Sarah Mae Keeps Busy

A few months ago, I had a short series about how I do all the stuff that I do. It was probably my favorite piece to write because planning and organizing my day is one of my favorite things ever. Since then, I have been learning a lesson about how many things I can fit into “ALL the things”.

The answer is not many. Ever since March I have been trying to give myself to gardening, crochet designing, blogging, and managing socials for two different Instagram accounts. And I’m doing this while working from home with my almost 4-year-old and 16-month-old. I’m not saying this to brag or be a victim, but to give context.

For years it has been my dream to have a homestead. Raise all our own produce, all our meat, grind my grain, and have a beautiful flower garden – all those homey wonderful things. And of course, if you are not posting to Instagram, you are not a real homesteader. For almost the same number of years I have been crocheting and dreaming of making my own patterns. I love this kind of creating. It is so stimulating and challenging and there is uncapped room for growth.

When I started my blog, the plan was to use crochet to get started, then later phase over into my homestead stuff. In the meantime, I would blog about our lives to build awareness of our homestead and then make the transition when the time came. Here is what I learned in the last few months: it is hard to start one brand. It is impossible to start two brands at the same time. At least in my position.

I think if my kids were in daycare five days a week and I maybe had a housekeeper I could do all the blogging, designing, photographing, editing, Etsy listing, and Instagraming. But I am a work-at-home mom because I don’t want my kids in daycare. I have all these pretty dreams of a homestead and flower gardens and beauty with the goal of sharing it with my girls and husband. I dream of doing life with my children, which means they are underneath me constantly (literally, Fiona is under the table where I’m writing right now).

This weekend my husband and I had a conversation about our long-term goals. This put me in the mind set to look at the long-term sustainability of building an Etsy and a blog, at the same time. While I love writing, Etsy is what puts money in my account. While gardening in my passion, crochet design is my job. No, our passions and our work do not always get to align in our lives. No, this is not a bad thing.

But what does it mean? Well, for right now it means I am not blogging for the remainder of the summer. I will still be sharing my monthly patterns. But I probably won’t be sharing about my garden or my life like I was. After the summer, when things have died down and I have more indoor time there is no telling what I’ll do. (For some reason I always get the urge to write in January.) I reserve the right to post at random. I promise, at some point, I will share an update about how my garden went and there will be pictures. I just can’t promise when that will be. I will also still be sharing on my main Instagram account about my garden and homemaking, but it will be whenever I feel like it and with no rhyme or reason.

Until I have a grasp on how to do this whole design thing it is all I will be doing – this includes Instagram. (And as a side note, I don’t know why I keep justifying my use of Instagram other than my subliminal hatred for social media and how I constantly fall victim to the time-sucking-demon.) Maybe I’ll talk later about abandoning the idea “dO wHaT yOu LoVe AnD yOu’Ll NeVeR wOrK a DaY iN yOuR lIfE”. Until then, keep an eye out for my next pattern which will be released in a few weeks. I love you all!