1. What made you decide to become a wahm?
I'm not sure. For Love Abounds, I made toffee and did a trade on Hyena Cart- forums. I got a good response so I decided to start selling. I told myself if I could get one order or so a week it would be fun. That turned into multiple orders a day and I had to either expand or put things on hold for a bit. I decided to put things on hold until I can get a bigger commercial kitchen and all the girls are in school. A dream of mine is to open a tea room.
Blogging is more of a hobby, I don't make any money from it. But, I started blogging because I wanted a place to record recipes. I wanted to have these recipes down with stories, to put in a book for my girls as a college going away gift. I realized after my book hit 500 pages that the cost would be crazy to print so I am narrowing it down a bit. (I seem to have great ideas- execution of those ideas is a whole other story.)
2. What is your favorite form of expression?
It really depends on my mood. For the most part cooking and some baking. I do love to craft and draw. I also get "bored" easily, and like most crafting people, I have tons of projects that need finishing.
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3. What do your kids do while you are working?
As a blogger, I blog when they are asleep, at night to during naps- when my oldest are in school. It seems to be the best time not to get any interruptions. But I do hop online to check peas blog email throughout the day.
4. When do you do most of your work?
I would say from 8 pm to 1 am.
5. How do you find the giveaways that you post?
It depends. Sometimes I get emails from companies/people with an offer to sponsor. Other times, if something catches my eye, I send an offer out to the company. I also belong to a couple of places that send me interested businesses that would like to sponsor.
6. How long have you been writing your blog?
I have been blogging on Give Peas A Chance since October of 2007. I moved food related posts from Chaotic Balance- formerly Random Thoughts that month. Reading my intro for both of those blogs, a lot has changed and not much as changed. Laundry is still my nemesis, cooking is still my first love, I still watch House MD, am a fan of all things pumpkin and surprisingly I'm still doing bento lunches. There have been job changes, relocation and we added a little girl to our family.
7. Tell us about bentos! (I love those)
Bento lunches. I'm not sure when I first came across these. I think it was a blog post. I don't I pack "true" bentos. First the boxes I use are random sizes. There's a list on Lunch in a box (.net), that has a height/weight chart to help determine how big of a box you should use. There's also a guideline about the ratio of rice/carbs to veggies to protein.
Reading my first post, the reasons I pack bento lunches still ring true to me. I want to broaden my children's palettes, teach them portion control and pack healthier lunches.
I try to use a 3-5+ color rule when packing lunches, I don't always do it. That little "rule" kind of pushes me to include more vegetables, fruits, variety, than I would normally. Readers may notice that some days there's no fruit in lunches or no vegetables. I don't stress too much about that because I can supplement during dinner, snacks or breakfast. I try to make lunches that I pack for school easy to eat, with foods I know the girls will eat without encouragement. I know they will be sitting with friends and wanting to converse. So packing a lunch that has foods I know they will want to eat, ensures they do. Packing an easy to eat lunch helps also. Foods that are already cut in bite sized pieces also make it easier. Plus there is less waste!
8. Give a brief example of your day-in-the-life...
Since it's summer the children usually come in my room to wake me up (LOL). (Sometime during the morning I like to put laundry in the washer/dryer.) My husband usually feeds them breakfast before he leaves for school. We either get ready to leave the house by packing lunches/snacks. I try to get the kids out somewhere active. Or I run errands. If we stay home and it's not too hot, I send them out back with the fort kit and they play and have lunch outside. Lunch is around 11:30 or 12. My youngest still takes a nap so I try to be home for that. She does skip it if we need to. She naps from 3-5pm.
I usually cook dinner after laying down with her for a bit. I try to fold a load of laundry in this time also. My oldest helps me. My oldest two have quiet time, they can either read books or color or draw. We try to eat dinner around 5:30. Hang out and the kids are in bed by 8. If I do any baking it's usually after they are in bed and because the house is cooler by then. Depending on the next days menu, I will chop veggies for stir fry or marinate meats if need be. I start the dishwasher before I head to bed. I also do a load of laundry before bed so I can put it in the dryer when I get up. I sweep after meals. If it's bath/shower night for the kids it's inevitable that I have to mop the floor up after ;). Same deal if my oldest (7) does the dishes, the floor needs to be mopped.
9. What are you working on now...what's taking up most of your wahm time at the moment?
Recent Review
Reviews. It's funny sometimes I get them scheduled for a couple weeks and I slack. Then I feel rushed to get them written again. That and I'm working on putting a cookbook together. I don't have a publisher, self publishing is expensive... so I feel pretty stuck right now.
You can find Katherine and her blog Give Peas a Chance here, and her Facebook page here.
To talk to Katherine about a giveaway, whether you would like to sponsor one or ask about a current giveaway, please go to Peasblog@hotmail.com.
