Life Lately Spring 2023

Yesterday was the first day in over a year that I’ve blogged… how did that happen?! Oh, I know, I had a baby and grew a small business! I posted on Instagram last night how I don’t know how to fit blogging back into my life at this time but I do miss it incredibly. And now here I am at the laptop about 12 hours later typing out some more thoughts, haha. So who knows, I’ll just go with it and see.

What’s new with us?

Well Henry is growing and learning so much! I love learning his personality. Right now the broad range of facial expressions he makes keep us laughing.

Much like his dada, we’ve learned Henry has some food allergies. Is that part of my reasoning for wanting to blog again? Yes and no. We do hope he will grow out of these allergies but we won’t know for at least a couple of years. Dairy, eggs, and peanuts have all caused scary reactions that resulted in us now carrying around his own epipen. I’m undecided as to what extent we want to share about his personal journey but there’s a lot I think I can still write about from the mama perspective.

And on the subject of allergies, right before Henry was born we learned of two other foods causing Darrell issues: soy and sesame. Oy vey. Soy is kind of in a category of “you shouldn’t eat that” but we’re not 100% sure yet if it is a full blown allergy.

Since around mid December, I’ve worked on making changes to my diet that I plan to share more about later on, but basically I was motivated by my bloodwork at a check-up and as of the follow up labs a week ago, I’ve since thankfully corrected those concerns. After a handful of months of making changes, I have more I’d like to make and do plan to continue much of what I’ve done.

How’s the business?

What a whirlwind. We’ve grown sooo much since beginning in November 2020 and at this stage I kind of feel like I’m feeling my way through the dark, unsure of what is ahead or even what to grab onto. We outgrew the guest room and made the decision to rent a studio space where I could store products, spread out to work and have a dedicated space for photography (a vital part of e-commerce that was regularly disrupting our downstairs common areas).

It’s a massive blessing to have the space and it simultaneously brings a new set of challenges. The obvious being the increase in overhead costs. But the business as a whole is at a bit of a crossroads as far as growing pains go. Since last summer we’ve expanded from 1 to now 4 channels of sales which is a huge leap. Then since the fall, we’ve hired two contract employees who work remotely on more of the back end of the business, not production. So production continues to fall on me and while the studio would allow for another employee who could focus on production, it’s not as simple as it sounds. And as you can imagine in a handmade product based business, the production is a major time suck. With aspirations to be a SAHM first and foremost, I wrestle with how to move forward. There are other semi related activities that appeal to me that could be a form of income but everything comes back to the limited resource of time. So we shall see. I’ve tried to take it one step at a time and I know the Lord’s timing is always better than mine, even when it feels like it’s been a prolonged period of feeling stuck.

What’s next for the blog?

I’d really love to expand my content to more mama / mamapreneur content since that’s what my life looks like these days. I think a big portion will continue to be food-related content but also home content, parenting, small business and bigger picture discussions around what is happening in our nation’s culture and politics. The latter would be new territory for me but I know God gives us skillsets to further His kingdom and it feels more important than ever to share a different perspective than the mainstream media.

As for frequency, I’d love to say I’ll be consistent with posting a few times a week but I just don’t know yet. So for the time being, it will be as often as I can fit in moments to write.

With all of that said, should the blog stay “The Amateur Apron” or is it time for a new name/brand? Any suggestions?

Thanks for being around and following the blog!