Homa Woodrum – Q & A

July 13, 2013 • 1 Comment

We will be introducing you to the speakers and attendees of the Food Allergy Bloggers Conference by sharing their responses to a few questions. We have asked them to choose to answer 3-5 of these questions:

1. Who do you look forward to seeing/meeting most at FABC and why?
2. Which of your blog posts are you most proud of and why?
3. Which panel topic do you look forward to hearing most and why?
4. What is the best thing about food allergies?
5. What motivated you to start blogging about food allergies?
6. What is the best thing about the online food allergy community?
7. What other blogger would you most like to meet and why?
8. What other blogger has inspired you?
9. What is one of your favorite posts written by another blogger and why?
10. If you didn’t have or deal with food allergies, what would be your 3 favorite foods to eat/try?

Homa Woodrum and her husband are both Nevada attorneys and parents of a girl (5 in August) and a boy (3 in August). Their daughter has multiple food allergies, a list that has been changing with a number of successful food challenges and currently includes peanuts, tree nuts, oats, and sesame. Homa blogs about allergy friendly vegetarian and vegan cooking and family activities in and around Las Vegas at Oh Mah Deehness! Originally from the U.K., Homa lived in Utah, California, and Alaska before settling in Las Vegas, Nevada in 2000. She contributes to projects involving @lvfoodallergy (the 2013 Las Vegas FARE walk, on the Walk Committee), @FABlogCon (Co-Founder), & @vegbooks (as a volunteer reviewer).

1. Who do you look forward to seeing/meeting most at FABC and why?

Would it be a cop out answer to say I’m excited to meet everyone and hear what everyone has to offer? If I had to pick one person, I’d say I am most excited about meeting Jenny Sprague, my co-manager of the conference. We talk on the phone, email, tweet, text, even video chat on Google + with our kids running in and out of the frame and are business partners but we have not met in person yet! I don’t know if we’ll have time for all the stuff we’ve joked about doing, like watching the movie Elf, but I think we can probably squeeze in a cup of tea and it will be such a treat.

5. What motivated you to start blogging about food allergies?

A friend had asked for a recipe for Vegetable and Bean Soup that I’d served while she was visiting with her daughter for a playdate (with our food restrictions I always tell people I’ll serve snacks and/or lunch while they’re over just to make it easier for them) and I thought I should keep a record of our “safe” foods and recipes so that I could someday make a photo recipe book for my daughter. A blog seemed like the best way to share recipes as needed and motivate me to take pictures and measure out ingredients. I never imagined it would connect me with the online food allergy community the way it has. I had no idea what to call the blog so I named it “Oh Mah Deehness!” which was how I spelled out the way my daughter tried to exclaim “Oh My Goodness!” It was one of my favorite things she was saying at the time and I didn’t want to forget it.

8. What other blogger has inspired you?

Hard to choose just one! Cybele Pascal is one of my favorite bloggers, she actively engages her audience even though she has so many balls in the air, from cookbooks to cookies to advocacy. I know link ups on blogs are fairly common place now but with her Allergy Friendly Fridays she invites everyone to submit recipes and considers all the submissions before featuring a few each week. Her cookbooks were getting us through our meal planning and baking after my daughter’s diagnosis and she was (and is) such a rock star for our family that I was beside myself to receive a comment on my little blog from her regarding a recipe submission. Blogging is about sharing and she really gets that. Also, I trust her recipes so much that if she suggests a hard to find product I will go out of my way to get it because I know the results will be wonderful.

9. What is one of your favorite posts written by another blogger and why?

Missy at Marketing Mama is such a thoughtful and open writer, the post that came to mind with this question was her post “reflection: what it’s like to be a food allergy mom.” Fair warning, it might make you tear up but it is so meaningful to see someone put their thoughts out there and to realize that you’re not alone because you have the same thoughts about loving someone with food allergies. It stuck with me especially because her little girl is only a bit older than my daughter. She has gone through so much but is a fantastic advocate even with all her other projects. She inspired me to be more open about our own journey.

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Homa Woodrum – Q & A

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