I don’t know how you do it all?!

I don’t. People say this to me all the time. And, the quick easy answer is I just don’t. I don’t do it all. I may run a blog, homeschool, and organize my home. But, I don’t do it all. Sometimes we do 4 lessons in English, an experiment from our Steve Spangler Science kit, and hit the math hard. Some days, I do 10 loads of laundry, organize my closet, descale the coffee maker, and sort toys for giveaway. Some days I commit to three new collaborations with fabulous brands, take pictures in three outfits, and take the children to capture a lifestyle style shoot for those cute shoes we just received in the mail. Some days I make eggs and pancakes for breakfast, a vegetable medley for lunch, and a gourmet dinner. Some days I do some of it. Some days I do none of it. Most days I do a hodge podge of all of it. Some days I’m more successful than others.

On days like today I feel like a failure. Like I haven’t said one kind word to the three year old. Like I spent the day in a bad mood, rushing through the house furiously cleaning and by furious I mean muttering under my breath about “filthy children” the whole time. I may or may not have looked under the couch, shook my head and wandered away. I may or may not have texted my wonderful, helpful but sometimes oblivious husband to let him know if he doesn’t do x, y, or z, I’m having the locks changed (I wouldn’t really, because then I’d be alone with these monsters…I mean sweet little angels). 

So, no. I don’t do it all. I don’t even do half of it. And, when I do, I don’t feel like I’m doing any of it well. Life is hard. My nine year old came in this morning and asked me what we were doing. Her chagrin when I said school and housework prompted me to explain that life isn’t all fun. But, the hard parts make the fun more worth it. Right now, there is a lot of hard parts of my everyday. Not hard in a serious way. Hard in an I’m blessed to have four beautiful children, more blog work than I can keep up with, a hardworking, work at home husband, and a beautifully comfortable house. Hard in that I have three and one year old boys who need a lot of attention and two girls who need constant monitoring and teaching. Maybe hard isn’t the right word. Maybe it’s better described as overwhelming. 

On days like today, I have to stop, take a deep breath, and count my blessings. One by one. I know that I’m lucky. Lucky that I can’t think for the chatter of little voices or walk without stepping on some kind of small plastic toy. Or finish this post without stopping every 30 seconds to attend to a little need or want. 

That’s how I do it all. I don’t. And, I hope knowing that helps you look at my “perfect” pictures of the “happy little family” with a grain of salt. Life is beautiful. And, it’s also one big, chaotic, blessed mess.