Gosselins revisited

I did catch the season premiere of "Jon & Kate Plus Eight" and found it to be downright painful TV.

While I'm a self-admitted reality show junkie - a habit I'm trying, unsuccessfully, to kick - the raw emotions of a marriage falling apart in front of a ratings-grabbing national audience was beyond sad.

And I still don't really get the appeal of this show. I was at a party once where some guy (!) was talking about this show with the kind of enthusiasm that some people show for football or baseball. Weird.

But what do I know? I love "The Real Housewives of New York."

Back in September 2008, I interviewed Kate Gosselin while she was on a press tour in New York.

At first she seemed guarded, but after a few minutes, she was funny and seemed very sincere and not at all snippy, though we were mostly talking about sandwiches, lunches, shopping and not about allegations that her husband was apparently stepping out on her with a 23-year-old third grade school teacher.

Here's the story - can you find any read-between-the-line clues as to what was really going on when cameras weren't rolling?

The queen of the brown-bag lunches
With eight kids, TV celeb Kate Gosselin packs plenty

By PATRICIA TALORICO
The News Journal

Kate Gosselin treasures her sleep.

You may already know that if you've watched the popular TLC TV series "Jon & Kate Plus Eight" which chronicles the life of the central Pennsylvania woman, her husband, Jon, and their energetic sets of multiples - 4-year-old sextuplets and 7-year-old twins.

When it comes to packing school lunches for eight kids - and that means going through a loaf of bread each day - Gosselin likes to get it out of the way the night before.

"I know the crazy morning," says the 33-year-old, whose day begins with getting together 56 pieces of clothing for the children, cooking 16 pancakes, cleaning 80 sticky fingers and tossing in five loads of laundry.

If she wasn't a pack-it-the-night-before mom, "I'd have to get up a half hour early. I'm not a morning person," says Gosselin by telephone last week from New York, where she is working with the Grain Foods Foundation to encourage moms to pack lunches for themselves and their families.

While she and Jon share parental duties, Kate is charge of the cooking and nutrition.

"I've always cooked for Jon and I. When the girls [7-year-old twins Cara and Mady] were little, it was very important for me. I want to know what I'm putting into them," she says of the rest of the brood which includes sextuplets Alexis, Aaden, Collin, Leah, Hannah and Joel.

Gosselin buys organic foods whenever she can and says she is lucky to live close to Lancaster County. "The Amish community is less than 10 minutes away, and I go to a wonderful produce grower."

The advantage of a large family: "You're never eating food that's not fresh," she jokes.
The disadvantage? A big grocery bill. Just don't ask Gosselin how much she spends each week on food.

"People always ask that, and I honestly don't know. I shop at so many different places, and we do a lot of bulk shopping. I try never to buy stuff that isn't on sale."

Despite the TV show and the attention it brings, the Gosselins are determined that their children have "a normal, happy childhood."

When she makes sandwiches, Gosselin likes to change the shape of the bread. Sometimes she'll even cut the bread into the shape of the first letter of each child's name. In school lunches, she also adds "a little love note" - each one individually written. "I try not be repetitive."

Her children are like any others, and they often go through finicky phases. "Mady went through a no-cheese, no-yogurt phase," she says.

Gosselin tries to give them choices at lunch time - "Cara and Mady will make special requests," she says - but when it comes to dinner, the mother of eight is clear that she is not a short-order cook. They eat what she has made for dinner or they don't eat at all.

"I don't give the kids an option."

The children's tastes change often, but one flavor the whole family enjoys is Gosselin's homemade hummus.

"I love it. That is one thing that goes over so well. It's funny, Collin's middle name is Thomas and he thinks when we say 'hummus' we're really saying Thomas. So he thinks it's named for him.

Now, we all call it Thomas," she says, chuckling.

Life at home is getting a little easier, though Gosselin admits "I'm not always patient. I try, and I'm having a lot of fun. It's very loud and it's moment by moment. But the kids are wanted, and I have so much fun with them."

The 4-year-olds are in pre-kindergarten this year, and the twins, who turn 8 in October, are in second grade.

"I feel old. I can't believe this has gone by so quickly," Gosselin says. "The other day Jon said, 'Mommy, you have second-graders now.'"