"I describe Bless This Mess as an easy place for busy families to come and get recipes, and then they can cook together and spend time together. I'm a big believer that moms should enjoy the process of dinner.
I‘ve been blogging for almost 10 years, which is hard to believe. I started writing recipes online because I would go to a church function, and people would ask, ‘Hey, can I get that recipe?‘ And I‘d say I‘ll put it on my blog because it was an easy way to get information to more people.
Day-to-day life with blogging is super fun and has so much flexibility. I love recipe development the most. People say, ‘Oh, I bet your kids are great cooks.‘ But I have to be really intentional about getting my kids in the kitchen because I like it so much; it‘s kind of my me-time thing.
Being a small-business owner has changed our lives. It‘s something I‘m so grateful for because it gives me the time to home-school my kids and to provide for them. But they‘re definitely involved, and it‘s been really fun to show them another lifestyle. I don‘t push things on my kids — if they want to go to college, great. And if they want to start a YouTube channel, great. And if they want to do both, I will help them.
Bless This Mess readers are some of the coolest people. I like to think I show up for them and that I‘m helping them make their lives easier. I joke that in 2020, I felt like a bread therapist because I helped my community do starters from scratch. A lot of people got one from a friend, but I wanted people to know how to make one from just flour and water and the magic known as sourdough. And so I did it with them, and I showed them every single day what it should look like and what it shouldn‘t. When people had issues, we troubleshooted together, and we did it over and over again. I had this giant community of people with sourdough starters, and then we started making bread together, and it was such a beautiful experience. I know sourdough can be a little cliche, but what I love is that it‘s super grounding.
Creating content is definitely my favorite part of this business. I like to imagine my recipe in someone‘s kitchen. I think about the lemon bars served at a tea party they‘re having with their kids. And I think of this one-pot meal they‘re going to throw together in 15 minutes when they get home from soccer, and it‘s going to be a relief that they didn‘t have to think about it. And I think about those breakfast muffins that are going to be a tradition in their home. I can just really see the recipes in their purpose in other people‘s homes. And that‘s exciting to me.”
