2 Years of Crazy-Awesome

Dreaming is my favorite kind of planning! Yours too?

Last week I celebrated a pretty big milestone. I have been in business for two years. Two years ago, I started three businesses in the same week. I started an organizing business, a Shaklee business, and a blog. Here I am, still loving that decision. I’m so glad I didn’t make myself just choose one!

If you’ve heard my story before, forgive me, because I want to tell it again. Things are about to get personal … :)

Probably because my brothers and I are all so close in age, I thought that was the best thing to do and wanted to have my children all close together so they’d grow up together. I got my wish with my girls, and then when Izzy was a few years old, I was ready to try again for number four. Matt and I had always wanted four kids! The problem is, as I had my twins, Allison and Michelle, then Isabelle less than two years later, my health was in a major downward spiral. So by the end of 2009 when I wanted another baby, my body disagreed. For almost 3 years, my body disagreed. Fast forward through some of the hardest years of my life: infertility, depression, terrible health, and just a general feeling of “ugh”.

It was February of 2012. Matt and I made the extremely painful decision to quit fertility treatments and try to move on. We stopped talking about saving a room in the house for a baby and planning a Disney trip around a hopeful baby. We embraced the family we had with our three little girls. It was one of the hardest things we’ve done and I cry just thinking about it.

I honestly started my businesses as a diversion for my thoughts and time. My youngest, Isabelle, was registering for kindergarten and all my kids were about to be in school. I was a mess. At the time, I didn’t even really expect to make money from the businesses, I mean I thought I might earn enough money to buy myself a new purse every once in a while. :) So, in March of 2012, I posted my first blog post on this blog and booked my first organizing job. That month, I think my mom and dad were my first and only Shaklee customers.

In May of 2012, I was feeling in a groove with my businesses. Everything felt so promising. People were hiring me to organize and I loved it like I thought I would. I wasn’t really selling Shaklee, but I was using the products myself and feeling good! A few hundred people were reading my blog every day! The positivity was leaking into my family life. I was feeling happy. I was enjoying family time more. Depression was losing its hold on me. It was a good time! Then, I received the shock of a lifetime near the end of the month. I was pregnant. I was pregnant!!!!!!

It is amazing to look back and see God’s hand in all of it, even the trials. In hindsight, I see the divine timing. I feel strongly that God was waiting for things to click into place and waiting for me to find my other calling (motherhood being my first calling). If I had gotten pregnant when I wanted, I would have put off taking care of myself even longer.

Life with little Cougar is amazing. He was worth every minute of the wait. Never has a baby been more loved. His three sisters adore him! His parents adore him! And my life has a balance that it was missing before. I know every woman has a different life and different needs, and I feel so free this time around to do what really works for my family. Things are flowing in a way they never have before. Maybe this is the whole “coming into your own” thing people talk about happening. Maybe it is because after 30-something years I’m starting to figure stuff out! Life is good. I’m learning how to really be happy.

Every time I think I could simplify by cutting out one of my businesses or stopping them altogether, I get a strong gut feeling that I shouldn’t. This messy, chaotic life of raising four kids, loving a great husband, and running three businesses is just the life I was meant to live.

Two years ago I made a great decision. It has changed the rest of my life for the better. God’s timing is the best, always.

So, happy TWO YEARS OF BLOGGING!!!!! {And congrats, Mom and Dad, for consistently taking your Shaklee vitamins for two years!!}