Doing It All

I get asked quite a bit “Jenna how do you do it all?”

And it's a great question. A valid question. But It’s not a fair question. 

So many times we scan social media looking for tips and tricks on how to clean the house better, how to make quick, healthy and easy dinner on a budget without going to the grocery store… ever. We search the internet and blogs to learn how to keep our dogs from eating calf poop and rolling in chicken litter. We mass text our friends about how the heck we are supposed to keep the love alive when you're so tired at the end of the day you can barely keep yourself alive. 

And while you can find amazing answers about all of those things, you're never seeing the FULL picture. 

—>Just because one woman has an immaculate house, doesn’t mean that she's also good at staying on top of cooking, dating her husband, and self care. 

—>Just because suzy-sews-a lot is amazing at keeping up with laundry and making clothes last forever, doesn’t mean she's rocking every other sector of her life. 

—>Just because that Jenna Renee calf lady on Instagram is an amazing calf manager doesn’t mean she cleans her own house, grooms her own dog, all with a baby on her hip 24/7.

What we see online is ONE piece of the puzzle. And we see a beautiful piece of the puzzle. But oftentimes, other pieces aren’t as shiny and picture perfect. 

So how do I do it all??

I don’t. I have a whole lot of help:

We have a babysitter 3 days a week. 
We have a house cleaner once a month.
We take Alli to the groomer once a quarter. 
And we take turns cooking and we eat leftovers a lot. 
Sometimes I skip my workouts. And a lot of times I have stress acne. 
At least once a month I beg my sister to come hang out with Maddie so I can catch up on laundry. 
I made the decision when Maddie was born to cut back to 3 days a week (and every other weekend) at the farm. I had to pass off responsibilities and accept that some things might not always be done MY way. I had to accept that some weeks I might not get it all done. I had to learn to ask for help.

But that’s okay. 
I have a lot of balls in the air. We all do. 

“It’s been said that as we move through life, we have to juggle a number of different balls. Some balls, like the one that represents career, are made of rubber. If we drop them, they have the ability to bounce back. But some balls are made of glass– family is like that. If you drop that ball, it doesn’t come back.” – Robin Sharma

Figure out which are your rubber balls (career, hobbies, side hustles, house work, lawn maintenance) and which are your glass balls (marriage, your family, your health). Essentially everything you spend any amount of time working on or thinking about is a ball…. Which are glass and which are rubber?

Chances are you’ll drop a glass ball every once in a while. We all do. It’s okay. Call your village and ask for HELP. That’s what they are for. Helping carry the balls. Helping clean up when there's glass everywhere. Helping to corral the rubber balls when they are getting out of control.

Give yourself grace. 

Ask for help.

It’s scary. It’s intimidating. Many of us were raised NOT to ask for help. “Strong, independent women don’t need help.”
But I don’t think they knew we would be trying to manage a career, a home, a spouse, self care, our health, our pets, our human pets… I mean kids… and still trying to be the best at all of it. Our moms and grandmoms had help from their mom and grandmoms. They often lived in the same home or were neighbors. Raising kids and canning foods, and managing the farm, weren’t things you had to ask for help on because it was already assumed you’d be doing it together.

Yet here we are. Trying to do it alone. Without asking for help. And seeing the perfect corner of many people’s lives through the lense of social media. Remember that social media doesn’t show everything; just because it looks good online, doesn’t mean that if you panned left, things wouldn’t be messy… or at the very least a bit disorganized and chaotic. 

I am not telling you this because I don’t think that you should strive to become a better cook, better housekeeper, or pick up another ball. By all means, I, too, love a busy life. But so you remember to give yourself grace. There's a season for everything. Don’t let the desire to improve upon yourself make you feel like you are unworthy as you are. 

You are absolutely enough. And don’t you ever forget it.