deemed perfectly fine to eat). Married to Lucas, Martha is in awe of her husband’s selflessness and commitment to be a true partner in all facets of their life together. Martha is great at making lists and cleaning out her inbox; she is terrible at taking breaks and baking cookies. You can find Martha and her family at COSI, Franklin Park Conservatory, or the nearest playground. Other hobbies include cooking and strategy board games.   

Amanda DeCastro has called Columbus, Ohio home her entire life. She currently lives with her husband and two-year-old daughter Samantha in Grove City, where they love to share everything there is to do south of Columbus and beyond on their Instagram handle @BusyInGroveCity. In addition to sharing their favorite things to do around town, Amanda and Samantha stay busy making kids crafts - and they truly live by the motto “the messier the better!” When Amanda isn’t shuttling her daughter from activity to activity, she can be found working part-time at Spectrum News 1 OH where she heads up community relations. An elementary school principal’s wife, Amanda is also involved with the South-Western City Schools Educational Foundation board and serves on the advisory committee for the South-Western City Schools Career Academy Interactive Media Design program. A Capital University grad, she is also involved with her alma mater serving as a frequent guest speaker and mentor for current public relations and marketing students.

Stephanie is a Columbus native, having grown up in Dublin. She attended Ohio University where she met her husband over a friendly game of flip cup. She has been working for the same talent acquisition outsourcing and consulting company since graduating college, going on 14 years and is currently the Director of Implementation. After a three-year stint in Tampa, she and her husband decided to settle back in Ohio in 2008, and Stephanie won the Columbus vs. Cleveland debate (her husband says she's not tough enough for Cleveland anyway.) After almost eight years of marriage and three years of fertility struggles, they had their son, Dexter, in April 2017 thanks to IVF. They currently live in Grandview Heights after living in the Short North for almost 10 years. They love exploring the city as a family and are frequent COTA bus riders. Stephanie is determined to stay hip to all the new restaurants and places around town even after becoming a mom. Their family goes out to eat way too much, but she still loves cooking, especially recipes that use cauliflower as a substitute (is there anything it can't become!?) She is obsessed with bargain hunting but still manages to spend way too much money. You can follow along on their family's adventures on Instagram at @thecbuskid. Stephanie also has a dog, Athena, but she doesn't have her own Instagram because all she does is sleep and steal food right out of their hands.

Shaina is a stay at home mom of two active littles, aged four and two. She is a Columbus native, OSU alumni and lives on the east side with her husband of six years. You can catch Shaina running around town wearing yoga pants. You may think she is on her way to a beloved yoga class, or glistening with sweat on her way home, but she’s most likely running errands with her kids in tow. Shaina enjoys fantasizing about tasting wine and cheese at local wineries. Mostly, Shaina spends her time cleaning up around the house, grocery shopping, meal prepping, searching for serenity, watching bingeworthy shows with her husband and counting her blessings.

Jen Franklin Kearns grew up in Central Ohio and is pleased to raise her family here as well. She and her husband Mark reside in Delaware and are parents to Alex, Addie, and Andrew. Their home is completed by their loyal beagle, Maisey.

Jen is a social media analyst for a local family foundation, and she is also a passionate advocate for inclusion and disability rights. Jen’s oldest son, Alex, has Down syndrome and Jen works tirelessly to ensure that Alex has access to inclusive opportunities in their community. Jen and Mark are raising their children to know that that inclusion matters for all.

When Jen isn’t advocating, writing, or shuttling her kids back and forth to sports practices or club meetings, she enjoys perusing social media, reading, and drinking large amounts of coffee.

Kim is a mom of two living in Grandview with her husband, Doug. Georgia is almost four but going on 14, is a gymnastics obsessed, hula hooping, sweet girl who wants nothing more than to hug her little brother. Ford recently turned 1; while he walks around the house and daycare screaming “I love you,” he doesn’t love Georgia’s hugs quite yet. Kim grew up in a small town outside of Columbus, moved to Columbus to attend Ohio State and has been in the area ever since. Working in Medical Sales and as a Lead Trainer at System of Strength both in-studio and online, health and healthcare are a big passion of hers. Outside of work, she loves dining out at local restaurants, spending time at the park with her family and hanging out with her neighbors. She loves a good date night with her husband, a staycation in Columbus, or watching every episode of Dateline ever made. As a parent, the thoughts that most frequently cross her mind are “what just happened,” “what was that noise,” “what is that smell,” and “how did I get so lucky.” Kim is a self-proclaimed connoisseur of tacos, margaritas, pizza, cookies and red wine. (She said she likes health and balance, right?) Kim finds humor in the trenches of parenting, knowing that nothing lasts forever...the tough, seemingly endless phases. But also that nothing lasts forever...the sweet, baby and toddler time that seems to be moving in fast forward. Kim doesn’t have a poker face and is an open book. If you’d like to join her on her toddler oversharing adventures, you can find her at Kimberly.verhoff on Instagram.

Sarah is a former high school English teacher turned stay-at-home mom. A Louisiana native, Sarah is a recent resident of Columbus. While she is not a fan of the cold, she is excited to actually experience seasons other than summer. She and her husband Justin have three beautiful children, Lillian, Judah, and Evangeline. At the beginning of the pandemic, Sarah turned to baking for stress relief and eventually turned her hobby baking into Serendipity Bakes, creating custom cakes and cupcakes. She enjoys reading, thrifting, trying new foods, and playing board games, unless it's Monopoly, in which case she'd rather be doing something equally terrible, like laundry.

By day, Melanie works full time in the fields of education, social service, and juvenile justice. By night, Melanie is a partner (Wes), mother to an infant (Otis), support parent to two a teenager and elementary schooler (Maddie and Wesley), and suburban farmer (4 chickens) among other roles. Growing up as a Navy Brat with family from Northern Louisiana, Melanie created roots in Central Ohio based on access to travel, diversity, and Midwest honesty. Melanie prides herself on enjoying local businesses, finding low cost family opportunities, and prioritizing self-care. On a weekend, you may find Melanie at a Farmer's Market, museum, coffee shop, restaurant, trying out a new recipe, or traveling on a day trip away from Central Ohio. A typical date night for Melanie includes riding on the back of a Victory motorcycle, exploring a record shop, or attending a concert. Melanie and family love to kayak, hike, shop, explore museum exhibits, play board games (especially Sleeping Queens), paint, and dabble in "try nights" (trying a variety of junk food after eating a nutritious meal). Follow along with Melanie and the family's adventures on Instagram at ohiogirl.travelingworld