Life Outside the Box: An Interview with Katherine Erikson

Building a family business, embracing limitations with a spirit of adventure, and living a walkable life

Dec 13, 2024

Welcome to all new readers! This is the tenth interview in a series where we celebrate the intentional choice to live as whole persons and not just one-dimensional job titles.

The overwhelmingly positive response to my essay, Leaning (In and) Out, (Not) Having it All, suggested to me that there are a lot of women (and men) who are keen to set aside the societal pressure to hustle hard and put all their energies and decades of life exclusively into one single career box.

This series offers interviews with those who have chosen a life outside the box, in a variety of ways. It’s my hope that in getting to peek into the lives of others, we’ll all be inspired to step outside the pressure chambers we may feel stuck in - even if our lives are very different in practice from those shared here.

Encouragement, permission, examples - I hope whatever it is you need to step outside the box, you’ll find it here.

Today I’m welcoming

Katherine Erickson

, who writes Windy Poplars Workshop here on Substack.

I first came across Katherine on Notes, where she was sharing a bit about raising her kids to help in the family business. While something like that used to be common, it seems less and less possible for many families today, so I was curious to learn more about this outside-the-box choice. I know you’ll like learning more, too.

(1) What does your life outside the box currently look like? Tell us about a day/ week in your life.

My husband runs a small, home based cabinet shop. I homeschool our kids and am involved in the care of our home, garden, and chickens. Periodically, I help my husband with quick tasks in the shop like moving a large, bulky cabinet or talking through client relationships. Our kids are still young, but they help as they around our property and with organization and clean up tasks in the shop. It’s an opportunity for extra cash for them and they take pride in helping out. Sometimes they come along to job sites and help with unloading tools and other small tasks. As they get older they will have the chance to start sanding and staining if they so desire.

Our homeschool days center around reading aloud living books on various subjects and doing some phonics and math. We allow lots of time for family trips, whether it’s heading out to the next town over for a Home Depot run, grocery shopping, and chinese food, going camping, or going to the family beach house that my husband’s grandpa built. Our family schedule is built around the business schedule, which can vary widely based on when projects line up. We don’t have to compete with a school schedule for the kids and a separate work schedule for me.

(2) How did you get there? What intentional choices did you make?

We started homeschooling five years ago when my oldest turned five. Three years ago I had to stop driving for medical reasons. We were living in an isolated, rural area. We had to move so that we could be close to a church community, get my husband his own home shop, and allow the kids and I freedom to walk to parks, the library, etc. Our current town is small, but it has our necessities, most importantly an Orthodox Christian Church and, miraculously, an Orthodox monastery where the kids can attend Catechism classes and occasional services with the nuns.

All of this was a huge leap of faith. We did not know if our plan would work out. There have been tight times and there will most likely be more, but we feel so blessed to be living and working together as a family.

(3) What are you intentionally choosing to say “yes” and (maybe more importantly!) “no” to in this season of your life?

We are saying yes to investing time and energy into our business and children as well as attending church and engaging in our small community. We are saying no to commuting, family schedules that take each member in different directions, new cars, a bigger, newer house; you get the idea!

I decided to start writing on Substack as a way to communicate with others about the things I value. This is a nice outlet for my ideas, but I can fit writing into the margins of my life for right now.

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(4) When you were a child/ younger, what vision did you have for your life? Did you always want to live outside the box, or did it come later? Was it a surprise to you?

I did want to live outside of the box as a young adult. My husband and I met as white water rafting guides, we lived in a converted bus before van life was a thing, we spent time at an art commune, and I worked as a ski instructor. Out of the box looks very different for us now than it did then, but I am very thankful that we made the decision to start a family and business.

(5) What dispositions/ attitudes/ skills helped you cultivate the life you have now?

It is often difficult to accept our limitations. Not driving is not easy, but by accepting that limitation we have been able to receive guidance from God regarding the path our lives are meant to take.

(6) What dispositions/ attitudes/ skills helped you cultivate the life you have now?

My husband has a unique mind. He is able to take an idea, shape it in his mind, and then bring it into reality. He has often thrown out ideas and I’ve said, “But that’s impossible.” I have learned to listen to his thoughts and support the execution of his ideas.

I worked with kids in the outdoors for years before becoming a mom. I learned to handle logistics as well as the constantly changing challenges of being with kids. When I became a mom I knew that I wanted to invest my time and energy into my own kids for a while.

Working in the outdoor recreation field cultivated tenacity, flexibility, problem solving, tolerance for discomfort, and a sense of adventure. We have needed all of these traits in our current life.

(7) Where can people find you online?

I am on Substack at Windy Poplars Workshop where I write about motherhood, liturgical life, and literature with a seasoning of Celtic Saints, Tolkien, and nature writing.

» Myquillin Smith, an interior designer, refers to challenges in home decor as “lovely limitations” and I think sometimes that can be applicable to life, too. I found it fascinating and beautiful that Katherine’s embracing the limitation of not driving has also led to a beautifully local life, (one that sounds quite enviable in lots of ways! Who wouldn’t want to live near a monastery?) It’s a good reminder that life can be complicated and wonderful all at the same time. Also, van life before it was even a thing? Talk about a spirit of adventure!

Now let’s discuss! Did you have a sense of adventure in childhood? Are there ways you’d like to live it now? How do you feel about embracing limitations? Would you ever like to start a family business?

Cultivating Clarity

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