Today I wanted to change it up a bit and get personal with y’all. I know, how is that a change, y’all know a lot about what goes on over here. Well what I am about to talk about is more so calling you out. Soooo…. Yea, change of pace and I apologize but I had to have this talk with myself recently and I know a lot of you may need to hear it. Ironically, I talked to a lot of ladies recently that also needed to hear this too.

You don’t have to do it all.

We get into the mindset that homesteading means we have to make absolutely everything on our own. The go to rule people say is when you finish a product, start making it at home. So your household cleaner. Once you finished the story bought one, start mixing up your own! I love this mindset because we don’t want to waste the product but also our money that we are basically throwing away. But what happens when this is the mindset you’re stuck on, that you have to make everything, and you just can’t handle it anymore?

Then you start to feel guilty because being a mom is in a new season and you no longer feel like you can do it all and take care of the kids. Ok that’s fine. But then you go to the store and feel guilty for buying the prepackaged snacks. You start beating yourself up and mentally put yourself into such a negative mindset. To which that is also not helpful to your body. Your mental game can do as much damage, if not worse, than what the snacks can do. But we get to the point of thinking “I should just suck it up and make those snacks.”

No hunny, we can’t think like that. We go through season where it just is not practical to do things as homemade or natural as we would prefer. This is coming from the woman that has to deal with so many health issues that we don’t always have time for the homemade items. Now I will say I like to make extra and put some into the freezer for a rainy day but thats still not always practical for everyone.

We want to make everything, be present, be a good wife, be a good mom, go to the sports events, keep the house clean and so on. Yet we don’t see that some seasons seem to be tougher than the others. Some we can not do it all. So I want to say, it’s ok to not do it all. You do not have to make everything. You do not have to be the standard homesteader. If we want to take a slower gardening season, we do that. If we need to buy the pasta sauce instead of making it, we do. If we want to cut back on animals, we do that.

You do not have to be the typical homesteader. You can buy the items or sell items when it gets to be too much. This is where you need to think about your mental health too. If you are not happy, then you will not be the person you want to be. Let alone get everything done like you want to.

Take the break. You can take breaks. You deserve breaks.