A Story.....

Once upon a time, there was a woman who had three small children. She chose to stay home with those children and take care of their every whim (like wiping their butts, noses, mouths, etc.). This woman loved being home with her children and took great pride in keeping everything running like a top. She cooked, she cleaned, she did laundry, she grocery shopped, she took care of the yard, she took the kids to the park.........her life was pretty great.

Then one day, as her children grew older, she decided to homeschool these children and continue to keep them with her and impart all her wisdom on them and let them grow in an environment that supported them openly in all their ventures. This brought many adventures and strenghthened the relationship even more. The kids prospered, continued growing up, turning out to be real individuals.

Then this brilliant woman decided, "Hey, we don't have enough going on here, why don't we start a business?" I love to garden, I love to teach people how to eat locally and organically, let's start offering to grow food for other people." So, as with all the other ventures in her life, this woman set off and started a business with all the tenacity she could muster. Lo and behold, the business took off and much to her surprise, was a success.

Little did this woman realize that back when she was doing laundry, cooking, cleaning, wiping various body parts of children and feeling like she was bored out of her mind, those were the easiest times of her life.

Since deciding to 'challenge' herself and take on 500 million other things, she realizes that now. Guess what? Too late! Now this woman that used to pride herself on her clean house and well-run machine of a family? Well, she is lucky to get a load of laundry a week done, her house is a complete disaster, her kids are basically on their own for meals (whatever they can dig out of the fridge that isn't getting cleaned) and is generally two steps from insanity.

Yesterday, this woman transplanted 600 tomato plants, 450 pepper plants, 300 flowers, planted 20 lbs of seed potatoes, 1000 onions plants and 200 plugs of salad mix. All that, after she fed the 75 chicks, 25 hens, 2 rabbits, 1 pig (soooo cute!! - I will post pics, I swear), and the new lamb!! Dear God.

The moral of this story? Watch what you ask and dream for.......it might just come true. I've always wanted to live on a farm and grow vegetables and flowers. Even though you are loving your dream? Be prepared to 'let go' of a lot of things that used to be really important to you. Like clean underwear. What? You can turn them inside out, right?

Here's to all the women out there who are living their dream and struggling to find the balance.