Trying to adjust

I don't think things could be much more different here. Mike is in school full time so I am working early morning. I work 4 days 5:30 AM to 11:30 am. I bake for our local coffee shop. It's really the perfect job for me. I have a good amount of creative freedom with what I bake. The cafe is super cute and the customers, for the most part, are awesome. The problem is that I just feel a bit overwhelmed with trying to balance everything. I am also a little sad about not being home full time and homeschooling the kids. The three oldest seem to be adjusting very well. My six year old tells me constantly he "loves school!" So that is good. My little guy is at a little Montessori pre-school. It's great. His behavior at home however has been steadily declining. I just know its because of the constant going going going. The fact is there is nothing I can do about any of it right now. This is how it has to be for a while. Job options aren't plentiful in Rural Maine and I am very lucky to have what I do. I don't think different hours would make a huge difference any way. I've done the night thing before. It's really no better. To top it all off, Mike rolled his van a few weeks ago (he is absolutely fine, thank God) so we only have one car. Luckily I can walk to work and the schools, Everything else is 25 minutes away. It is just virtually impossible to be here (rural Maine) without a car. Ya know, just to add to the chaos. This whole thing is a means to an end and will not be forever. I just have to keep telling myself that.

Now that the whining is through.....We had a pretty great year with our little bitty new garden at the new place. Tons of tomatoes and carrots. We have just brought in the GIANT sunflowers to dry. The boys can't wait for the seeds. And there are just a few more bunches of carrots to grab. Next year we will go bigger. Our yard is huge so plenty of room.

The view here is amazing right now. We are at peak foliage here. The mountains across from our house look gorgeous. I still look out constantly and state how lucky we are to live here. People come from all over the world to see this view. Leaf Peepers, we call them. But we get to see it every day.

We are making apple butter in the crock pot today. Smells so good! We have also found an awesome source of local raw honey. Like right here on our street local. I am fascinated by the variations in the honey from season to season. Both in color and taste. Pretty remarkable what those little guys do. We are contemplating getting hives next year. It will just depend on how "under control" things are around here.

We have started some minor work to the house. We pulled out the hearth and woodstove. We just don't have room in the house right now. We also had an energy audit and a ton of insulation and weatherization done. Should make a big difference in our heating costs. We have also started painting rooms and are planning to build new front stairs this weekend with the recycled bricks from the hearth. I am excited about halloween. I am just a little nervous about getting everyone's costumes done.

I have also been knitting a little. I started a little Stitch and Bitch group with some other girls in the area. We had our first get-together last night. It is likely we did more eating than knitting but I really needed the girl time. Working at the cafe, I have met a ton of new, wonderful, people and I am thrilled to be able to hang out with them when I am off the clock.

All right then. I Would love any advice from you working Mom's out there. Any moms really. How do you do it all? Do you sleep? Maybe that is the problem? Now I am off to do some laundry so as not to send the boys to school Naked tomorrow.