Shiloah Baker is the founder of Homemaking Cottage, an ezine sharing ideas for keeping home and family, and the web site Enrichment Cottage, a source for women in Relief Society. For the last 12 years, she has juggled her family, self, and home schooling – along with sharing inspiration with women of all faiths on the Internet.

Shiloah herself is an inspiration to me – a mother of 8 children, three of her children have special needs: one has Sensory Integration Disorder, one has autism, and one has Asperger’s. Her husband is also in the military, with deployments to Iraq. She is also an avid runner.

Shiloah is truly a good, strong, faithful soul and I enjoyed learning more about how she does it all. In our interview, Shiloah also shared some of her favorite sites for homeschooling and information on gluten-free diets.

Q&A with Shiloah Baker

About the ezine – How did you know women needed a source like Homemaking Cottage online?

In 1998, when I was the mom to three young children, I got the internet in my home for the first time.  I was thrilled.  My passion has always been homemaking and so it was one of the first topics I began looking up.  There were very few sites with information on this topic so I decided that it was because I was supposed to start one! {smile}  I taught myself html and began from there.  Immediately women emailed me and encouraged me onward, so I continued.  Over the years I’ve received touching emails about how the website has taught, encouraged, and helped women worldwide.  That has been a true joy for me and keeps me going when times get tough.

I also know that Heavenly Father has inspired me along this entire journey.  When I couldn’t afford the upkeep of the website out of my family’s pocket, I was inspired to begin the Deluxe Edition, then ebooks, and more.  When I felt like I couldn’t write everything and run the site, I was inspired to get volunteer writers and to hire paid freelancers.

Running this website has been a blessing for me and my family too.

Are you targeting LDS women or women from any faith who have the same values as Homemaking Cottage?

Originally the target was only LDS sisters, but I quickly realized it made no difference to the women who visited whether it was for LDS women or not, they liked it.  I also had a huge portion of the site dedicated to the Relief Society.  I decided to put most of that section (which was huge) onto its own domain: www.enrichmentcottage.com .  I still keep some RS ideas there, but it isn’t the focus.
The values the website embraces are Christian with a large LDS slant – we are not shy about quoting from the Prophet, Apostles, and Book of Mormon, in addition to the Bible.

Shiloah, you seem to do it all – mother, homeschooling, entrepreneur, writing, running, etc.. – How do you keep from burning out? What helps to keep things in perspective?

Family and my well-being/health is first- always.  I’m a multi-tasker.   We have a family rhythm that seems to work well for us.  If I feel uninspired, tired, or feel the family needs me- I take a break.  My husband and children are extremely supportive and help around the house.  Everyone pitches in in everything we do.  I have 2 teens, and one that will be 12 this year so they are independent and helpful.
Over the last 12 years there have been times when I felt burned out- especially during my husband’s long 1+ year deployments to Iraq.  I find during those times, it’s nice to go out into nature with the kids/family (i.e. camping), or go on vacations (day trips or longer), etc. and recharge my batteries.

I also remember that this is not just a business.  I was given a blessing (Patriarchal) that tells me this is one of my important missions in life.  It is about service to all women that I feel such a kinship with.  I can’t leave out how much I LOVE doing this.  I feel I’m in my element when I’m creating, sharing, inspiring, teaching, and uplifting.

On working from home – How have you juggled working from home with raising your children?

It is constantly a juggling act.  I’m pregnant with baby #8 right now and I homeschool.  Finding time to take care of family first, homeschool second, me third and business last has good days and bad days.  I do it because I love it, but it isn’t easy.

I try to schedule the first part of my day for homeschooling and then exercise.  I then come home refreshed and ready to work on the business while little ones nap and the older children work on their projects or read.  Late nights are also a favorite time to work uninterrupted.  Having a supportive husband is truly a blessing and he takes the kids out for fun trips to the store or park so I can have quiet work times here and there on the weekends.

What are some of your favorite sources for homeschooling your children?

I love the Well-Trained Mind, classic book lists, and everything to do with A Thomas Jefferson Education which is the method I school my children by.  Some of my favorite sites to shop are:  http://www.ldfr.com/ , http://www.visionforum.com/default.aspx (LOVE their audios), Amazon.com, and audible.com (great for audio books).

Other sites I like to visit are: http://www.tjedonline.com/ , http://www.tjed.org/, http://spunkyhomeschool.blogspot.com/

My last question was more for my benefit than for the blog, but I’m going to share it anyway because I know there are other mothers who will benefit. A good friend of mine has a little boy who was recently diagnosed with Aspergers. She is trying a gluten-free diet for him and I know she has been really frustrated. I don’t know if you’ve tried the gluten-free diet thing, but I know she has been looking for other mothers who would be willing to share recipes, support, etc…

Oh boy, I know what she’s going through!  We were gluten free/dairy free for almost 3 years.  The only reason we are not now is because I’m pregnant and eating that way is not appetizing to a nauseated pg woman.  When I have this baby in 10 weeks, we’re going back to that lifestyle.

I often speak of our gluten free diet on the blog.  Here are the archives:

http://www.google.com/cse?cx=partner-pub-4394181423515637%3Ae1fcabu6eym&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=gluten+free&sa=Search If she ever wants to ask me questions send her my way…especially Facebook- I’m there the most.   I’m good friends with a woman in Canada who has mentored me along this gluten free journey and I learned much from her.