[themify_box style=”lavender rounded” ]Welcome to our series where we explore amazing local moms and their impact on our community. We’ll hear about their journeys, inspiration, advice, and snag a few gems off their playlists! Thank you to Advanced OBGYN for sponsoring Amazing Rocket City Moms.[/themify_box]

Meet Stacey Schlaman, another awesome Madisonian and married mom of two terrific kiddos, Problem Solver, and Baker. She might even be your new best friend if you have a food allergy in your house.

Her Passion

By far, Stacey’s passions can be found in healthy living, cherished values, and baking, a passion learned from her mom.

From exercising to eating, the kiddos are watching, taking it all in, and Stacey knows that she has to be a living example. Although she loves being outdoors in her spare time, when her daughter was diagnosed with several autoimmune diseases, she turned her passion of healthy living into an obsession with researching alternative ways to help heal her daughter from the inside out.

After several years of trial and error and constant research, her cherished value of healthy living turned into a career when Stacey and her husband decided to turn our daughter’s dietary success into a baker that would cater specifically to others with food sensitivities, including allergies.

Her Journey

Stacey was always at home in the kitchen. She developed a love for baking from her mother. Even in college she worked at a bakery in her hometown. This skill/love came in handy when restructuring her daughter’s diet. In order to weed out certain food groups for her daughter’s health, Stacey was having to make everything from scratch, as there were no prepared or convenience foods locally available that she could use.

While a stay-at-home mom with two kids that was hard enough, but when she began to work as a fitness instructor, the time she was spending in the kitchen was too much to bear. Right about this time, she was noticing the number of parents she was connecting with in person or online with children who also had autoimmune disorders and that were finding the need to make everything from scratch too hard. And thus, an idea was born…for Stacey and Jeff, her husband, to open up a small bakery to help liberate other parents from the kitchens… and Nourish Bakeries aka Liberated Specialty Foods was born.

The bakery has struck a chord with so many people throughout the nation that they are sending the food all over the country, and the goal in 5-10 years is to have their products on the shelves of Whole Foods and other Natural Food Retailers across the nation.

Finding Balance

“It’s never 50/50! Some days are 10/90, but we seem to be making it all happen somehow. I have always said that it takes a village to raise a family, but it most definitely applies to growing a business too. By some miraculous twist of fate, our bakery has been blessed with the most amazing group of ladies that love to bake. Their talents are far reaching being former engineers, teachers, fitness instructors, students and managers. We are 15 bakers strong now and couldn’t be busier! We have each other’s backs and seem to complement each other perfectly.”

Biggest Challenge

Stacey’s biggest challenge was finding answers to help her daughter with overcoming her autoimmune diseases, you are never truly cured, but you can be in remission. Gathering support from doctors, family, and friends was no easy task. Her daughter needs to strictly observe the Specific Carbohydrate Diet and explaining that to each restaurant, school, friend’s parent can be overwhelming. Stacey stated, “My challenges can’t compare to the daily challenges my daughter faces, but my hope is that this bakery of ours makes life a little easier for those who do choose nutritional healing.”

Her Perfect Saturday

“Sleeping in, a cup of coffee and watching Mads (Madeline, her daughter) and Ryan (her son) play in a late morning soccer and baseball game.”

Funniest Mom Moment

“One afternoon, [at a Huntsville Stars game] we were sitting in our usual left field nose bleed seats in hopes of catching a rouge foul ball. With gloves in hand, my children were ready! I was bound and determined for them to [get] a foul ball that hot summer’s day. And that’s when it happened. A foul ball was headed straight in our direction. I grabbed my son’s glove and dove over a row of seats only to be “one-upped” by a young, much more capable middle-school aged boy who retrieved the ball with ease. After brushing myself off, skinned-knees and all, the polite young boy asks, “Are you OK ma’am?” I felt like saying, “No son, apparently I am not”, but instead bowed my head in embarrassment as I made the walk back to my family, who remained seated during the entire event looking at me in astonishment. Yep, that’s me!”

Rocket City Favorites

“Hiking the trails in Monte Sano and exploring the many Greenways scattered throughout Jones Valley and Madison.”

Name the song you think of when you need to:

• Get your “gameface” on: “Thunder Struck” – AC/DC
• Recover from heartbreak: “Village” – Cam and “Shake It Off”- Taylor Swift
• Energize yourself: “Pump It” or “I Gotta Feeling” – Black Eyed Peas
• Let loose and have fun: “Closer to Fine” – Indigo Girls to make me feel happy and probably “Footloose” – Kenny Loggins to really let loose (images of the movie scenes are a must)

Stacey’s Top Parenting Tips

• Don’t hush the intuitive voices within ourselves. Mom’s possess a connection to their child that is unique. If you feel something is not right with your child, keep search for answers using a wide range of studies.
• Be your child’s #1 advocate!

You Might Also lIke…

Amazing Moms: The Actor http://www.rocketcitymom.com/amazing-rocket-city-moms-actor/
Amazing Moms: The Roller Derby Coach http://www.rocketcitymom.com/amazing-moms-roller-derby-coach/

[themify_box style=”light-blue rounded”]Do you have a local mom in mind as an Amazing Rocket City Mom? We want to hear from you – send us your ideas and we’ll get in touch![/themify_box]