{a day in the life} Eat 2 Gather

Today’s “a day in the life” feature is Sheila of Eat 2 Gather. I had the absolute pleasure of meeting Sheila at Taste of MI. I so wish I could have talked with her more, but I loved getting to know her a little better through this feature as well. Enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~~

Tell me about yourself and how you started food blogging. First of all I want to thank Rachel for having me here today! Thank you for taking the time to read about my day! I’ve been looking forward to meeting new friends today! I am a stay at home mom, married to Ken, an ER physician. We have four kiddos. Three teens, and one tween. Help meh! Originally I had a personal travel blog for our family trips, after friends started reading my travel blog they persuaded me to start a food blog. So my day in a nutshell! Because everyday is so different, I will take you through what I did today! 645am Drag my sorry butt out of bed..I am not a morning person. Stumble out to the kitchen where I find my oldest child already up and making himself breakfast. I pour a cup-O-Joe and start making lunches. I make my kids lunches everyday. Quite often my teens have sports right after school so I will make them two lunches one for lunch and one for before sports….this can add up to 5-8 brown bags every morning! I don’t mind, I love standing at the kitchen island while they eat their breakfast, we chat about “stuff”. 715 am The teens head off to school and I sit down with my coffee and do my morning devotions for 15 minutes.

730am I wake up my 4th grader and get her moving. We usually eat breakfast together. I then get my work out clothes on redo my ponytail, run through the list of to-do’s for the day as I prod Cece to finish getting ready for school.

815am Out the door we fly. I drop her at school and I continue on to the YMCA where I meet my work out buddy Tina.

930am Leave Y head to the grocery store and post office. Run errands.

1030ish Arrive home to unload groceries, and start laundry.

11am Start baking. Once a month I bake for the Pregnacy Resource Center they use the goodies for their meetings and for treats for volunteers that come in and help. Today I baked Chocolate Chip Muffins, Oatmeal Breakfast muffins, and I developed a new scone recipe Pecan Sandy Scones. While baking I am cleaning, doing laundry, making phone calls that need to be made, answering emails, checking into social media. Today it didn’t happen but it seems like there is always some sort of appointment tucked into my day, but I only have 2 in braces right now, so the orthodontia appointments are manageable at this point.

3pm I hop in my van and deliver the goodies. On the way home I return videos that were rented over the weekend, and stop in to Walmart to pick up some personal hygiene supplies that teens texted me they were in urgent need of!!! “Need eye mkup remover PLEEZ, TODAY don’t forget” “need DO 4 the BO PLEASE” “can U get fishy crackers 4 lunches?”

345pm I’m back home to a house full of kids eating snacks, tossing junk everywhere…ah where did my peaceful house go?

415pm I take my 10 yr old to piano, then run down the street to a good friends art studio to take a peek at what she has. Then I quick run home, with my loaner painting for my mantel.

445pm Quick make my son some pasta before he leaves to get on the team bus for his basketball game.

505pm Leave to pick Cece up from piano…I’m late, as always!

520pm Arrive home hollar through the house “come on! come on! we’ve got to go! we’re going to be LATE!”

530pm Arrive at our High School for a fundraiser for our Education Foundation…Here we visit with neighbors and quick throw down dinner (“we” being me, 3 of my kiddos + their friends – husband who is working late shift)

620pm Drive to the next town to watch the basketball game.

7pm Sit in packed stands amongst friends and family to watch Noah play basketball.

830pm Wait for Noah to come out of locker room, head home.

845pm pick up where I left off at home with the laundry (I do 16 loads easily a week, sometimes more. Is this normal?) Touch base with each child, fill out forms, sign papers, write checks, talk over their day.

945pm Put littlest to bed.

10pm Finish kitchen clean up, make coffee, put away laundry. Watch some TV while I finish folding laundry.

1015 Head downstairs to shoo the teenagers into bed, chat with them, pray with them.

1045pm Ken arrives home from work. We take a minute to catch up on each others day…. “hello how are you I’m your wife remember me”…somedays we are like canoes on different rivers…not even ships passing in the night around here baby!

11ish Finally sit down to my computer edit photos, check in to social media, answer emails, look over what’s going on with family for next day, write my todo list, write a post and schedule it.

1:15am head hits the bed. HARD. If I wasn’t so exhausted on this particular day I would probably read. I always have a book going. I just finished Lets pretend this never happened by Jenny Lawson for book club. The language got to some of our book club girls…but I thought it was LOL! *** I did take a shower in there somewhere and eat…but it was in the blink of an eye! That my friends is a pretty typical day for me.

What is my one “must have” kitchen tool? a sharp knife

If you could choose one room in your house to spend the WHOLE day in, which room would it be? Why? 

My favorite room is my kitchen it’s connected to the living room and the sunroom where my computer is. It’s the hub of our home.

If you could choose one room in your house to remodel (on an unlimited budget!) which room would it be and why? 

I would definitely remodel my kitchen. Really it is perfectly fine, but in the last 12 years since we built our home so much has changed and because my kitchen is heavily trafficked it could use a bit of updating.

If you had to choose one place to travel to every year over and over, where would it be? Why? Have you been there before?

Costa Rica. Yes we have been to Jaco Beach twice with our kids Loved it! would go back every year if we could!

What is your favorite quote or verse? I lean on many verses for daily encouragement but my favorite is Psalm 37:4 “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart!” My words to live by! ; )

What is your favorite cookbook? 

My favorite cookbooks are my local church/community cookbooks, and Ree Drummonds first cookbook The Pioneer Woman Cooks. This book is my most used by far. I also love Ina Garten and all her cookbooks.

What recipe on your blog are you most proud of?

I am most proud of Meals 4 Sharing. Last year I wrote everyday for one month about how to love others through the gift of food. Some of those post are my very favorite as well as the recipes I shared during that time. You can check out 31days of Meals 4 Sharing HERE.

Oatmeal Breakfast Muffins

What recipe on your blog do your readers seem to love most? What recipe do my readers love the most….hmmm golly that’s a hard question I have gotten a lot of feed back on my Chicken Soup, and my Oatmeal Breakfast muffins.

Quick and Easy Chicken Noodle Soup

What is your guilty food pleasure that you’re embarrassed to fess up to? Kraft Mac & Cheese? Spagetti-o’s? Canned cheese? We promise not to judge!

GUILTY FOOD PLEASURE, fried food…especially french fries with mayonnaise!

What have you learned since you began blogging? What have you found to be the most challenging part of blogging? Do you have any advice for someone who is interested in cooking or food blogging? 

I think I will smoosh questions 17-19 all together. I have learned a lot about myself, since I started blogging, blogging sort of forces you to self evaluate daily. I love to write, I have so many ideas of recipes and stories I want to share so the most challenging thing is finding time to blog…as you can see sometimes that means little or no sleep for this momma. Advice: 100% stay true to yourself! Blog about what you are passionate about, then and only then will you make true connections with your readers. The times I have bared my soul on my blog have been the hardest and the most rewarding, but I wouldn’t change a word! Thanks for having me Rachel! Love you girl! xoxox

~~~~~~~~

Love you too, Sheila! And I have to say, I’m a little exhausted just reading about your day. And your laundry. Wow! I give you a lot of credit for doing it all with a smile on your face. Thanks for taking time out of your busy day to tell us about your busy day!

PS: I’ll trade kitchens with you.

You can find more of Sheila on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Google+ and Instagram.