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Reply to "The Family and Business Juggle . . ."

I am currently trying to figure out a schedule for myself too.  I have two kids, age 2 and 5.  My husband travels for work, often last minute, so I'm scared to take big orders only to find my main helper has to leave town and I have no time to finish the order except at 2am.  

Frankly, I'm still on the fence about this undertaking, and I think often about being more of a hobbyist and recipe perfecter until my youngest is in preschool.  Also, I've seen a lot of cookiers do varied things with their cookie skills: blogs, videos, teaching, small volume super fancy keepsake cookies (like 1 at a time) vs. mass orders to feed a herd - some of which sound more friendly to a household with the tough schedule of small children.  

One of my friends converted a room in her house to a separate kitchen and can now comfortable accommodate much larger orders.  A huge problem for me is having to interrupt my work so frequently to cook for the family - so I admire my friend's seperate kitchen idea a whole lot.  I went through a phase where we ate out a lot more just to accommodate my cookie schedule, but it was getting too expensive.

There's so many directions this thing can go, its hard to decide!  Another baker friend has a nifty schedule of baking cakes in the morning while her kids watch a cartoon and decorating the cakes during afternoon nap time.  My household is just not predictable enough to accommodate a schedule like that yet, but I've sure tried it on for size a lot.  So far, what works best for me (similar to above) is to have one baking blitz day a month and then thaw and decorate as I go.  Unfortunately, I'm still working out the kinks in my dough recipe, my icing consistencies, and my freezer methods.  I have definitely had half a dozen 2am crying jags in my kitchen over cookies that were taking too long to finish. 

I'm very interested to hear how others handle the schedule of running a kitchen business from a household kitchen!

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