exhausted

There comes a time when we all have to realize we can't do it all...

And that's ok.

I have a list a mile long of things "to-do", cleaning, ironing, grocery shopping, home repairs that have been unfinished for months and of course all things to do with the business.  Things have been picking up around the studio, finally!  I have several exciting new commissions, orders are coming in a little more consistently and of course I have my over due quarterly taxes, new pieces I'm developing, planned improvements to the website, upcoming trunk shows, an article to write for nFocus magazine, a trip to Baltimore and a much needed photo shoot in my very near future. 

Plus this is what my desk is looking like these days...

A friend of mine sent me a small business statistic,

"Owning a small business is three times more stressful than raising kids and four times more stressful than managing personal finances."

It's so true, except I think owning a small business is about 8 times more stressful than managing your personal finances.  And you literally work twice as many hours.  I probably average about 14 hours a weekday and minimum of 8 hours over Saturday and Sunday, that makes it a minimum of 88 hours a week.  Aye Yai Yai!

I'm not telling you all this so you will feel sorry for me, I'm so happy and blessed to be following my dream and be supported by my wonderful family and saint of a husband, I'm just sharing my exhaustion with you and when you think, "I'd love to have my own business", you know what that really means. 

It mean no pay check every two weeks, it means working your fingers to the bone, it means no sleep, it mean stress, it means serious highs and serious lows, it means knowing that you are responsible for your fate and your future and you are doing something only a a very small percentage of people dare to do. (Go me!)

That's me with my Rosie the riveter hair, exhausted and relieved that this picture doesn't fully show all the wrinkles I want to have filled in.:)  Sorry no smile, too tired.

I was recently introduced to Shannon who writes http://fittyvsfatty.wordpress.com and it was so refreshing for someone to really share what is going on in their life, instead of a perfect, happy, fake ideal (thanks for sharing Shannon, you made me feel like I'm not the only one that goes through hard times).  I'm so tired of that.  All you bloggers and facebookers that try to look like you are perfect.

Just so you know, I know you're not perfect. 

And you know what?  That's okay, the highs are so much better because we know what the lows feel like.  And obviously I'm not perfect either.

Anyway, thanks for listening to the Friday rant.:)

So, cheers to Friday, a long weekend, a loving family and a perfectly, imperfect life (that I love and wouldn't trade for all the money and sleep in the world)!