Super Mum "Amy Doak"

Good Evening! Happy Monday (I know the day is almost over!) It seems winter weather hit us again today (even though its Summer!), it was cold and miserable and perfect weather to have a cuppa and sit and build blocks with the kids, well at least that was my  morning!

As we are on the count down for the end of the year, I am also on the count down for the last of my Monday Super Mum interviews! With only 4 more to go I can promise you that these ones are going to be as interesting and inspiring as the others have been.

Todays Mum is a gorgeous busy Mum of 2. I ‘met’ this Mum when I was blessed to have a beautiful story, about trying to conceive, written on me and my family a few issues ago in her magazine  – I have to say that this could possibly be my most favourite magazine ever and it is more like a precious bound large book, with pages among pages of touching stories (not just ads!) —- and even though my babies are almost 2, I still buy it because I enjoy it so much! I was thrilled (as I always am!) when this Mum said yes to being interviewed! I hope you love this interview as much as I have!

 

“Amy Doak”

Amy 7 months pregnant and her son, Oscar 2yrs old

Tell us a little bit about you and your family?

I am publisher and editor of LittleONE magazine and I work from my lounge room (or often my kitchen bench to avoid teeny fingers accessing the keyboard of my laptop) and my ‘assistants’ are my 8 month old and 3 year old sons.  They actually are very bad at their jobs and luckily they are family or I would have sacked them long ago!  I swing from feeling blessed that I get to work at something I truly enjoy and don’t miss a moment of my boys growing up…and feeling resentful that everyone else is relaxing at night and I am still working!  My husband, Rod, is a builder and we have been together since we were just 21.  He is my greatest support when it comes to work and every time I am on the resentful bandwagon he is great at giving me a kick up the butt!

I still can’t quite believe how much I love being a mum.  I always thought that it looked like a really hard job and whilst it is, it is the best one I have ever had.  I knew I would love my kids (you sort of have to, really, don’t you?) it has really surprised me how much I LIKE them.  They are awesome little people and I truly enjoy getting to hang out with them, and getting to know them.  My oldest goes to daycare two days a week now, so I can get some work done during the day (although the youngest is sleeping less now, so I will need to rethink this again soon!) but I really miss him on the days he isn’t home.

My mum lived for years with migraines and itchy skin and about 15 years she met a great allergy specialist and naturopath who gave her a list a mile long of foods to avoid and said once she was OK she could start re-introducing items to determine exactly where her problems lay.  For 12 years she hasn’t eaten sugar, gluten, dairy and certain high acid fruits and veg (like tomatoes, strawberries, etc) and wrote a cook book sharing the meals she makes for her traditional-eating hubby and family!  None of us can tell the difference when she presents a meal – she is a great cook – and it is a real inspiration as to what can be achieved.  Every now and then she will have a pizza and suffer through a migraine or tummy pains for the day or two after, but mostly she eats like that all the time and is just very clever with substitutes.  She has dropped from a size 12-14 to a 6-8 eating this way and she looks about 20 years younger than her 63 years!  Definitely proof that what you eat affects your life and I know that when I am stressed or cranky (or super tired) it is usually that I am eating poorly and that is making me feel even worse.

 

Amy and her Mum, Cheree, on her Wedding Day!

 

Oscar with 1 week old Sebastian – you can feel the LOVE in this photo!

What one ingredient can you not live without and why?

Avocado!  Which is crazy because I lived most of my life ‘hating it’ (read: never tried it) and now I think it is the perfect ingredient!  It makes any salad or sandwich instantly delicious (it makes even lettuce feel like real food – ha!) and I even have a gluten free sugar free recipe for ‘chocolate’ brownies that is made with avocadoes and you would never know the difference between the original version!

And prawns would have to be one of my favourite foods…avocado and prawns…yummy, yummy!

If you had half an hour to cook dinner and realized you didn’t have anything planned, what would you cook?

This question made me laugh because I don’t so much ‘cook’ as ‘assemble ingredients’.  Most meals these days take no longer than 20 minutes to prepare and cook and I have quite the repertoire for easy-peasy meals that fool people into thinking that I actually know what I am doing! One of my easiest trick meals is a chicken, spinach and ricotta risotto.  It is actually cooking the Arborio rice using the absorption method, frying up some chopped bacon and then some chicken breast pieces, throwing it together with a sun dried tomato, spinach and ricotta pasta bake jar, and stirring through some fresh baby spinach and some frozen corn kernels.  The entire thing takes about 8 minutes from start to finish, and everyone loves it!

Amy and her family, including their Golden Cocker Spaniel, Keira!

Oscar and Sebastian

What is once piece of advice you can pass on to other busy mums?

No one else knows what they are doing either.  Seriously.  Even the ones that seem to have it together.  So many mums I know make themselves crazy by looking at other mums and berating themselves “why can’t I be more like her and [insert common complaint here – spend more time with my kids/go to work/be fit/have great hair/throw amazing parties/have a clean house/have my own business/go on holidays/have a kid that sleeps/blah/blah/blah!]”

If someone else seems happy in their life, it is usually because they have made choices that fit their family and their situation (although, chances are they are just fumbling through it all too!).  Which means what they do is unlikely to work for you!  You’ve got to do what puts a smile on your face and not worry about anything else.  A lot of mums also worry about being judged, but whether you are a mum or not, if you are happy and owning your choices, people respect that and are happy for you (or incredibly jealous of you, but I guess that is a win too!)

Amy and Sebastian – 7 months old

If you could have dinner with any 3 people in the world, who would it be and why?

Hmmm…dead or alive?  If I go with people alive today, I would definitely choose women who have to juggle a lot and seem to succeed at it, or seem to have close to ‘it all’ (although, I am sure they would have few secrets to share…see above question!) – Oprah Winfrey, Princess Rania and JK Rowling would make for some fascinating conversation about women and their place in the world today!

You are the Publishing Editor of my favourite Pregnancy and Baby Magazine “Little ONE baby” ….. I would love to know how this magazine got started, how long it’s been going for and what inspires you and the rest of the staff?

My background is advertising and marketing, but about 10 years ago I did a Diploma in editing and writing.  I was keen to develop my PR skills at that time, but I have always loved to write.  A few years after that, I started a magazine in my local area (www.bendigomagazine.com) and all that did was fuel my magazine obsession! 

I got married in 2007 and in the lead up to that, I got hooked on beautiful bridal magazines – there are some really gorgeous ones out there!  Every time a friend got engaged, I would go and buy them a few of my favourites.  Around the same time, a lot of my friends were having babies and I was keen to do the same for them – buy them a gorgeous baby magazine.  Unfortunately, a lot of the magazines on the shelves were either rather unattractive and filled with advice that an educated woman would already know (or learn in 10 minutes of being online) or they were just product lists of things to buy.  There were no positive stories about real women and their experiences or choices, and there was certainly nothing showcasing lovely nurseries.  So, I set about creating one!  Luckily, my distributor in Australia (Gordon & Gotch) also felt that it was an idea that needed sharing and they agreed to come on board and send the magazine around the country.  The first issue was Winter 2009 and two weeks after it hit the shelves, my first baby was born.  Two issues later we started selling in New Zealand and now we also sell copies in the USA, UK, South Africa, Singapore, Hong Kong, Canada, China, Korea, United Arab Emirates as well as selling issues online to people in many other countries! 

All of the people who work on LittleONE are also parents of young children and we all agree that we are lovers of beautiful things!  It is very easy to get caught up in the exhaustion and stresses that come with being a parent, but it is important to remember that parenting a little one is such a short window of time in the scheme of your whole life – so you should embrace the lovely parts as much as you can.  Hopefully, we remind people that we are all dealing with the same challenges and that it is OK to enjoy some of the good bits before they are gone forever!

“LittleONE” available MAY (Winter) and NOVEMBER (Summer) and an annual Kids in SEPTEMBER!

 

My family inside “LittleONE”

 

A huge THANK YOU to Amy for being a part of this interview and for also creating such a beautiful magazine that I look forward to so much!

To see more on “LittleONE” and Amy, you can follow them at www.littleonebaby.com.au and www.littleonekids.com.au and BLOG on www.littleonemag.com

www.facebook.com/LittleONEBaby

Twitter – LittleONEMag

Instagram – Amy Littleone

 

Wishing you all a wonderful week ahead….can you believe it is 2 weeks until Christmas!

I will show you what I have been up to leading up to Christmas, offering more free recipes and loads more in my blogs over the next few weeks, so don’t forget to register on the front/home page of my website to get these blogs emailed to you automatically so you don’t miss out!

Take Care of You,

Collette x

Super Mum "Amy Doak"