I read a blog almost everyday from a woman who wrote a cookbook that my sister, Mary, gave me for Christmas a few years back. Mary and I have a lot in common in that we love to the idea of farming and getting back to our roots. We both take unique paths but one thing that we do have in common and that is reading about it and gardening. I do take it a bit further owning chickens. Lately though, after one of my chicks went missing, I can only fear that this will eventually happen again, and I can not take it. I was stunned, I cried. She is a chicken but she was our chicken and she is gone forever. We have not told the twins.
Anyhow, while I was reading this blog this morning, the question was asked “How do you do it all.” I felt a sense of relief when I learned that she doesn’t do it all. Her house sounds like most of ours. I recently took a picture on my cell phone of my pile of laundry. After posting it, I was embarrassed to see it on Facebook.
As I age and have experienced new births and tearful losses, I have learned to mellow, to listen rather than speak, to have long, real dialogues with myself without beating myself up, and yes, there are households like mine who have large piles of laundry. Between the chickens, dogs, grandkids and older children, who name starts with R, my laundry pile will always be there. But so will he and the chickens and the dogs and the grandkids and my daughters and son in laws and my family. What we see in a snapshot of a person’s life is not how it is all the time. These are called photo opts. Real life is called family and all the household and farm routines that come with it.
See you later,
Margaret
Our Land of Pleasant Living 