Can Moms Do it All? This one Literally Does, with a Wink and a Smile:)
Between mothering 4 young kiddos, homeschooling those little kiddos, running a philanthropic company and writing children’s books, this golden girl has our jaws dropped. Not only for her accomplishments, but how she’s managed to maintain warmth, passion, patience (ok, not all the time!) and grace, with just the right amount of whimsy and romance to experience life as if it were a story. Lovely in every way, Katie welcomed us as if BFFs into her charming Cotswold cottage in Chico, CA, to meet her family and fall in love with every intentional detail of her sweet life.
Meet Golden Girl // Katie Cook
photography by Kevin Cook
Can you tell us a little about who makes up your cozy family of six?
Our little crew includes our daughter Avonlea (named after Anne of Green Gables), and our 3 sweet and spunky boys, Everett, Ollie and Ames! My husband is a southern california boy who traded the beach for the countryside of Northern California! He currently farms on my family's rice farm and loves working outside on the land. I worked for 8 years in the international non-profit world, teaching English in Thailand, planning trips for teams and interns to East Africa, and helping set up an aftercare home in Nepal. After Nepal, I came back to California and got my masters in Marriage and Family Therapy and have been working as a therapist for almost 10 years.
What excites you about raising your kids?
Ohhh I love this question, raising children is such a gift! I adore watching my children delight in the world. I get so excited about being the one who gets to teach them new things about our amazing world. The last few summers I’ve done an “around the world” camp where we study different countries, and watching them interact with new languages, cultures, foods and people is a treasure. My hope for my children is that they would continue to grow in to people that never stop being curious about the world around us!
Between mothering 4 young kiddos, homeschooling, juggling your day job as a marriage and family therapist, speaking engagements, writing children’s books and running your Lottie Leather Bag company, we are dying to know what a typical day looks like for you! Do you have any routine parts of your day? Take us from the moment you wake up to the second your head hits the pillow!
My day usually starts with Everett tip-toeing into my room to cuddle me around 7:30am. We sing and snuggle together, and then Ames wakes up for his morning nurse. Usually while i’m nursing, Avonlea and Ollie wake up and make their way into my room and we all cuddle on the bed together and talk about what our day looks like. We head downstairs and I usually make breakfast (we rotate between crepes, pancakes, eggs, toast, or a smoothie). During breakfast I read a picture book to the kids, and when we’re done we all go upstairs and get ready for the day.
Around 9:30am a babysitter comes to watch the younger two kids while I homeschool the older kids. Homeschool is a gift and I love the extra time it allows me to be with and love on my children. We usually start off with a morning basket of collected poems, nursery rhymes, bible reading, and songs. Avonlea is usually working on memorizing a poem, so she’ll recite it for me. We read a handful of picture books that correspond to what she’s learning that week, and then finish off with language arts, math, science, and end with a craft. After the babysitter leaves, I will make lunch for the kids and send them outside to play.
The afternoon revolves around “rest time” where each child has some down time in their room for about an hour. The older kids listen to audiobooks while they build blocks or play dollhouse, and the younger kids nap. I use this time to read my Bible, tidy up the house, or catch up on emails. Once rest time is over, we usually will read books, bake a treat for after dinner, have a playdate with friends, or play outside. Around 5pm I will start making dinner while the kids tidy up and set the table. One of my values for my family is that we eat together each night, so when Kevin gets home from work we’ll eat. We try to take a family walk after dinner, and then it’s bath time and bedtime. In the evening, after cleaning up, my husband and I will try to connect and do something together like read aloud, watch a show, or just talk! Then, off to bed! Whew, I get tired just thinking about this season with little ones haha!
Speaking of doing it all, do you ever feel like you just can’t? How do you regroup when you hit the mom, life, work wall?
Haha, I feel this almost every day. My husband and I keep reminding ourselves that these little years are “just a season”. Being a mom is the most physically and emotionally demanding job i’ve ever had, and there’s no one set blueprint for parenting as everyone’s children are so different. When I feel the overwhelm, I’m quick to communicate to my husband who is so supportive to me as a wife and mama. We make a plan for me to take some time to do things that are lifegiving to me. These special times of refreshment, like going on a girls trip with my friends, taking walks, having time alone to recharge, or planning international travel, are the perfect margins for me to regroup. My husband has also started championing the dishes each night and doing the laundry to remove some of the household burden from my shoulders, so that has been a huge help!
Alphabet and Numerical Art: Gathre
Was it always the plan to homeschool your children?
Absolutely not. I went to public school my entire life and didn’t consider homeschooling until I saw many of my friends start doing all these creative projects with the flexibility for field trips through their homeschool journey. It intrigued me. A year before Avonlea started school I joined a few other moms in a year long group to read books about different homeschool methods and learn more about the basic tenets of homeschooling. What I learned excited me and challenged me in the best way. We’ve absolutely thrived as a family educating our children at home, and have been surrounded by a really dynamic homeschool coop as well!
You share a lot about your faith on instagram. How does your faith play a role in your mothering?
Faith is central to everything I do in my mothering. I truly believe God pours out His love into our hearts, so that we can pour that same love out on our children. I believe God’s word directs our steps and gives us guidelines for how to live an abundant life, and I want to teach my kids these truths as they navigate the world. I want them to walk in love, in forgiveness, in kindness, in peace, and in joy! As we encounter our days together, I love to remind them how artistic God is in creating the colors of the sunset, or the feather on a bird. I love reminding them their identity as a child of God, an identity that doesn’t shift based on how much money they have, or what clothes they wear, or where they live. But that they are 100% loved for who they are because God made them special and unique! I’m also so grateful for prayer, and the kids and I will pray together often. I am so grateful to have God lead and guide me in my mothering journey.
How do you make moments for your kids (tall or small) meaningful for your little ones?
I am an enneagram 7 (the enthusiast) and so while I may struggle in the “clean and tidy house” department, I make up for in the “creative” department haha! I LOVE being spontaneous and planning special moments with my kids. If you were to walk in to our home at any given point, we’d usually have some epic fort set up, a tea party going on (in which we just baked cookies or scones or tried some new recipe), and we’d be about to grab our construction paper passports to travel to a new country! I love making the best of life come alive for my kids! If they ask me “where is Italy?” on the map, the next thing you know we’d be making spaghetti, counting to 10 in Italian (which I minored in during college!) and reading a kids book on Venice! Some of the other special moments we are trying to cultivate is making sure we get one on one time with each of our kids. I never want my kids to feel lost in the shuffle of a big family, so we have tried to make room for family date nights. It usually involves mom or dad taking a child out for a special treat, walk, park date, or movie.
We love seeing pics of you and your kids off to far away places! How many countries have these little ones explored with you? How you do it with moving time zones and 4 en tow?!
While my husband and I have been to 50+ countries as we've lived and travel abroad quite frequently, our kids have been to almost 10. They have become very capable travelers and do fairly well with the time change. I have a few tricks I use to help with jet leg, including taking red eye flights so they sleep on the plane (with the help of natural melantonin gummies), and planning our flights so they arrive at our destination in the evening so our kids can go right to sleep! But more than anything, my husband and I have become very flexible knowing that despite the extra work, it is always worth it to travel as a family! My biggest tip for traveling with kids is to shift your expectations. They don't have to be "low" expectations, but "different." I have a whole blog post (here) on thinking through specific expectations and questions you can ask yourself to help alleviate frustration.
What are some of the ordinary rituals of motherhood you will miss when your four are no longer little?
Ohhh, let’s see…I think I will really miss going to playgrounds with my kids. I try to get on the playground structures with the kids and chase them and engage with them in their play. Hearing their little squeals as I chase them, or the sound of their squeaky little voice saying “look at me mama!” will be missed! Just tonight Kev and I spontaneously took the kids to a park after dinner and there was just so much joy to be had on the playground it ministered to my soul. I will also miss nursing. From the moment Avonlea was born I have loved nursing my babies. The sweet bonding time when their little hand reaches up to stroke your face or play with your necklace as they nurse is just the cutest.
Where are some of your favorite places to hang in your home with your quartet?
The kitchen and dining area are truly the heartbeat of our home. I love to cook delicious and healthy food for my babies, and meal times around our table are precious. During breakfast I read books to my kids, during the day I homeschool my kids around the table and at dinner we pray as a family, sing songs, and enjoy being together. I love my bedroom as every morning I get to snuggle my kids in my bed. It’s a sweet way to start the day. In the winter, the spot you will find us is right by the fireplace. I let the kids eat breakfast on the hearth to stay warm, we read books snuggled in the chairs by the fire, and we do our advent devotionals around the fire at Christmas.
Mom wardrobe: What pieces and brands make you feel your best while you do everything you can to make your kids feel their best?
About a year ago I discovered a little online shop called Neuflora Wardrobe. They release a small curated collection once a month and it has helped me create a capsule wardrobe, as every piece in their past and future collections mix and match together. I love wearing dresses around the house and light and airy items that are the pinnacle of comfort and style.
Rattan Counter Stools: Serena and Lily
Tell us more about Lottie Leather, your handbags handmade in Nepal.
Kevin and I lived in Nepal helping to set up an aftercare home for girls rescued out of trafficking and abuse. While we were there we realized the incredible need for job creation. When my sister-in-law lived there a few years after us, she got connected to some local artisans making leather bags and asked me if I wanted to join her in selling them. I was ecstatic, and we began designing bags and making a website calling it Lottie Leather. We love being able to support and provide an income for local artisans in Nepal as they hone their craft.
Annnnd now about your Children's books! What are they about? When can we get our hands on them?!
When my daughter, Avonlea, was a toddler, I began looking for whimsical and rich travel adventure stories to read with her. In my pursuit I found many beautiful books, but never quite what I was looking for. Hence, an idea was born to pen a series about little girls around the world who find themselves adventuring through their own cities. Woven into each story is a specific character virtue that espouses themes of bravery, reaching out to others, doing hard things, and creating community.
I've spent the last few years visiting each of the countries I've set my books in, interviewing locals, storyboarding the book through photography, writing the stories, and getting them professionally edited. I am in the final stage now, and am about to pitch this project to my dream illustrator. I'm hoping and praying we'll have a finished book (or books) in the near future!
You can stayed tuned on my book process on my IG page @worlds.of.hope
From the looks of your instagram, you seem very close to your mom! How has your relationship from childhood days to adult help shape the mom you are today?
What an excellent question! My mom and I have grown leaps and bounds since I have had children. We have very different personalities and have often misunderstood each other when I was growing up. After the birth of my first child, I began to see a different side of my mom as I understood motherhood more fully. Apart from Kevin and I, my mom has loved my children more than anyone and it has grown a beautiful bond between us. We’ve also been able to connect deeper on our common interests of home decorating, reading historical fiction, and traveling!
You’ve renovated your charming cottage into quite the dream sitch. What is your philosophy when it comes to decorating?
My philosophy is to find a home decorating style you like, one that inspires you daily, and then work to curate pieces (new or second hand) that bring the atmosphere to life! My style is English cottage meets California casual! Give me all the cottage windows, gingham, beadboard, bookshelves and timbered beams, but then mix that with natural fibers like wicker and rattan and use neutral calming colors to tie in my Californian vibe. Honestly, do what inspires you, and you will love where you live:)
Go-to place to shop for yourself and your kids…
Most of my wardrobe comes from Neuflora or is thrifted at yard sales or thrift stores. Most of my shoes are from Madewell as they have a great selection of leather boots and sandals. For my kids, I love buying linens and gauze fabrics. I find their pieces from Zara, H&M, Old Navy and second hand clothes from yard sales, thrift stores and used kid clothing stores.
Favorite momcast…
“At Home with Sally” where author and speaker Sally Clarkson shares her mothering wisdom. She is so fun and practical and brings me back to the incredible work and gift that mothering is.
Low time, low effort styling trick ...
add a few hair extensions to my braid to make it fuller. I have long hair already, but the extensions make my braid thicker and allows for a more luxurious boho vibe.
My beauty routine looks like…
100% Pure. Everything I purchase for my skin comes from them, and truly every thing they make has zero toxins and are pigmented by fruits and loaded with all natural ingredients. I’ve never looked back, I love their brand!
I love…
My cottage window! When we remodeled our kitchen I wanted to feel like I was in a cottage in England, and this wood window makes me smile every time I walk in.
SHOP KATIE
