I was talking to C the other night about how both of us have the equivalent of 3 jobs. We both have a full time job, only one of which pays, and two part time jobs, which currently only one of them pays. My full time job is taking care of my kids. M0st of the time, as I am writing these blog entries, I am also running after at least 1 child, usually 2, sometimes 3. I am currently sitting in one of our small towns fine coffee shop establishments half paying attention to what I am writing as I am also trying to make sure my daughter doesn’t destroy something we would have to pay for. In my defense I consider myself pretty darn good at my job and she typically behaves herself to where I can only pay half attention to her in situations like these. I get up at 6am, sometimes earlier, to get breakfast and lunch ready for C, get myself half ready, and get three kids dressed and in the car by 6:30 so I can get our son to preschool on time. I then have to spend 3 hours finding something to do until he gets off school (since he only has 2 weeks left we didn’t transfer schools when we moved so we have a long drive). Baby girl and I typically spend the time either with friends or having breakfast at one of the local shops, although the later is what we prefer sometimes it’s either not in our budget or she isn’t emotionally ready for that kind of responsibility. There have been a day or two where we sit in the car for an hour or more. those aren’t fun days. The kids do go down for a nap/quiet time for two hours mid day but since we have made the move te 5 year old isn’t fantastic at giving mommy quiet time. Plus I still have the baby to deal with. That time is typically spent working on one or both of my part time jobs. The first being my business (which makes me money), the second being the farm (which WILL make us money). I also make any phone calls that need to be made during this time and/or clean the house.
The kids usually go down for bed around 8/8:30. The hour or two C and I have after that before we go to bed is the only real time we spend together anymore. When he gets home from work around 6:30 is when he works on one of his part time jobs, the farm. The farm is more his job than it is mine. He does all the muscle work with it. Right now he has to fix the tractor so we can get the ground worked up enough to plant the rest of the garden. We have probably close to 200 plants that need to go in the ground in the next two weeks, most of which are tomatoes. We plan on having a ton of tomatoes so we can have enough to last us until harvest time next year, and we can have some to barter/sell. Taking care of the garden will be more my job once things get planted, but we do most of that stuff together, I just have more time to do it than he does.
I also try to make sure there is enough food in the house, which means making sure there is always bread, some kind of treats for C (he is type 1 diabetic), and snacks for the kids as well as making sure we have regular meals. For example, today I will be making tortillas to keep in the fridge, zucchini bread (one to eat and one to freeze for later), and possibly some oatmeal raisin cookies if we have enough butter (which we probably dont). Butter is one of those things we go through a LOT of. I hate buying it too. It’s really expensive and it’s one of those things I know we could make ourselves once we get our cow. What I need to do is find someone local I can buy milk from in the meantime.
Meanwhile I try to fit in working my business, which doesn’t always work out. I try to make sure I am contacting customers every day, getting stuff mailed out in a timely manner, holding some appointments. Of all f my jobs this one tends to get pushed to the back burner more than I would like. It’s tough trying to juggle everything and sometimes some of the balls drop, but I think we are doing pretty good considering.
This life is tiring, it’s tough, it’s hard work, and we go to bed every night completely exhausted, but I wouldn’t change it for anything. It’s exactly the life that we want and we are blessed to have it.
