And I’m back. Life is busy…very busy. And a lot has happened on here since the last time I talked to you guys. I don’t have all the time in the world anymore. Not like I had all the time in the world before, but with life these days, my free time is truly pretty limited. So, let’s talk about that. I feel like as an alcoholic in recovery, life can be even more demanding and more hectic, than perhaps of a normal person. It’s not just the work and family..its work, family, and all things recovery.
Since the last time I blogged, the biggest thing in my life is that my husband and I took over a company. Yes, that’s right, we OWN a company. Take that one in, Laura. I still can’t believe it myself. Finally and at last, we feel so much more financially stable now and so far, it looks like it will continue that way for the foreseeable future. There are so many pros about owning your own company. You get to make your own hours, hire your own employees, bring in as much or as little money as you want, take a vacation when you want, and actually have holidays. The downside about owning a business is, well, everything else.
My husband is the manual labor worker of our team, so he hires, trains, and works his butt off everyday providing for our family. Once he is done working for the day, then he goes on price quotes and makes phone calls well into the evening. He even works on Saturdays AND an occasional Sunday (the day of rest!). Me on the other hand, I have TWO jobs, actually let’s make that, 3 jobs. I work a full time job, I do all the back end work for the business, and I take care of our household. On a daily basis, I am working 8-5, coming home to cook, clean, do laundry, take care of the dogs, take care of household paperwork and bills, THEN do all the business paperwork. This includes and is not limited to, our marketing tactics, paying estimated taxes, paying employee taxes, paying unemployment, making deposits, conducting payroll, making sure everything organized and keeping up with our trusty business helpers with quarterly reports, liability, insurance, etc. and let’s not forget that I have gone out a handful of times in the field as well, on, you guessed it, Saturday and Sunday, making my work day a 7 day week.
But of course, we can’t forget the recovery part, as well. This includes for myself and my husband, going to meetings, saying “yes” when we are asked to do things in the program, AND having 4 sponsees, EACH. If nobody knows what that entails, let me tell you, it’s some hard damn work. First, I have to keep myself sane enough to actually be able to try to help these people, then I have to find time to meet with these girls every week, individually. And let’s not forget about the texts and phone calls I get from them throughout the day.
I say all that, to say this. My life is busy and it’s consisted of very hard work on a daily basis. Something I hear more often than I would like is the phrase, “only people with kids would understand how busy it gets”. I want to make something very clear, that just because I don’t have children, doesn’t mean I don’t understand, or that I’m not just as busy. My first thought to these comments are “well YOU don’t understand what it is like to own a home, have a couple of dogs, OWN a business, work multiple jobs, or have sponsees”, but I suppose that is not a very spiritual thing to say either. So, instead, I say nothing at all. But isn’t that the truth? How can we say something like that, when we really have no idea what the person next to us is going through, what their life is all about, or what their truth really is.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that parents aren’t hardworking individuals, but I truly don’t think its fair to compare that to anything else, like, just because I’m a parent means I’ve already done the hardest thing in the world. Maybe for you, but maybe for others something else was harder, like getting sober, buying a house, owning a company, getting married, going to prison. Maybe we should be saying, “hey this is what I’m going through and you know what, its hard”. Period. Why does everything have to have a judgement and a comparison?
