balance {selective neglect}

I recently heard the best explanation of the term “balance” ever….

“selective neglect”. 

(For example…even though I haven’t published a blog post in weeks- actually months- I’m going to stop writing now that I’ve written a sentence and watch a movie with my husband instead. I’ll come back when the time is right.)

9 days later…

Okay, I’m back. Let me explain…

I’ve recently committed myself to the most intensely busy season of my life, which has led to a lot of guilt for not keeping up with “everything”. My personality has always longed to be and do everything. Every day I think of a new business to start, new project, new adventure, new huge idea like starting an organization or ministry.

But I’m tired.

Homeschooling three children- including a one year old- and becoming a taxi driver for their ever-expanding schedule is difficult  enough. I’m also falling in love with my growing essential oils business. My classes are taking me all over the United States (and hopefully soon other countries!!) and connecting me with an incredible community of friends that are working with me. I love the oils so, so, so, so much and they are helping so many people, which is such a rewarding element of my career.

But it all takes up a lot of time, and there aren’t enough hours in the day to even accomplish a fraction of all I’d like to be doing right now.

I so badly want to come up with gorgeous new recipes and practice my food photography to share with you. Or at least study up and write a good health article with plenty of good references and resources that can help people.

I’d love to share beautiful, relaxing photos of my children exploring the great outdoors or reading books peacefully in a beautiful, cozy home while we learn together “organically” (like everyone seems to do on one of my favorite Instagram feeds, Wild and Free).

I’d love to brag about how sustainable our lifestyle is- growing bounties of organic vegetables with our Tower Garden and raising livestock in our little urban yard.

But the REALITY is…

Lately my most beautiful recipe creation has been my “spiderweb soup”- featured recently on my Instagram account– which is made up of a can of organic black bean soup and some heavy cream inventively swirled into a web.

My house is a horrible mess- three years of different homeschool curricula (or impulse-buys purchased in the name of “homeschooling”) are piled on different bookshelves and tables around our house, or exploding from drawers that the baby has emptied and re-stuffed too many times.

Note to new homeschoolers: You will never use that many workbooks for a kindergartener! By the time you force a five year-old to sit down and complete worksheets, their skills have far surpassed the lesson on the stupid paper and they are mad at you for making them sit so long to do something so “easy”. Enter: Waldorf and Charlotte Mason style homeschooling and my favorite new curriculum we are using: Five in a Row.

There are crayon pieces that the dog (or baby) has chewed up and buried in the carpet which I discover piercing into my foot on my way to the closet as I’m trying to find just ONE clean towel to use for the smoothie the baby just poured all over the couch.

Don’t even talk to me about the dishes and laundry.

As far as our backyard homestead, something had to go. I just couldn’t keep up with all the mouths I needed to feed. We sold the rabbits. I’ll miss the babies, but I won’t miss the poop. I didn’t like the meat anyway.

My garden? Ugh. I actually raised a gorgeous bounty of organic herbs and vegetables in my Tower Garden this summer. It was beautiful- plush, green and buzzing with bees. But I was too busy to even harvest it in time, so it all dried up and was a giant waste.

So, there you go. Keeping it real ’round here, folks. But I’m not unhappy at all. In fact, I’m loving life and loving the decisions I’ve made for our family and my business. I’m happy because I’ve discovered BALANCE…and what that actually means.

Instead of trying so hard to be everything, I’m focused each day on what is most important. What actually needs to get done today? Do that first, then select or neglect the rest. It will all be there tomorrow.

Like this little website of mine. It’s still here. It’s been a while, but I waited until I was inspired to post something again instead of forcing a new post that didn’t have my heart in it.

Understanding balance {selective neglect} is going to be the magic key for making through the crazy season that is upon us.

So to conclude, let me share a lovely autumn recipe straight from my heart…

Even though life gets a little crazy for everyone this time of year, we all seem to desire the comforting traditions of fall the moment Starbucks announces the pumpkin spice latte is back. But instead of drinking that crazy cup of sugar and chemicals, try a different kind of perfect autumn recipe…

A mixture of simply roasted vegetables with fresh, woodsy herbs is crazy-easy to make and also very impressive. Let the simple flavors of the vegetables and herbs be the focus. The butter is also a nice focus- add more if you want.

This vegetable roast is fun for kids, too, because they can pick the stuff they want to eat and leave the rest. They’ll probably be excited to roast pumpkin and eat it…then probably hate it. Haha! I know we aren’t supposed to give them that much freedom, but hey, I pick my battles.

Oh…and make sure to sing the song (or learn it) when you make the recipe. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, just do a search with those herb names in the recipe title. 🙂